News
Microsoft and Tripadvisor on what OpenAI’s DevDay product announcements mean for travel
09/11/2023 by Mitra Sorrells
OpenAI has generated quite a bit of buzz this week since announcing several updates and new tools at its first developer conference on Monday. OpenAI DevDay brought news of GPTs – customized versions of ChatGPT that anyone can create and keep private or share publicly in a soon-to-launch “GPT [...]
Korean air market entering Season 3 of K-drama moments
07/11/2023 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
One step closer to Korean Air-Asiana merger, Korean Air to launch NDC in 2024, new airlines Air Premia and T’way jostle for supremacy, Lufthansa and KLM Air France push on with NDC, agents anticipating disruption in distribution in traditional market It felt like something out of a K-drama. Afte [...]
Welcome to the “Squid Game” of Korean travel startup world
07/11/2023 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
K Travel Tech Summit puts spotlight on role models and aspiring stars If there was one key message from the first K Travel Tech Summit, held in conjunction with WiT Seoul, and organized by the Korea Tourism Organisation, it is that Korean travel startups are more than ready to take on the world. [...]
The heart work of socialising travel’s green revolution
06/11/2023 by Luke Clark
“Incentivising the traveller is one thing, and then there’s really immersing the traveller in sustainability – without making them feel like it's homework. Because no one wants to do homework on holidays.” The push for more sustainable travel has become an accepted option-of-choice for disc [...]
The Human Revolution goes to Africa – world’s biggest population by 2030
06/11/2023 by WiT
WiT, Innovation City and Travelstart team up to hold travel tech event in Cape Town March 14-15 WiT (Web in Travel), the leading travel tech conference and media in Asia Pacific, will launch its African edition in Cape Town, South Africa, on March 14-15, 2024. To be held in partnership with Inn [...]
Changi’s T2 is back. Tourism needs AI. Thai Vietjet gets “smart”. Uncovering WebBeds.
02/11/2023 by Ian Jarrett
AI and tourism: a revolution you can’t ignore Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is, in the short term, unlikely to change the human input needed for the end delivery of tourism product but has huge potential to streamline the complexities of the booking process and increasing internal bu [...]
2024: Rebooters, surrenderers, and foodies to set new travel trends
02/11/2023 by Arvindh Yuvaraj
Booking.com has released its annual Travel Predictions research, revealing that travel will be at “the core of existence” in 2024. In other words, the report says that travel will shift from being an escape from reality into a core part of life.  Booking.com’s report states that 80% of APA [...]
Are passports a thing of the past? SITA is working on it
01/11/2023 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
Digital Travel Credentials will smooth the journey from boarding to Butterfly Farm In the three decades he’s been with SITA, Sumesh Patel, who was appointed president, Asia Pacific, in 2017, has seen all that’s evolved in airline and airport technologies, and he remains as impassioned about the [...]
Thailand’s Kasikorn Bank Group invests $25m in Traveligo, rebranding to Gother
01/11/2023 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
Thai domestic OTA to partner with TakeMeTour and expand overseas Thailand’s Beacon Venture Capital, a subsidiary of Kasikorn Bank, has invested US$25m in Traveligo, a Thailand domestic OTA founded in 2015 by Anupong Kriangkrailipikorn, and which will be rebranded to Gother. The news, announc [...]
The audience decides at this year’s Great WiT Debate – “AI will make us less human”
01/11/2023 by WiT
Leaders from some of the world’s biggest travel and tech companies debate for and against… but audience sides with the FOR team! Leaders from Agoda, Global Tix, Airbnb, Expedia and Klook took to the stage for Web in Travel’s infamous Great Debate this year at the WiT Singapore conference Oct [...]