The WiT Podcast: Unity In Crisis – Episode 8: Wharf Hotels’ Jennifer Cronin on repositioning of Hong Kong and rise of women leadership
In this podcast, the president of Wharf Hotels Jennifer Cronin speaks about Hong Kong’s effective containment of Covid-19, how it can serve as a model for restarting travel, the formation of a co-funded Heritage Tourism Fund and the rise of women leadership.
Hong Kong, as a
destination, has b [...]
South-east Asia seeing huge direct-to-consumer shift in e-commerce, says Shopify’s Verma
The biggest trend happening in e-commerce in South-east Asia is the direct-to-consumer shift, accelerated by the Covid-19 crisis that has seen mass migration of consumers online in the region, said Arun Verma, who’s leading Shopify’s growth in South-east Asia and China.
How this translates t [...]
All eyes on steps being taken by “Covid-safe” bubbles in APAC: Will they signal the slow restarting of travel?
While more companies shed jobs, the latest being TripAdvisor which cut some 900 jobs this week, some countries in Asia Pacific (APAC) are taking tentative steps to restart their economies and save jobs, and the long weekend coming up, and subsequent weeks after, will be watched closely by the rest [...]
Impact has been hard, but there’s light at end of tunnel as Daley pieces together a roadmap to recovery
During WiT Virtual, Louise Daley, deputy CEO, APAC, Accor was very realistic about the harsh realities being faced by the hospitality industry – poor occupancy rates, declining RevPAR, staff redundancies and furloughs. However, she also pointed out areas worthy of optimism in the sector. She iden [...]
Covid-19 Wrap: Hotelbeds launches ‘Holiday for Heroes’ campaign, AirAsia’s employees turn to food delivery in the new normal, and more…
The Covid-19 Wrap is part of WiT’s “Unity In Crisis” series, a round-up of news on the coronavirus and its impact on travel.
Hotelbeds thanks frontline medical workers with ‘Holidays for Heroes’
Holidays for Heroes is designed to acknowledge the efforts of frontline prof [...]
WiT Community Blog: How kites started it all – airlines must use downtime to rethink tech and not “just put a wrapper around things” – Rajeev Kumar, Mystifly
With Planet Earth in lockdown, our
industry at a standstill and many of us in self-isolation or quarantine at
home, or grounded, this is our blog for you – it’s a way to share stories
within our community, to form solidarity and foster a sense of belonging.
Short essays on what we are eac [...]
7 Stages to the New Normal, revisited – “the lack of progress haunts my thinking”
When I wrote the first version of the story that was published in WiT three weeks ago, I used less data than is now available. Now I think we have a better view of the situation. Thus I am revising my timeline and it’s not pretty.
Timothy O’Neil-Dunne revises the timeline of 'The 7 Stages to [...]
Chatbots, contactless travel, blockchain & crypto: Korean companies dig deep into tech to ride out Covid-19
From automation of the back end to chatbots and tech solutions to facilitate contactless travel as well as the introduction of blockchain and cryptocurrency, online travel companies in South Korea are being spurred by the Covid-19 crisis to innovate.
Speaking during WiT Virtual: Spotlight on the [...]
Now everyone’s in the same boat as Expedia secures $3.2b financing and names a new captain
Even before Covid-19 struck, it had been rocky seas for Expedia Group. The 3,000 layoffs and cost cuts it did, which was played out in full glare on social media, pre-empted the pandemic to come. Little did we know at the time that the same fate was to befall thousands upon thousands of more people [...]
Exploring Experiences wants to dance to a different beat in tours & activities
It didn’t take long even for a software engineer (who is also a dancer) who had never been involved in travel to realise that the co-dependent relationships between large OTAs and small independent businesses, such as those in the tours and activities space, were unhealthy and imbalanced.
His [...]
