News
Airlines flying high with rising ancillary revenue
18/07/2018 by WiT
“’Resolute’ is a word that perfectly describes the determined and unwavering force known as the ancillary revenue movement,” is the introduction of the 2017 Top 10 Airline Ancillary Revenue Rankings, a new report by IdeaWorksCompany, sponsored by CarTrawler. According to IdeaWorks, this i [...]
Through The Looking Glass: What drives Industry 4.0 companies and how you can be Business 4.0
16/07/2018 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
If you are a Business 3.0 company, it’s time to take it up a notch because Industry 4.0 is here where tech adoption is happening at an accelerated scale, challenging traditional business models and giving rise to new ones.  And if you look “Through The Looking Glass”, you can take lessons fro [...]
Taiwanese tours & activities platform KKday enters China under Alibaba partnership
13/07/2018 by WiT
Taiwanese tours and activities platform, KKday, is going from strength to strength as it recently announced a new investment from the Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund. The investment details have not been disclosed. With this, the three-year old startup is collaborating with Alibaba to launch a flagshi [...]
Meta & Messaging: A Marriage Made In Heaven? LINE invests in Venture Republic to ease entry into travel
12/07/2018 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
In yet another sign of the consolidation and disruption taking place in the digital travel space, LINE Corporation, which runs Japan’s dominant messaging app, has taken a 34% equity in Venture Republic (VR), which operates “Travel.jp” Japan’s leading travel metasearch. The dollar value of [...]
The Wrap: Raffles, Fairmont and Swissôtel loyalty platforms integrate with Le Club AccorHotels programme
11/07/2018 by WiT
In the news: Of loyalty programmes, partnership and NDC - this week’s focus featuring AccorHotels, Malaysia Airlines, Livin and Travello, and Sabre. Hotels: Raffles, Fairmont and Swissôtel loyalty platforms integrate with Le Club AccorHotels programme AccorHotels Group’s loyalty pro [...]
Through the Looking Glass: Dig deeper into your customer base before hunting in new pools
11/07/2018 by WiT
In this second of the series of articles around our WIT Singapore 2018 Conference theme of “Through The Looking Glass”, where we look outside travel in search of different stories and lessons, we turn to Japan’s third largest convenience store chain, Lawson, on how it is evolving its tradition [...]
Hello monopolies, goodbye independents – it’s getting hard to stand alone in a world of giants
11/07/2018 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
I was at a blockchain event last night when a Beijing-based investor let loose a rant on how this Internet world of centralisation was creating monopolies especially in travel where OTAs were completely dominating the market and there was now no room for new startups in travel that could scale well [...]
John Brown on succession, startup culture and how AI is part of everything Agoda does
10/07/2018 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
Some might argue that John Brown, the new CEO of Agoda, has a harder job today than Rob Rosenstein, the man whom he recently succeeded and who founded the Thailand-based hotel portal with Michael Kenny in 1998. After all, back then, it was the early heady days of the Internet, there wasn’t [...]
Booking Holdings to buy HotelsCombined, which will become part of KAYAK
10/07/2018 by WiT
Booking Holdings announced on July 9 it has entered into an agreement to purchase accommodation metasearch site, HotelsCombined. The acquisition has been approved by HotelsCombined's board of directors and stockholders and is expected to close later this year, subject to regulatory approval. Term [...]
Surprise and delight or frighten: Hoteliers search for the line between connecting with and creeping out their customers
05/07/2018 by WiT
So what are hoteliers overwhelmed by when it comes to leveraging consumer data and what are their priorities in an increasingly digitalised world? Some answers emerged during the Facebook APAC Hotels Summit held in Singapore in June during a panel discussion of three hoteliers – Emilie Couton ( [...]