Power and potential of Muslim travel sector should not be ignored, says report
Global tourism has grown by more than a third (37%) in inflation-adjusted terms since the downturn of 2009, outpacing world GDP (Gross Domestic Product) that grew by just a fifth (21%) in the same period.
Last year the GDP impact of the world’s Muslim tourism sector exceeded US$138 billion.
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The Wrap: Demand for self-service at Saudi Arabia’s airports to escalate in 2017
The weekly news roundup: SITA 2016 Passenger IT Trends Survey with focus on Saudi travellers, Air Seoul’s partnership with Sabre, Wego’s Christmas holiday guide
SURVEY: Demand for self-service at Saudi Arabia's airports to escalate in 2017
Saudi travellers' love of smartphones will dri [...]
Tripping.com raises US$35m to expand brand in US and internationally
Tripping.com, a San Francisco-based search engine for vacation homes and short-term rentals, has secured US$35 million in Series C funding.
The company plans to use the fund to expand and build its brand both in the US and internationally, mainly in Asia.
The round was led by Princeville Globa [...]
The present and future of online travel: Thoughts after WIT and Phocuswright
Kei Shibata, CEO of Venture Republic and co-founder of WIT Japan & North Asia, shares his observations on trends in the online travel space and how they might play out in 2017.
Now that the WIT (Web In Travel) conference (Singapore) that's well known in Japan and the world's largest on [...]
Why voice will be big and Barry Diller on Netflix, Tesla and Trump
Voice is the next technology frontier and companies who do not plough resources into it now will be in danger of being disintermediated and disrupted, said Barry Diller, chairman of IAC/InterActive Corp and Expedia Inc, at the Expedia Partners Conference in Las Vegas last week.
Speaking to CE [...]
Expedia’s $100b target and how it intends to get there with its army of brands
Twenty years on since its founding, Expedia Inc intends to become the first $100b travel agency in the world and it is pulling out all stops to hit that target.
With current gross bookings standing at $71b, representing a 29% year-on-year growth, and if you take into consideration the journey s [...]
The Wrap: CatchThatBus adds home delivery feature to its mobile app
The weekly news roundup: Home delivery of tickets by CatchThatBus, TripAdvisor’s year-end value report, Skyscanners’ list of emerging destinations for 2017
STARTUPS: CatchThatBus adds home delivery feature to its mobile app
Customers of Malaysia-based startup CatchThatBus now do not [...]
AccorHotels buys 5% stake in Banyan Tree for S$24m
AccorHotels, fresh on the heels of wrapping up the concierge deal with John Paul, has made another acquisition – a 5% stake in Singapore-based Banyan Tree Holdings – for S$24 million (US$16.9 million),
The investment will be made through a mandatory convertible debenture that, at conversion, [...]
Letter from Las Vegas: Where polar bears play, Elvis is alive and Trump rules
At San Francisco airport, the queue for immigration is packed with mainly people of Asian descent – Malaysians, Singaporeans, Indonesians, Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese, Koreans and Indians.
Maybe it’s the timing – I have flown in direct from Singapore – and the flights at this time of the [...]
From food delivery to helping hosts, Limpert eyes global play for GuestReady
During his stint as managing director of Food Panda for Taiwan and Philippines, based in Taipei last year, Alexander Limpert became an Airbnb host. That was when he realised that being a host for the sharing accommodation site wasn’t that easy, there were many things to handle.
“I saw an [...]
