News
WiT Bootcamp 2018: Culture Trip takes flight through travel content
15/10/2018 by WiT
By Luke Clark With a calm demeanor attesting to his background in academic psychiatry, and not a tie-dyed item in sight, Dr Kris Naudts may not at first glance seem the most obvious candidate for the next empire builder in travel content. Yet fresh from a breakthrough year for its funding, Cul [...]
WiT Bootcamp 2018: Muslim travel sector holds huge potential with US$183b expected by 2020, reveals new Salam Standard report
15/10/2018 by WiT
The numbers say it all – by 2060, there will be 3 billion people globally who identify as Muslims, one in three of the world’s population (statistics from Pew Research Centre ). With the rate of this growth at 70% compared to the global average of 32%, the Muslim tourism market will play an eve [...]
Klook adds event booking feature on back of Jay Chou’s Invincible World Tour
11/10/2018 by WiT
Leading travel activities and services booking platform Klook has become the first in this space to offer event booking. Accessible via the award-winning Klook App, the service made its debut in collaboration with Taiwanese musician Jay Chou in September. Ahead of Chou’s The Invincible World To [...]
Porter & Sail and Design Hotels unveil ‘fresh way’ to book hotels in new partnership
11/10/2018 by WiT
Two curated online travel platforms, Porter & Sail and Design Hotels, are collaborating to deliver what is described as “an ultimate mobile hotel experience.” New York-based Porter & Sail, a "multichannel platform that offers a new way to book, plan and experience a hotel" has launche [...]
AirAsia to transform into a travel tech company, with help from Google
11/10/2018 by WiT
From a low cost carrier to a digital airline, and now Malaysia-based AirAsia aims to become a travel tech company, teaming up with Google Cloud, the search giant’s cloud computing platform, to accomplish that. The collaboration will see the airline integrating the platform’s machine learning [...]
The Wrap: AccorHotels concludes deal to purchase 50% stake in luxury lifestyle operator sbe
10/10/2018 by WiT
In the news: sbe’s acquisition by AccorHotels completed, CarTrawler and Dohop partnership, the aviation industry and blockchain, Eurostar’s first loyalty programme alliance with a hotel group Hospitality: AccorHotels concludes deal to purchase 50% stake in luxury lifestyle operator sbe [...]
Welcome to the blue ocean of cruising in Asia, massive market yet to be disrupted
09/10/2018 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
Last week, I took a dip into the blue ocean of cruising – and it really is a blue ocean. Firstly, according to CLIA (Cruising Lines International Association), Asians are discovering cruising in a big way – for the first time, the number of cruisers in Asia crossed the four million mark (4,052,0 [...]
Amadeus completes acquisition of US-based Travelclick
05/10/2018 by WiT
Amadeus has completed the acquisition of TravelClick, which it agreed to buy from private equity firm Thoma Bravo for US$1.52 billion in August. Thoma Bravo purchased TravelClick in 2014 from venture capital firm Genstar for US$930 million TravelClick, based in New York City, provides cloud- [...]
Unlocking travel through food: How SORTED went from how-to cooking videos to destination marketing
08/10/2018 by WiT
At the inspiration stage of travel, video content is not a new phenomenon in its ability to inspire, motivate and move audiences. With infinite content available, there is an onus on content creators to develop highly original content that avoids the clichés captured by your typical travel ad. O [...]
Want to know what your funds did for kids in the Philippines in 2017? Watch the video
05/10/2018 by WiT
Over the last 10 years, the WiT For Good initiative, held in conjunction with the WIT Singapore conference, has raised about US$500,000 for the betterment of women and children in emerging Asia. It started out as a small idea back in 2008 when we visited the Kantha Bopha Children’s Hospital in [...]