The Wrap: Marriott expands into home-sharing business with launch of vacation rental platform
In the news: Hotels take the spotlight with Marriott making a foray in home rentals, and two partnerships – Amadeus/Restel and Amex/Booking.com – offering wider choice of accommodations to customers
Hotels: Marriott expands into home-sharing business with launch of vacation rental platform
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Letter from Seoul: Travel market has all the makings of a K-drama like Mr Sunshine
Someone once asked me why WiT was in Seoul. My answers were simple. It is the second largest outbound market in Asia, after China. Consumers are changing faster than traditional travel players. Into that vacuum has entered global OTAs and local startups that are rewriting the rules of the game.
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Grab invests in Singapore’s logistics company Ninja Van, forms partnership
Grab, fresh on the heels of adding four services in a bid to evolve from ride-hailing app to super app, announced it has invested in and formed a "strategic partnership" with Singapore-based logistics services provider Ninja Van.
Terms of
the deal have not been disclosed.
The partnership
see [...]
Spoiler alert. GOT Season 8: No one dies – yet, just like online travel
War chests have been
replenished, battle moves have been made, welcome to travel’s own GOT (Game of
Online Travel) Season 2019
If you are a Game of Thrones fan, you will know the first two episodes have largely been helping us to catch up on the story, and none of the main characters has died [...]
The Wrap: Lost in translation in Japan? No worries, Miko’s here to help
In the news: Focus is on Japan this week with a virtual travel concierge to help tourists explore the country, a All Nippon Airways-OpenJaw partnership, and travel giant JTB's debut at ITB China to promote sports tourism
Chatbots: Lost in translation in Japan? No worries, Miko’s here to help
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How to gain traveller trust and loyalty in the post-booking ancillary game: study
Amadeus has released a study that looks at what it refers to as 'Destination X', defined as "the largely untapped and dynamic destination services marketplace".
Elaborates the global travel IT provider: “Interest in travelling and exploring our world has never been greater. But with time in sh [...]
Google is now top site for hotel reviews, overtaking Booking.com
In Revinate’s Hotel Reputation Benchmark Report 2019 which analysed reviews for more than 140,000 hotels in over 200 countries, key findings like the continued growth of reviews on review sites and OTAs, albeit at a slower rate, were not surprising.
Perhaps what was more surprising and would [...]
How to thrive amid disruption in a globalised world: Lessons from tech and travel giants
At
the STB Tourism Industry Conference earlier this week, a cast of tech giants
from Expedia, Alibaba and Google, moderated by WiT’s Yeoh Siew Hoon, discussed
a burning topic in travel and beyond: how to thrive in the face of disruption.
Arguably each of the companies present on
stage has bee [...]
The Wrap: Firefly is back in Singapore after end of airspace dispute
In the news: Firefly’s return to Singapore, OTA rehlat's partnership with PayPal, Canadian technology startup Betterez’s move to New Zealand
Airlines: Firefly is back in Singapore after end of airspace dispute
The upgraded Seletar Airport where Firefly now lands (Image credit: Seletar Air [...]
From Ain Dubai to the Red Sea, travel brands jostle to find their groove in a booming market
On the morning after WiT Middle East ended, I went for a walk across from Jumeirah Beach to Bluewaters Island, a new development that boasts 132 shops and restaurants, Caesars Palace Hotel and the 210m Ain Dubai, touted as the world’s largest observation wheel. For those of you familiar with Duba [...]
