Hospitality
Top of the WiT 21: The meaning of travel tech, virtual reality vs travel, more ITB Berlin talk
24/03/2023 by WiT
Top Of The WiT is a grab of the trendiest news that happened this week in travel, tech and Asia - all condensed into a quick-and-easy nugget-sized podcast. In this episode, we continue our discussion of ITB Berlin with special guest Timothy O'Neil-Dunne (Principal, T2Impact). Tim goes over the me [...]
Middle East seeks women in tech; New Thai airline is Really Cool; Safe cities for female travellers
24/03/2023 by Ian Jarrett
Travelling solo, ladies? Try this city Travel metasearch website WayAway has named Iceland’s Reykjavik as the safest city in the world for solo female travellers, followed by San Juan, Budapest, Singapore and Madrid. The least safe city for solo female travellers among a list of 30 research b [...]
MATTA Fair 2023: A microcosm of Malaysian tourism and its appetite for international travel
21/03/2023 by Arvindh Yuvaraj
The expo estimated 250,000 visitors and RM400million in sales. I need to make a couple of things clear before getting to the heart of this article. The only times I’ve been to a MATTA (Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents) Fair were when I was a kid, with my dad. This was back in the 9 [...]
Top of the WiT 20: Thoughts on ITB Berlin 2023, discomfort zones, Bonza takes flight
17/03/2023 by WiT
Top Of The WiT is a grab of the trendiest news that happened this week in travel, tech and Asia - all condensed into a quick-and-easy nugget-sized podcast. In this episode, Siew Hoon and this week's guest, Tim Hughes, are back from ITB Berlin - jetlagged and buzzing with excitement about the retu [...]
Riyadh Air aims big; UAE’s high-speed rail; SITA’s air taxis; Klook takes top spot
17/03/2023 by Ian Jarrett
Riyadh Air revs up to ‘shape the future’ of global air travel Tony Douglas, CEO of Saudi Arabia’s new airline, Riyadh Air, has promised that “digital innovation and Saudi hospitality” will be key in establishing the carrier’s international credentials. The new airline, due to become [...]
MyRealTrip built its AI Trip Planner in 2 days using ChatGPT
16/03/2023 by Arvindh Yuvaraj
“In travel, it’s not just people asking random questions to have fun with this thing, they are actively trying to gather information.” The announcement of the multimodal GPT-4 by OpenAI and Microsoft this week has sent every tech industry scrambling to unlock all its capabilities, and the tra [...]
Chinese consumers booked 4.5x more flights in first 3 months of 2023, records Fliggy
14/03/2023 by Arvindh Yuvaraj
Pre-sales of the company’s cruise tours along Nordic fjords and the Mediterranean each surpassed RMB1 million in a single day The resumption of ITB Berlin this year brought about a range of travel discussions from around the world, one of them being the reopening of China and the impact it might [...]
Go City and Mandai Wildlife Group announce multi-year partnership, targeting long-haul travelers
13/03/2023 by WiT
Go City will deliver a range of global marketing activities to promote the destination, specifically the US and UK Attraction pass company Go City has signed a multi-year partnership with Mandai Wildlife Group, the steward of Mandai Wildlife Reserve, a popular wildlife and nature destination in Sin [...]
Despite high air fares, Sabre data indicates significant outbound travel rebound in China
13/03/2023 by WiT
WITH more than 166 million international trips booked by Chinese travelers in 2019, contributing over $245 billion to global tourism in the process, it is no wonder that the world has been watching, and waiting, for China to re-open its borders, after nearly three years of Covid-19 closure. Now t [...]
Travel Talk: Takeaways from ITB Berlin
10/03/2023 by WiT
Returning to the marquee travel trade event for the first time in four years, Northstar’s thought leaders share first impressions. This week, the halls at Messe Berlin were buzzing with thousands of members of the travel trade, returning in person to ITB Berlin for the first time since 2019. Am [...]