Tech In Travel: TikTok rocks in travel searches; Sabre and Mastercard tackle the pay maze, Airbnb and the Great Depression, Australia builds world’s longest EV highway
The influence of TikTok for travel-related information is gathering pace among consumers in South-east Asia. Consumer research company, Milieu Insight, says TikTok is gaining popularity as a search engine when it comes to the discovery of products, services, and places to visit.
Milieu Insight [...]
Singaporean travellers still enjoy loyalty and rewards programs, but hospitality might be missing the mark
CUSTOMER loyalty used to be relatively simple - set up a loyalty program, reward customers with redemption points, vouchers, or gifts, rinse and repeat. But, with omnichannel and digital platforms, cultivating customer loyalty has become rather complicated. The big question is - do customers even ca [...]
Would you risk your job for sustainable travel? 27% of APAC business travellers would, says survey
TRAVEL may be picking up all over the world, but that doesn’t mean concerns from the last two years have completely disappeared. New research via the SAP Concur business traveller survey finds that APAC corporate travellers are still concerned about the continuing health and safety threats from CO [...]
Mobile acceleration changing everything in Asia – stay alert, “the wolves are coming”
Hospitality tech still “messed up”, opportunities abound for chat, social commerce and innovative bundling
The step change in mobile adoption, social, chat as well as the surge in low cost airline activity in the region will drive changes in the Asia Pacific travel market for years to come, a p [...]
How an early nomad’s life shaped Steve Hafner, and how he sees talent, tech and human imagination
“With five mouths to feed, I got to stick around”
From references to Hugh Hefner to learning from his five daughters and how to ace media interviews, this interview with Steve Hafner, CEO and co-founder of KAYAK, covers it all. That, plus how the charismatic travel leader views the new world of [...]
Top of the WiT Ep 11: New industry leaders, empowering indie warriors, and Star Wars socks
On Top Of The WiT, we bring you a grab of the news that happened this week in travel, technology and Asia – interesting nuggets that caught our eye and made it into the weekly WiT newsletter.
This week, we talk about the convergence of the "old world" and this new, endemic one. Siew Hoon, [...]
Tech in Travel: Trees for travellers, Metaverse for airlines, a solution to eliminate margin-eating intermediaries and Uber drives deeper into travel, sort of.
Adventure travel specialist, G Adventures is going deep into the woods with a significant financial investment in restorative travel technology start-up, Reforest. Brisbane-based Reforest is a digital platform connecting travellers with local communities that are actively restoring their ecosystems [...]
Riding the Covid wave: Americas slowing down, Asia’s still in “sugar rush”
Key takeaways from Phocuswright – worlds apart but some similarities stand out
IN a week’s time, we will enter the last month of 2022. At Scottsdale Quarters, a shopping precinct in Arizona, the malls are already playing Christmas songs. At hotels, both in Phoenix and Tucson, you can see prepar [...]
Video: “I don’t like the term artificial intelligence. I like the term assisted intelligence.” (WiT Singapore 2022)
"Regardless of old world or new world, it is necessary that we put customers at the heart of the business. Human touch is key because we're in hospitality - regardless of what technology or product you have - you've got to have that in order to make it work."
Those words were spoken emphatica [...]
Customers want engaging content, flexibility, and no-nonsense refunds, says TixCarte CEO
WITH travel picking up all over the world, it's easy to forget about the domestic players and simpler attractions that satiated our wanderlust when borders were closed. Technology has evolved leaps and bounds over the last couple of years, and many key players in the travel and hospitality space are [...]
