Reflections on 2016 and Predictions for 2017 (Part I)
It’s that time of the year when we ask industry leaders for their thoughts on what happened in 2016 and what they forsee will happen in the new year. Here’s Part 1.
Steve Hafner, CEO & Co-founder, KAYAK
Top 3 Things That Happened and That Mattered in 2016
1. Rise of AI. [...]
Myanmar, a sleeping beauty being woken up by technology and tourism
Growing up in Myanmar in the 70s, May Myat Mon Win dreamt of a day “when our country could be like our neighbours” in South-east Asia. “We just didn’t know how long it would take,” she said.
Today, as the chairperson of the Myanmar Tourism Marketing Committee (MTMC), she sees that the d [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Technology, travel and Trump – key takeaways from Phocuswright
Call it a funnel or a sieve or whatever, let’s face it, things are changing in online travel, lines are blurring even faster than you can say “revolution” and everyone, it seems, wants to be all things to all people.
Has specialisation died at the altar of growth – imagine, Airbnb getting [...]
Airbnb launches Trips platform, giving guests more direct access to local insights and experiences
Airbnb has ventured beyond the accommodation space after eight years with the launch of Airbnb Trips – a mobile platform designed to give consumers a new resource for local information, tours and activity bookings and travel itinerary planning. Trips focuses on three key areas, being: Experiences, [...]
Amadeus cytric Travel and Expense launched with focus on mobile-first Asia
Amadeus has recently launched a new tech solution that aims to simplify corporate travel expenses. Amadeus cytric Travel and Expense is an end-to-end software platform that enables corporate employees to plan, book, submit expenses and have them reimbursed, in a single system. To top it all off, it� [...]
Sabre awards US$10,000 to Singaporean team at first Asia Pacific Hackathon to “Reinvent Travel”
Developers, start-ups and technology and travel industry innovators from around Asia Pacific gathered in Singapore to code through the night during Sabre Corporation’s (NASDAQ: SABR) first Asia Pacific hackathon, ‘Destination Hack: Singapore’. The challenge? In 24-hours, conceptualise and prog [...]
