Destination Marketing
Wego acquires Cleartrip’s Middle East business from Flipkart
21/02/2022 by WiT
ONLINE travel marketplace Wego has signed a “definitive agreement” with India's homegrown e-commerce company Flipkart Group to acquire the Middle East business of Cleartrip. The transaction also includes the sale of Riyadh-based online travel agency Flyin.com, as well as a  technology coope [...]
airasia, STB leverage technology and share insights to drive regional travellers to Singapore
17/02/2022 by WiT
“Everything that standardises and removes friction is desperately needed,” says Fernandes of ASEAN travel Budget airline airasia is sharing its tech know-how and featuring Singapore's tourist offerings on the airasia Super App to help boost travel to Singapore from key regional markets in South [...]
Stuff it, get out there and travel
16/02/2022 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
Australia yours to explore, Thailand amazes A-Z, Cambodia awaits I never thought I’d be excited to hear an Australian accent in my living room, telling me “Australia is yours to explore” but the first time I saw the Tourism Australia television commercial, I hopped with joy like a kangaroo. [...]
Despite ideal reopening conditions, inbound to Cambodia “very slow”
15/02/2022 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
Not seen as mono destination, its positioning as “extension” needs to be addressed, says All Dreams' Guichandut IF there’s one lesson Cambodia has learnt from Covid, it’s that its travel fortunes should not be tethered to any other country’s or the “Indochina” region. Because it’s [...]
Opinion: Technology for safe travel is the key to getting APAC travelers back on the road
15/02/2022 by WiT
By Mieke De Schepper, executive vice president and managing Director, Asia Pacific, Amadeus COLLABORATION between stakeholders in governments and the travel industry has been especially challenging in such a dynamic region like Asia Pacific. Presented with a variety of circumstances, the approach o [...]
Diethelm Travel, under new owners, wants to get into startup groove
14/02/2022 by WiT
This article is written by Xinyi Liang-Pholsena and first appeared in Travel Weekly Asia. DIETHELM Travel may be Thailand's oldest destination management company (DMC), but CEO Stephan Roemer's vision for the 65-year-old company is to act like a startup. Roemer, who held the chief executive rol [...]
The race to reopen in APAC is on – who will emerge the winner?
09/02/2022 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
“A disorderly restart with changing and confusing requirements” will have longterm negative impact, says IATA’s Vinoop Goel IN the first year of the pandemic, it seemed that the Asia Pacific region, with its early success in managing the spread of infections, would be among the first to make [...]
Airbnb, Rakuten LIFULL Stay ride alternative accommodation wave in Japan
09/02/2022 by WiT
ALTERNATIVE accommodation providers were the beneficiaries of changing traveller trends during the pandemic and within Japan, Airbnb and Rakuten LIFULL STAY certainly rode the Covid-induced trend well. Speaking at WiT Japan & North Asia 2022, Atsuo Mori, territory manager for Airbnb Japan, re [...]
Klook still winning friends and influencing travel in Japan
08/02/2022 by Ian Jarrett
Home is where the action is for booking platform IT was during an all-night brainstorming session while preparing a presentation for WIT Japan in 2015 that Eric Gnock Fah, COO and co-founder of Klook, went local. In fine tuning the presentation that won the judges’ praise – and the Start-u [...]
See you next Lunar New Year in the metaverse
04/02/2022 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
Three years on, The Great Digitisation of celebrations AND so out goes the Ox, in comes the Tiger – and it seems the beautiful beast just slipped in on a whisper, rather than a roar, in real life. In the virtual world, well, that’s another story and I am convinced that by next year, with or [...]