Serko’s Darrin Grafton: “It’s open season right now in corporate travel”
To introduce Serko’s co-founder and CEO, Darrin Grafton, in a way that would summarise this Kiwi entrepreneur’s nearly-four-decade journey to trying to solve corporate travel’s pain points, I prompted AI.
The result – that he runs Serko “like a jazz band,” part CEO, part roadie, “10 [...]
When the founder hands you the keys: SiteMinder’s Sankar Narayan on scaling without breaking what made it great
Sankar Narayan has done this twice now. Not built a company from zero – inherited one. First at Xero, where he arrived as CFO and left as COO with the company’s enterprise value multiplied threefold. Then at SiteMinder, where he has spent seven years as CEO alongside founder Mike Ford, scaling t [...]
Asia Pacific had the world’s busiest airport pairs in 2025, says IATA
IATA releases 2025 World Air Transport Statistics
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has released the latest edition of the World Air Transport Statistics (WATS), providing comprehensive statistical data through to 2025.
Updated annually, WATS provides data related to demand, s [...]
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 [...]
Intrepid’s James Thornton: “If everyone goes right, we’ll often be going left”
WiT Queenstown was James Thornton’s first day back at work, fresh off three weeks in Greece, where, he stressed to the audience, he was fully, deliberately offline.
“I think some CEOs find it really bizarre that I wouldn’t do emails and calls on holiday,” he said. “But great companies h [...]
The different faces of indie hospitality: Hopeless romantics who can read P&Ls to entrepreneurial general managers
At WiT Indie, three very different hospitality models – a UNESCO heritage boutique, a globally scaled brand with its roots in serviced residence, and a 140-year-old colonial grand dame – sat on the same panel to address a key question – what does it mean to serve the independent traveller in s [...]
Two deals, one vision: Omio’s CFO on building the world’s ground distribution backbone
In an exclusive interview with WiT – his first since the announcements – Omio Group CFO Jean-Bernard Moens explains why a $10 million Asia-Pacific investment and the proposed acquisition of Rail Europe landed in the same week, and how they both lead to the same destination.
Two announcement [...]
APAC consumers are ready for AI agent-led shopping, Accenture research finds
Accenture hosted a media briefing to present findings from its Consumer Pulse Survey 2026 and lay out a framework for how businesses across Asia Pacific should prepare for what it calls "agentic commerce" — a shift in which AI agents research, compare, purchase and manage returns on a consumer's b [...]
APAC hotel distribution sees slower growth, rising regional OTAs, and direct channels under pressure
D-EDGE's 2022–Q1 2026 analysis shows booking growth cooling to 2.7%, Agoda pulling ahead of Booking.com, and wholesalers more than tripling their market share in three years.
According to a new report from hospitality technology provider D-EDGE, Asia-Pacific's hotel distribution landscape is shif [...]
The next generation of hospitality: When the room is no longer the point
A ryokan owner, a global brand VP, a lifestyle acquirer and a boutique operator debate what will actually make a guest choose you in the next 20 years.
A panel at WiT Japan on “The Next Generation of Hospitality” brought together four voices with sharply different stakes in the answer.
Kyohe [...]
