Colombia’s Avianca integrates with Skyscanner through NDC
Bogotá-based Avianca has joined Skyscanner’s Direct Booking platform, enabling the Colombian airline to showcase its brand and upsell products to increase ancillary sales and mobile conversion.
The integration, powered by Amadeus Altéa NDC, makes Colombia’s flag carrier one of the first air [...]
Now you can find KLM flights with voice commands
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KLM) is making easy for its customers to search for the right flights in a jiffy through its newly launched voice-driven service on Google Assistant.
KLM’s smart assistant, BB (short for Blue Bot), can search for flights in both English and Dutch. This makes the airlin [...]
Letter from East Coast road trip, Malaysia: Places have not changed, the way we travel has
Driving along the highway that cuts into Kuantan, Pahang, on the Malaysian east coast, my mind casts back to the first ever travel conference I covered as a rookie in the world of travel trade journalism.
The speaker was Mahathir Mohamad, then-Prime Minister who, in this year’s general election [...]
Chinese travellers are seeking new destinations, adventure and authentic local experiences
The outbound China market is not only growing, but also maturing as Chinese travellers are increasingly going beyond the traditional norm of vacationing. They are travelling further to new far flung locations, going for local offerings and getting more adventurous instead of spending their time shop [...]
Meet MARVIE – Scoot’s new virtual intern and transactional chatbot
The low cost arm of Singapore Airlies, Scoot, on July 23 launched a transactional chatbot named MARVIE (Most Awesome and Resourceful Virtual Intern Ever) on its Singapore Facebook page via Facebook Messenger.
The 'recruitment' of MARVIE, described as “the first chatbot by an airline in Asia to [...]
Know your farmer – Sampran Riverside’s Arrut leads organic tourism movement in Thailand
In today’s age, where we have our personal trainers, doctors and lawyers, why shouldn’t we have our personal farmer? That was the food for thought offered by Arrut Navaraj, managing director of Sampran Riverside, at the Travelport Live conference in Bangkok earlier this month when he spoke of ho [...]
Tujia improves homestay management for overseas hosts in collaboration with SiteMinder
China-based homestay booking provider, Tujia, has joined forces with global hotel industry’s cloud platform, SiteMinder, to give its overseas accommodation providers a convenient all-in-one lodging management platform.
The two parties will work to streamline Tujia’s back-end stock management [...]
Next-gen disruption in aviation will be constructive, blend of legacy and innovation
Growing up, there was a certain glamour to air travel. It didn’t quite match the glamour of the 1960s and 70s, but I can distinctly remember being too excited to sleep as a child, the day before any long-haul flight.
Fast forward to now, the idea of spending 13 straight hours in a hard-backed c [...]
After Zanadu, Wu plunges into blockchain and crypto to build Next Gen travel platform. Here’s how he will do it
Having built up Zanadu into China’s premier lifestyle travel platform after a tough but rewarding five years, Zan Wu, together with his co-founder, Dirk Eschenbacher, now wants to create a new startup, Atlas, into “the next generation TripAdvisor and Booking.com combined” using blockchain and [...]
The Wrap: STB, Alipay broaden partnership to draw more Chinese travellers to the city-state
In the news: New initiatives from Singapore Tourism Board and Alipay to boost visitor arrivals; Etihad Airways using messaging app to connect with guests
Destinations: STB, Alipay broaden partnership to draw more Chinese travellers to the city-state
Another partnership is yet strengthened [...]
