WiT Innovation Stage: Why a seamless online experience is key to building customer loyalty
Here’s a little-known fact: The ubiquitous QR code that we use today was actually invented in 1994 in Japan. Yet, according to Ory Rusli, head of South-east Asia, Japan Foodie – a restaurant search app for visitors to Japan – when it came to introducing this mode of payment to Japanese mercha [...]
Sabre buys airline retailing software provider Radixx for US$110 million
Leading technology travel provider, Sabre Corporation , has purchased airline retail platform, Radixx, for US$110 million in cash, including payments to debtholders.
Founded in 1993, Orlando-based Radixx is a
passenger service system (PSS) with Internet booking engine (IBE) specialising
in low [...]
WiT Singapore 2019: Agoda’s CEO talks Asia, moving beyond accommodation, partnerships
Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best” could be the theme song of Singapore-based travel platform Agoda as it focuses on finding the "best inventory" for its customers, operating with the "best tech" and fending off the intense competition in Asia armed with the "best weapons”. In a wide-ranging [...]
IDEM Hospitality takes top prize of WiT Startup of the Year 2019 in Singapore
IDEM Hospitality has taken the top prize in this year’s WiT Singapore Startup Pitch, powered by Amadeus, after the finals were held earlier this week at Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Centre.
IDEM Hospitality beat two
other finalists – eRoam and Travenues – with its solution to he [...]
WiT Singapore 2019: Why the future of brand loyalty lies in personalisation
Today’s millennial travellers are spoilt for choice. Thanks to OTAs and other bespoke travel services, there is a multitude of different travel activities that can cater to their individual tastes that can be purchased at their fingertips. According to a report by Skift, 81% of consumers are will [...]
WiT Singapore 2019: Alipay and Fliggy collaborate to provide seamless travel experience for tourists
A year on since she last spoke on the WiT Singapore stage in October 2018, much has changed in Cherry Huang’s life – from looking after Alipay cross-border payments for South-east Asia, she’s now the Head of Global Travel at Alibaba Group for the region, in charge of the development of both A [...]
WiT Singapore 2019: Finding love in the arms of a robot
In the 1999 film Bicentennial Man, Robin Williams plays a robot, Andrew, who is gifted with the capacity of emotion and creativity. Andrew eventually falls in love with a human lady and decides to marry her. When he petitions a regulatory body to recognise their matrimony, however, he is rejected a [...]
WiT Singapore 2019: How Generation Alpha is influencing travel, from planning to in-trip activities
They are born after 2010 (nine years and under) in the same year as Instagram and the iPad, are known as the children of millennials, the largest generation that is still being born on a daily basis, and the longest living generation.
This is Generation Alpha. “If you don’t know about Alpha, [...]
WiT Singapore 2019: Accor and Expedia Group on how to save the hotel-OTA relationship
The hotel-OTA relationship has always been a tricky one. The two are co-dependent and must care for each other, but not too much. On a panel at the WiT Singapore 2019 Main Stage, Louise Daley, deputy CEO, Accor APAC and Melissa Maher, senior vice president, marketing and innovation, Expedia Group e [...]
WiT Singapore 2019: Being level-headed, judicious and open key to making wise investment decisions, say VCs
Startups today are inundated by the narrative of being showered with copious amounts of funding. Companies can hit astronomical – and some would say logic-defying – valuations, as investors place large bets on companies in the hopes of landing a golden goose. Indeed, there’s a lot of hype aro [...]
