From fighting to reopen to leading the way in tech innovation, Asia travel puts its best foot forward
Key takeaways from WiT Experience Singapore 2021
IT’S been a tradition of past WiTs that a group of us would escape to a remote location or island somewhere to mark the end of yet another event. Over the years, we’ve been to Siem Reap, Bali, Phuket, Samui, Penang, Kuching with Nikoi and Cemp [...]
Cheers to beers and Sentosa’s common goal
Strength in numbers guides Sentosa down the path to sustainability
ITS resorts are world class. Its
attractions are hard to beat. Its overall appeal is undiminished.
But when Covid hit, Sentosa’s international
arrivals, which had previously accounted for 80% of all arrivals – slumped. It [...]
Know the endemic traveller: Longer stays, hyper focused, higher spending
WITH the
rapid rollout of vaccination in Asia Pacific (APAC), many countries are
preparing to live in an endemic phase, and opening their borders to their
people to travel abroad.
This
development has given rise to the endemic traveller who is prioritising leisure
travel because they have been [...]
The billionaire Airbnb host who walks the talk
Community and connection are key as home sharing gains new advocates
NATE Blecharczyk is someone who believes in walking the
talk.
In
10 years, he has hosted more than 750 Airbnb guests in the San Francisco home
he shares with his wife, Elizabeth. He does it, he says, because he believes in
[...]
Thrust Carbon wins Grand Prize and People’s Choice award at WiT Startup Pitch signalling industry intent on sustainability
THRUST Carbon has emerged victorious in this year’s WiT Startup Pitch after beating two other finalists to come out tops in the Grand Finals, held yesterday at WiT Experience Singapore 2021, the first travel conference in Asia Pacific to return to a full in-person and hybrid format.
Thrust Car [...]
Startup Pitch finalists shine as WiT returns to full in-person and hybrid conference – the first in Asia Pacific
IN a tightly-fought competition, three startups, Indie, RunGo and Thrust Carbon have won a spot in the Grand Finals of the WiT Startup Pitch 2021, held today as part of WiT Experience Singapore.
A total of
12 travel startups competed in the semi-finals today.
The three
finalists seem to meet [...]
MakeMyTrip partners with Hopper to offer travellers flexibility in booking trips
INDIA’S online travel company MakeMyTrip has tied up with flight and hotel app Hopper to help its customers make better travel decisions by leveraging the latter’s AI-enabled pricing tools.
Through this partnership, MakeMyTrip uses Hopper’s Price Freeze technology to power its Price Lock f [...]
Yanolja acquires 70% of Interpark’s business division
YANOLJA, South Korea’s leading travel and leisure platform, has signed an agreement to acquire the business division of Interpark, one of the country’s earliest e-commerce marketplaces.
Both
companies signed an MOU on the acquisition of 70% of stake in Interpark’s
business division which [...]
AI and data, payments and airports keeping interest of Amadeus Ventures
THE first thing Amadeus Ventures did when the pandemic struck was to support its portfolio companies to “make sure the companies and people were in a safe place”, said Suzanna Chiu, head of the strategic funding programme that invests in early stage travel startups.
“We worked out conting [...]
How SmartRyde diversified from Asia to ride through Covid and raised $1.6m
FOR Sota Kimura, founder of SmartRyde, it’s been quite a ride since he founded the global airport transfer marketplace in March 2017 to September 2021 when it raised approximately US$1.6 million in Series A funding round.
As a student, he often found himself “in trouble with ground transpor [...]
