High stakes as Phuket prepares for reopening July 1
Spikes in bookings from all markets and across demographics, says Anthony Lark – except for Asia
IMAGINE being the first foreign visitor to walk off the plane at Phuket International Airport on July 1. Imagine the warm embrace that the locals would give you if they could. In any case, the “s [...]
April travel demand a tale of two markets: Domestic recovery and international stagnation
THE International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that domestic travel demand improved in April 2021 compared to the prior month, although it remained well below pre-pandemic levels while recovery in international passenger travel continued to be stalled in the face of government-imposed [...]
Massive opportunity in alternative payments as e-wallets soar in Asia and BNPL gains ground
Multi-currency payments; fraud; how many payment methods should you offer – key headaches addressed
WITH 1.7b unbanked adults in the world, according to Findex Database,
Worldbank, the opportunities to address this market with alternative payment
methods are immense. The potential is biggest i [...]
Travel product chiefs on tech that works, those that didn’t and those that should
IN the last year, tech teams have built platforms that went unused and scrapped projects only to repurpose them later in new incarnations; as Thomas Edison said once upon a time, “Just because something doesn’t do what you planned it to do doesn’t mean it’s useless.”
Tech and product c [...]
The chase for tech talent – go to where they are and hire ‘A’ players to attract others
IT is
ironic that even as the travel industry has shed millions upon millions of
jobs, one sector that has expanded and remains voracious for talent is on the
tech side.
Almost all
travel businesses have used the down-time of Covid to invest in their tech
stack, whether consumer-facing or back- [...]
Ahead of G7 Summit, IATA urges governments to use data to liberate travel
Cites medical findings, Airbus, Boeing modelling of risks
THE International Air Transport Association (IATA) urged governments to make data-driven decisions to manage the risks of COVID-19 when reopening borders to international travel. Strategies without quarantine measures can enable internati [...]
The OTA which applies AI skilfully wins: Agoda’s John Brown on the tech that differentiates
THE one piece of tech that could be a true differentiator for an OTA is “the skilful application of AI (artificial intelligence) that could make all the difference to really understanding your customer”.
Speaking at the WiT Travel Roadshow, Episode 3, John Brown, CEO, Agoda said, “AI is so [...]
The rise of social chat apps in Asia: Consumers showing preference for virtual agents
SOCIAL chat apps have developed faster in Asia than in any other part of the world, and “in Asia you can't talk about social chat apps without going into super apps and how they are essentially like remote controls for our lives,” said Shyn Yee Ho-Strangas, director, global product management a [...]
Sustainability and tech converge to put pressure on business trips and events
New questions being asked – “Can this meeting be done virtually?” “What is your average carbon emission per travel day?”
FROM corporate travellers setting their own carbon goals
to how corporates reclassify “essential business trips”, it is clear that
corporate travel and meetings [...]
LINE Travel jp bets on chat and corporate travel, moves from meta to merchant model
Blurring of business and leisure creates opportunity for blended travel model, says Shibata
LINE TRAVEL jp is taking a bet on its future by blending the world of corporate travel with chat and, in the process, moving to a merchant-of-record model with its new chat-based corporate travel booking [...]
