Hospitality
Tale of 3 startups: Education through experience, digitising African tour operators and solving payments for small businesses
22/04/2026 by WiT
Africa receives 90 million tourist arrivals a year. Spain alone receives more. A continent of breathtaking biodiversity, ancient culture, and unmatched wilderness experiences is, by most global travel metrics, still flying under the radar. Three entrepreneurs who have staked their careers on chan [...]
After Phare, Dara Huot follows his own star with story, instinct and AI
20/04/2026 by Henry Beh
What happens when the former face of a cultural institution steps away, gets stripped back by life, and starts again with only himself, his story, and AI? There is something not quite straightforward about former CEO of Phare, The Cambodian Circus, Dara Huot’s next chapter. It is a reinvention [...]
Minor Hotels partners with Google, Salesforce and Deloitte to build AI-driven guest data platform
13/04/2026 by WiT
Global partnership with Google Cloud, Salesforce, OneTrust and Deloitte will unify guest data and enable AI-driven personalisation, leapfrogging legacy systems Minor Hotels has unveiled plans to build a new global data and AI platform from the ground up in partnership with Google Cloud, Salesforce, [...]
Agoda’s new Bangkok tech hub is the start of something much bigger
02/04/2026 by Arvindh Yuvaraj
  The online travel giant just moved 4,000 employees into a state-of-the-art new home. But the real story is what's happening inside the company, including a sweeping B2B transformation, an AI rethink, and a forecast on where Asia travel is heading next. Spanning more than 26,000 square m [...]
India’s outbound travellers spent $75 million on global hotel stays in 2025
30/03/2026 by WiT
Global Hotel Alliance and The Leela Places, Hotels and Resorts spotlight India's rising global travel potential as Indian guests spend more at home and abroad Indian travellers are staying and spending more both at home and abroad, reinforcing India’s position as one of the world’s fastest-grow [...]
Eid staycations gain momentum in Saudi Arabia with rising hotel demand
19/03/2026 by WiT
Wego, the largest online travel marketplace in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), has seen a surge in hotel searches across Saudi Arabia as residents increasingly explore Eid Al-Fitr getaways within the Kingdom. As the holiday approaches, many travellers are exploring destinations tha [...]
Investing in community: How Airbnb brings soul to a stay in Jeju
17/03/2026 by Henry Beh
“What if the smarter tourism investment is not in adding more stays, but in strengthening the soul of a place first?” That was the thought that stayed with me after Airbnb’s Jeju forum, even if nobody on stage said it in exactly those words. What they did say, across two linked panels, p [...]
HTS launches ‘Cancel for Any Reason’ for hotels
17/03/2026 by WiT
HTS (Hopper Technology Solutions)’ says its AI-powered fintech solution drives incremental revenue for hotel partners and delivers flexibility to travellers – already live at global scale. HTS (Hopper Technology Solutions), a global travel technology platform, announced the launch of its Cancel [...]
55% increase in Hari Raya accommodation searches with Japan and China among top markets
16/03/2026 by WiT
Signalling broader festive travel consideration beyond familiar destinations, this shift in travel preference underscores the value of localized listings for hotels As Hari Raya approaches, digital travel platform Agoda marks a 55% month-on-month increase in accommodation searches from travellers [...]
From Jollibee to Wall Street: How Hotel101 is bringing fast food logic to global hospitality
10/03/2026 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
When Jollibee acquired Mang Inasal in 2010, it wasn’t just another consolidation in the Philippines’ fast food wars. It was the coming together of two entrepreneurs born in the Year of the Dragon – Tony Tan Caktiong and Edgar “Injap” Sia II – who believed scale, simplicity and system cou [...]