Trip.com Group ready to hit the accelerate button on growth and investments
“Covid slowed us down but we will continue growth trajectory in Asia,” says James Liang
THE pandemic has not derailed Trip.com Group’s mission to be the leading international travel brand in Asia by 2022 and the leading international travel brand in the world by 2025 – a goal it shared [...]
Hopper’s hop into the fintech space to innovate travel
From the “worst business you could imagine” to a US$3.5b valuation
A FEW things make Hopper an enviable company today – nearly US$600 million in funding (mostly achieved during the pandemic), a valuation of US$3.5 billion, and never a cent spent on Google ad words.
It ha [...]
From fighting to reopen to leading the way in tech innovation, Asia travel puts its best foot forward
Key takeaways from WiT Experience Singapore 2021
IT’S been a tradition of past WiTs that a group of us would escape to a remote location or island somewhere to mark the end of yet another event. Over the years, we’ve been to Siem Reap, Bali, Phuket, Samui, Penang, Kuching with Nikoi and Cemp [...]
Cheers to beers and Sentosa’s common goal
Strength in numbers guides Sentosa down the path to sustainability
ITS resorts are world class. Its
attractions are hard to beat. Its overall appeal is undiminished.
But when Covid hit, Sentosa’s international
arrivals, which had previously accounted for 80% of all arrivals – slumped. It [...]
Know the endemic traveller: Longer stays, hyper focused, higher spending
WITH the
rapid rollout of vaccination in Asia Pacific (APAC), many countries are
preparing to live in an endemic phase, and opening their borders to their
people to travel abroad.
This
development has given rise to the endemic traveller who is prioritising leisure
travel because they have been [...]
The billionaire Airbnb host who walks the talk
Community and connection are key as home sharing gains new advocates
NATE Blecharczyk is someone who believes in walking the
talk.
In
10 years, he has hosted more than 750 Airbnb guests in the San Francisco home
he shares with his wife, Elizabeth. He does it, he says, because he believes in
[...]
MakeMyTrip partners with Hopper to offer travellers flexibility in booking trips
INDIA’S online travel company MakeMyTrip has tied up with flight and hotel app Hopper to help its customers make better travel decisions by leveraging the latter’s AI-enabled pricing tools.
Through this partnership, MakeMyTrip uses Hopper’s Price Freeze technology to power its Price Lock f [...]
Yanolja acquires 70% of Interpark’s business division
YANOLJA, South Korea’s leading travel and leisure platform, has signed an agreement to acquire the business division of Interpark, one of the country’s earliest e-commerce marketplaces.
Both
companies signed an MOU on the acquisition of 70% of stake in Interpark’s
business division which [...]
How SmartRyde diversified from Asia to ride through Covid and raised $1.6m
FOR Sota Kimura, founder of SmartRyde, it’s been quite a ride since he founded the global airport transfer marketplace in March 2017 to September 2021 when it raised approximately US$1.6 million in Series A funding round.
As a student, he often found himself “in trouble with ground transpor [...]
Living the life of Riley in Cornwall
BeMyGuest’s CTO on living with Covid, remote working and building software during a pandemic
BEING in Cornwall, after not having left Singapore in more than two years, has given Ross Riley, CTO of BeMyGuest a different outlook on several things.
For one,
it’s given him a more positive ou [...]
