Distribution
How an island boy and his team grew Klook into a ‘fast fish’ which now wants to swim in world’s ocean
14/08/2018 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
Eric Gnock Fah still remembers the day he presented at the WiT Startup Pitch in Tokyo in June 2015. It was barely a year after he and co-founder Ethan Lin had started Klook, their “discover and book fun-things-to-do at exclusive prices” business, in Hong Kong. “We were nervous but we though [...]
The Wrap: Swissôtel The Stamford gets ‘smart’ with new technology
08/08/2018 by WiT
In the news: Swissôtel The Stamford implements smart hotel management system, Sabre has four launch partners to its Beyond NDC programme, TripAdvisor launches new photo feature Hotels: Swissôtel The Stamford gets 'smart' with new technology Giving guests the ultimate in experience and ma [...]
South Korea’s MyRealTrip joins hands with Naver to launch “Naver Tour”
07/08/2018 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
South Korea’s leading travel platform, MyRealTrip, has launched a new service called “Naver Tour” in partnership with Naver, the country’s largest Internet company. Naver Tour was co-designed and developed by the two companies, said MyRealTrip’s CEO Donggun Lee. Naver offered the platfo [...]
Armed with $200m more, Klook eyes global domination as it steers course to hit $1b in bookings this year
07/08/2018 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
It seems there is no stopping Klook which will go down in Asia’s travel history as the startup that has raised the most in the shortest time. Today, it announced it has closed $200m in Series D funding, bringing its total financing to date to US$300 million. This latest round makes the in-destinat [...]
BeMyGuest’s Hit List 2: Things You Ought To Know About Bali’s Tours & Activities
06/08/2018 by Graham Hills
Tours & activities is an interesting space. Other than attracting a lot of attention from investors, it also provides insights into the destinations favoured by travellers, what they like to do while in a destination and how they book these activities and experiences. In this second column, Grah [...]
Letter from Sydney: Of food made for instagram and the journey towards NDC, diversity and chatbots
03/08/2018 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
At the Two Sis café in Pyrmont where I had lunch my last day in Sydney, the place was packed with youngsters from Asia – there’s a local university nearby and so it’s popular with students. Let’s say my friends and I brought up the average age substantially. The café, owned by a Cor [...]
The Wrap: CWT’s new analytics tool provides full visibility on travel spend
02/08/2018 by WiT
In the news: CWT launches new tool for travel managers, John Paul appoints CEO for Asia Pacific, Scoot and SITA extend technology agreement Corporate Travel: CWT’s new analytics tool provides full visibility on travel spend A survey by GBTA Foundation, sponsored by Carlson Wagonlit Tra [...]
Colombia’s Avianca integrates with Skyscanner through NDC
30/07/2018 by WiT
Bogotá-based Avianca has joined Skyscanner’s Direct Booking platform, enabling the Colombian airline to showcase its brand and upsell products to increase ancillary sales and mobile conversion. The integration, powered by Amadeus Altéa NDC, makes Colombia’s flag carrier one of the first air [...]
Now you can find KLM flights with voice commands
27/07/2018 by WiT
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KLM) is making easy for its customers to search for the right flights in a jiffy through its newly launched voice-driven service on Google Assistant. KLM’s smart assistant, BB (short for Blue Bot), can search for flights in both English and Dutch. This makes the airlin [...]
Know your farmer – Sampran Riverside’s Arrut leads organic tourism movement in Thailand
24/07/2018 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
In today’s age, where we have our personal trainers, doctors and lawyers, why shouldn’t we have our personal farmer? That was the food for thought offered by Arrut Navaraj, managing director of Sampran Riverside, at the Travelport Live conference in Bangkok earlier this month when he spoke of ho [...]