2014 airline ancillary revenue soars to $38.1b, up nearly 21%
For the eighth consecutive year, 63 airlines reported substantial increases in revenue from retail activities and the sale of a la carte services and frequent flier miles.The highlights:• Ancillary revenue per passenger is $17.49, 8.5% more than the 2013 result.• Activity among low cost carriers [...]
Corporate travel in disruption: Concur’s news at GBTA part of change sweeping the sector
From a partnership with Lufthansa that will enable business travelers to book direct on LH.com to one with services like Lfyt and HotelTonight, Concur's announcements made at this week's Global Business Travel Associatoon (GBTA) Convention in Orlando are all part of changes sweeping the lucrative co [...]
Our future depends on being relevant in Asia, say Expedia’s new leaders
Under new leadership and housed in plush new offices, Expedia Inc has moved to underscore its commitment to the region with industry gatherings in Bangkok and last week, in Singapore.At the Singapore event, attended by close to 100 hoteliers, the leadership team, led by interim CEO Jonty Neal and Mi [...]
OTAs vs direct hotel bookings: A traveller’s perspective
The rise and rise of monolitic online travel agents (OTAs) are squeezing hotel margins – but is this necessarily bad for the industry? A report by global hotel consultancy HVS, published earlier this month, described how Priceline and Expedia have become “ever-more powerful” following strategi [...]
Chinese car rental companies need to explore supplementary distribution avenues
Travel suppliers are increasingly becoming adept at meeting the overall trip requirements of their customers. Brands are diligently trying to ensure that the traffic that reaches their direct channels identifies with the travel products that are relevant to customers’ journey, and hence ends up bu [...]
Ctrip to bank on product and customer service to succeed in South-east Asia
Ctrip, China’s largest OTA, opened its doors in Singapore with the official launch of its brand in Singapore this week. The move signals the company’s regional ambitions with localised websites that went live earlier this year in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.Explaining the company [...]
The Wrap: Booking.com offers global accommodation options to Air China’s guests with new partnership
In the news: Booking.com’s partnership with Air China, new chief commercial officer for Malaysia Airlines, marketing deal between Canton Fair and Travelport, Wego insight into Lebaran 2015.Booking.com offers global accommodation options to Air China’s guests with new partnership Booking.com has [...]
WIT Warrior Spotlight: Kei Shibata wants to use content and price to change the way travellers make decisions
At the WIT Conference last year in Singapore, we recognised 11 individuals whom we felt have had the most influence on the development of online travel in Asia Pacific. This is the seventh article in a series of interviews profiling the WIT Warriors.Kei Shibata is a pioneer of travel meta-search in [...]
Amadeus buys Itesso, adds hotel management to IT portfolio
Amadeus expands its technology offering to the hotel industry with the acquisition of Netherlands-based Itesso BV, a provider of cloud-native property management systems (PMS).Itesso currently provides PMS technology to 1,800 properties worldwide, with its new cloud-native Itesso Enterprise Lodging [...]
Sabre study paints a future of hotel booking that is contextual, intimate and instant
Okay so my survey was not scientific in any way. I merely asked the question on my Facebook status, “If I were to say the words “future of hotel booking”, what words come to mind?”I wanted to get feel of what my network, biased towards frequent travellers, thought about the subject – and w [...]
