As AI changes how we book travel, iWander bets on how we actually explore
iWander co-founder and CEO Marius Nigond on building AI-guided walking tours for a generation of travelers who want spontaneity, not a fixed itinerary
Travel planning is being influenced by AI faster than almost any other part of the industry. Google just moved agentic hotel booking out of pilot mo [...]
Kiwi legends: What fear, wonder and connection have in common
Five leaders of some of New Zealand’s most recognisable tourism brands – ski fields, jet boats, bungy jumping, conservation cruises and Māori-owned experiences – sat down with WiT founder Yeoh Siew Hoon to unpack what actually makes an experience iconic. The consensus, delivered from five ver [...]
Destinations: How to keep the heart of travel beating strong amid AI disruption and hallucinations
Rod Cuthbert opened his panel on “Destinations: Demand, Sustainability, Tech” at WiT Queenstown, with a confession: he’d asked his own AI system to name the world’s single best destination at marketing itself. The answer came back New Zealand, “by a country mile.”
The Tourism Tasmania [...]
Guardians of place: Lee Ann Muntz on culturalising commerce, not commercialising culture
A couple of months before my coffee chat with Lee Ann Muntz, a board member of the Māori Tourism Board, a line she had said in the Zoom call had stuck with me. “We don’t commercialise culture. We culturalise commerce.”
I wanted to get deeper into that during our conversation. But first, I wa [...]
The experience surge: When singular obsessions become the product
What’s your unique obsession? That was the question Jacinta Lim, co-founder and CEO of Seek Sophie, asked the audience at WiT Indie when she moderated the session on “The Experience Surge”.
It was a perfect set-up for a panel whose three guests have each done exactly that – built business [...]
Paul Scurrah on timing and building the world’s happiest airline
When it comes to timing, Paul Scurrah, CEO of Fiji Airways, hasn’t quite got it right. In fact, he started his coffee chat in WiT Queenstown with an apology.
“I feel like I should apologise,” Paul Scurrah said. “I was appointed CEO in Australia in March 2019, and less than a year later CO [...]
Can Japan leap beyond “the Italy of Asia” in the AI era?
Why quiet power may become Japan’s greatest competitive advantage
The travel industry is undergoing its biggest transformation since the rise of the internet.
The catalyst, of course, is generative AI.
Yet the most thought-provoking question I took away from WiT Japan 2026 wasn’t about AI [...]
Trip.com & Booking on managing the ground shifts in the Middle East
Booking.com’s Alberto Yates and Trip.com’s Boon Sian Chai on navigating conflict, building trust, and why the Middle East bet still makes sense
When the conflict broke out in the Middle East, both Booking.com’s Alberto Yates and Trip.com’s Boon Sian Chai, speaking at WiT Phocuswright Middle [...]
Agoda’s Tim Hughes on online travel’s broken promise and AI’s “Reddit” dilemma
Twenty-five years and, by his own count, five completely different versions of Agoda later, Agoda’s Timothy Hughes sat down at WiT Queenstown to talk about why online travel never quite delivered on its oldest promise, and why the fix for AI’s travel-advice problem might be sitting in a small co [...]
We missed the resident: Rethinking who tourism is for
The closing panel at WiT Indie brought together Raul Guerra, Asia-Pacific Regional Director at the Catalunya Tourism Board, Mich Goh, Director of Public Policy for APAC at Airbnb, and Mildred Ang, Director of Social Commerce at Klook – a destination, a platform under regulatory pressure and an OTA [...]
