News
Robert Bailey joins Travelport as chief strategy officer
22/02/2018 by WiT
Travelport has appointed Robert Bailey, former president and CEO of Abacus, to the newly-created role of chief strategy officer based in Langley, the UK. Reporting to Travelport’s president and CEO Gordon Wilson, Bailey will take up his new posting on March 1. His responsibilities will i [...]
Asian tours and activities platform KKday closes US$10.5M in series B funding
22/02/2018 by WiT
Asia’s tours and activities platform, KKday has raised an impressive US$10.5 million in Series B funding, led by Japanese travel agent H.I.S., and current investor MindWorks Ventures (a Hong Kong-based venture capital firm) in participation. KKday previously raised US$4.5 million in series A fundi [...]
European airlines scored big in a la carte revenue last year, flying off with US$19bil
21/02/2018 by WiT
Estimated airline a la carte revenue worldwide in 2017 stood at US$57 billion, with European airlines leading at US$19.4 billion followed by Asian carriers at US$15.8 billion. The estimates from the CarTrawler Global Statistics of a la Carte Revenue released by consultancy on airline ancillary re [...]
The Wrap: Travelport reveals plans to include NDC content on its distribution platform
22/02/2018 by WiT
In the news: This week’s focus is on IATA New Distribution Capability (NDC) as three rival global distribution companies – Travelport, Amadeus and Sabre – step up their game to deploy NDC-enabled products and adopt NDC standard in their airline retailing and product distribution strategy. M [...]
Building talent and brand identity main challenges facing hospitality, says Oakwood Premier OUE Singapore’s Roy Liang
19/02/2018 by WiT
From a distance, the Oakwood Premier OUE Singapore looks and runs like any longstanding branded accommodation property in the city; smoothly and seemingly effortlessly, like a duck floating on the water. As many in the industry know, this reality is often far from the case as each property faces [...]
Singapore sees record tourism growth for two years running, according to STB
15/02/2018 by WiT
Singapore saw growth in visitor arrivals by 6.2% (to 17.4million) across all of its top ten markets as well as higher-spending markets like China, South Korea, the USA and the UK. Tourism receipts rose by 3.9% to S$26.8 billion. It marks the second consecutive year of record tourism levels in Singap [...]
Letter from Penang: As Year of the Dog dawns, so will new travellers and citizens with different aspirations and expectations
15/02/2018 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
Tomorrow, February 15, will be the peak of travel as millions of Chinese and their diaspora make the journey to wherever home is to gather for their Lunar New Year reunion dinners. You can already feel it in Penang, when the population of the island more than triples with the return of Penangites [...]
TrustYou puts review data into one platform, invests in new tech to boost hotels’ ROI
14/02/2018 by WiT
Following its acquisition in June last year by Recruit Holdings Co Ltd, TrustYou has stepped up its expansion in Asia Pacific with the appointment of Alex Tan as managing director, who will oversee development in key Asia markets (excluding Japan and Korea), as well as New Zealand and Australia. [...]
Parikh gets scrappy at Hotwire and says, “never say never” to Asia
14/02/2018 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
In August 2017, Neha Parikh left Hotels.com where she’d been since April 2008 to become president of Hotwire and it's clear she's bringing her own style and personality to the brand which calls itself “a leading discount travel site that offers ridiculously low prices”. Last November, she anno [...]
The Wrap: Here’s where Chinese travellers are going to welcome the Year of the Dog
13/02/2018 by WiT
In the news: With the Year of the Dog just around the corner we take a look at where the Chinese people are spending the week-long Spring Festival holidays, and how another Singapore company is wooing Chinese visitors to the city-state. DESTINATIONS: Here’s where Chinese travellers are going to [...]