Booking Holdings’ Rob Ransom on disruption, distribution and the next travel unicorn
At Phocuswright, in a conversation that oscillated between realism and optimism, Rob Ransom, Chief Strategy Officer of Booking Holdings, laid out how the world’s largest online travel company is thinking about the most consequential shift since the dawn of online travel: the rise of AI-powered dis [...]
Asia’s most adaptable hotels outperform peers by 59%
As regional travel increases, data shows that culturally fluent strategies now define the region’s top-performing properties.
Digital travel platform Agoda released its latest research report, Tailored to Win: Capturing Asia’s Tourism Boom, showing that nearly all hotels adopting advanced lo [...]
Hotel CEOs on AI, distribution, and the next battle for direct
For years, hotel CEOs have talked about the power struggle between brands and online travel agencies (OTAs). But now, a new force is reshaping that battleground – Artificial Intelligence.
During the “Views from the Boardroom” panel at the HICAP conference held in Singapore in October, leader [...]
Agoda’s Omri Morgenshtern on staying relentless and building velocity
When Johannes Reck, CEO of GetYourGuide, sat down with Omri Morgenshtern, CEO of Agoda at the former’s Unlocked Asia Summit in Bangkok in late October, it wasn’t just a chat between two travel-tech leaders. It was a deep dive into what it takes to stay relevant – and relentless – in one [...]
How experiences are reshaping the next gen of travel commerce
At the GetYourGuide Unlocked Summit in Bangkok last week, a panel gathered to unpack one of the travel industry’s most promising yet complex frontiers – the “Things To Do” sector, the vast constellation of activities, tours, and experiences valued at a $400B+ market.
The conversation brou [...]
The future isn’t about channels, it’s about guests
At WiT Singapore, hotels and OTAs find common ground in a new battleground: trust, experience, and emotion.
Twenty years on, the old debate between direct versus indirect bookings still echoes through hotel conference halls. But at WiT Singapore 2025, the message was clear: the future of hospitali [...]
How engineers work with AI across Southeast Asia and India
Agoda has released a new study called the AI Developer Report which shows that artificial intelligence (AI) adoption is high among software developers in Southeast Asia and India, but its usage is still maturing. Developers use it pragmatically to accelerate work without compromising quality, while [...]
Scaling luxury without losing soul, with The Luxe Nomad’s Stephanie Chai | WiT Studio
Dropping by the WiT Studio (filmed during WiT Singapore: The Next 20), Stephanie Chai, CEO and founder of The Luxe Nomad, offered an insightful look into the complex dynamics of scaling a high-end travel company in the Asia Pacific region. As The Luxe Nomad continues its ambitious expansion into mar [...]
Heavy meta: 3 travel mavericks on reinvention, AI, and the long road back
They were once the rebels of online travel – the mavericks who built meta-search into a movement. On one stage at WiT Singapore’s The Next 20 conference, Gareth Williams (Skyscanner), Ross Veitch (Wego), and Kei Shibata (travel.jp) reunited to look back on the early days of disruption and [...]
Expedia Group B2B: The invisible engine powering the world’s travel bookings
Every time a traveller books a hotel through a loyalty portal, redeems points online, or makes a travel booking on another platform, there’s a good chance Expedia Group B2B is quietly working behind the scenes.
Its name may not appear on the booking page, but its technology often powers what happ [...]
