Local grit, global impact: four Kiwi founders on building tech from the world’s edge
Some people eat to live. Some people live to eat. All startups though live and die by solving the pain points they’ve chosen to tackle.
Which was how I kicked off the panel, “Local Grit, Global Impact: Kiwi Innovation in Travel & Hospitality Tech” at WiT Queenstown. I asked the question � [...]
The red ocean of content: Who still makes travellers move?
“3 years ago, when we launched Kreatorverse, it was an experiment. Last year, it was starting to form a structure. This year, we see scale,” said Wilfred Fan, Chief Commercial Officer of Klook.
Then came the warning.
“When things start to scale, it becomes a red ocean. There are too many [...]
We missed the resident: Rethinking who tourism is for
The closing panel at WiT Indie brought together Raul Guerra, Asia-Pacific Regional Director at the Catalunya Tourism Board, Mich Goh, Director of Public Policy for APAC at Airbnb, and Mildred Ang, Director of Social Commerce at Klook – a destination, a platform under regulatory pressure and an OTA [...]
Winning in attractions: Innovation, personalisation, and the travel experience economy
The global travel landscape is undergoing a fundamental shift, driven by travellers who increasingly prioritise experiences, personalisation, and meaningful connections. For Trip.com Group, this transformation is not merely a response to changing consumer behaviour but an opportunity to define a new [...]
Luxury redefined: From bling to meaning, from sand to soul
If the first age of luxury was about status, and the second about style, the new luxury is about substance.
As moderator Morris Sim (Montara Hospitality) put it, “Luxury is such an overused word. Everyone has their own version of it. But if we start from the customer’s point of view – who [...]
Different origins, same destination: Inside Asia’s three OTA journeys to the future
AirAsia MOVE’s social pivot, Traveloka’s scrappy reinvention, and Rakuten’s ecosystem edge show that the future of travel may be powered by tech, but fuelled by people.
If the past 20 years were about putting travel online, the next 20 will be about keeping it human, while algorithms, agents, [...]
Data, not drama, should shape Airbnb’s short-term rental rules
What does it mean to be a lawyer for a platform operating across various jurisdictions, and doing it in real time? In a conversation with Darrell Chan, Airbnb's APAC General Counsel, the idea of “guerrilla lawyering” is used as a working philosophy. But what does that look like when regulations [...]
Yanolja reshuffles leadership; Nol Universe bets big on “travel + entertainment” as next wave
Moves are afoot at Korea’s biggest travel company, Yanolja, to consolidate its position and prepare for global competitiveness in 2026 across its three business divisions – cloud, platform and investment.
Lee Joon-young has been named CEO of the enterprise solution division in charge of Yanolja [...]
From Europe to the US to Asia: A time-led strategy in experience travel
GetYourGuide’s expansion from Europe into the US — and now a renewed focus on Asia Pacific, where the company’s journey began — spans markets with very different travel behaviours, holiday patterns, and sensitivities around price. Yet, according to Emil Martinšek, Chief Marketing Officer of [...]
Holding the line, shaping the future: Agoda’s Omri Morgenshtern on AI, trust and why Asia will define the next travel era
Phocuswright 2025 opened with a quiet but unmistakable shift in narrative: for the first time in its history, the conference handed its opening spotlight to a brand from Asia. And on centre stage stood Omri Morgenshtern, CEO of Agoda, a company celebrating 20 years and increasingly shaping how the f [...]
