New world meets old as an ambitious FREED acquires Connexus Travel
Digital and smart merchandising solutions company, FREED GROUP, has acquired Hong Kong’s oldest travel agency, Connexus Travel (formerly Swire Travel), to expand and extends its reach into travel.
The acquisition, details of which were not disclosed, blends the technology expertise of FREED, wh [...]
Travel-tech group Bookaway invests millions in building centralised transportation hub – here’s why
Bookaway Group says the industry is fragmented and aims to aggregate data for over 100 markets globally
“The centralized hub will be a standardized database for the entirety of Bookaway Group’s network and subsidiaries”, said Omer Chehmer (COO and co-founder, Bookaway Group) when asked by WiT [...]
Tech In Travel: SITA steps out with travel identity company; revenge is still sweet for some; the chatbot that will change travel; and a tech tip for hoteliers
SITA lays another steppingstone on the digital travel path
The way data management is handled within the aviation industry is at the heart of a partnership between SITA and travel identity company Zamna Technologies.
Zamna’s solution uses a decentralised blockchain based model to transform h [...]
Rise of a region: Digital transformation to supercharge Southeast Asia’s travel recovery in 2023 and beyond
Digital transformation will continue to accelerate rapidly across Southeast Asia, with online bookings more than doubling between 2022 and 2025
It’s no secret that the pandemic hit different regions and their travel sectors in different ways, and there’s no common rulebook on how to recover fro [...]
TrustYou splits from Recruit, buys back ownership
TrustYou has bought back full ownership of its shares from Recruit Holdings, five years after the Japanese travel/media company acquired the German guest feedback platform.
The management buyout was backed and led by technology investor Ventech. TrustYou founder and CEO Ben Jost is also a sig [...]
Budgets and options: Could “Save Now Buy Later” take off in travel?
Buy now, pay later - a form of credit that allows a consumer to pay off a purchase over time in smaller installments - has taken off in the travel industry in recent years.
From 2019 to 2021, the number of BNPL loans originated in the United States by five lenders grew by 970%, to 180 million loan [...]
Top of the WiT 15: Singapore doubling on tourism, Bookaway Group prepares for surge, coliving Spaces – slow burn or fast fad?
Top Of The WiT is a grab of the trendiest news that happened this week in travel, tech and Asia - all condensed into a quick-and-easy nugget-sized podcast.
On this week's episode, we talk about Singapore's tourism projections for the next twelve months and how it forecasts a doubling of tourism [...]
The “shopping cart” no longer evades travel as Agoda becomes one of the first to launch feature
IT’S interesting to note that, despite leading e-commerce transactions globally, travel and hospitality booking platforms have largely existed without this standard mechanism of online sales - the shopping cart.
This week, Agoda became one of the first online travel agencies to offer this fun [...]
Travellers go local when booking with OTAs
The big three OTAs – Booking.com, Agoda and Traveloka – topped the STAAH Booking Engine’s list as the top online booking channels worldwide that brought the highest booking revenue to hotels in 2022.
The top 10 online booking channels across the world are ranked as above, by STAAH.
[...]
What do metaverse, ChatGPT mean for a destination like Singapore?
Blended answers, by man and machine
Keith Tan, chief executive officer of the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), opened his agency’s media briefing this week by jesting, “I’d like to confirm that ChatGPT didn’t write the press release.” (See related article)
Curious, I decided to start a [...]
