Corporate travel in disruption: Concur’s news at GBTA part of change sweeping the sector
From a partnership with Lufthansa that will enable business travelers to book direct on LH.com to one with services like Lfyt and HotelTonight, Concur's announcements made at this week's Global Business Travel Associatoon (GBTA) Convention in Orlando are all part of changes sweeping the lucrative co [...]
Our future depends on being relevant in Asia, say Expedia’s new leaders
Under new leadership and housed in plush new offices, Expedia Inc has moved to underscore its commitment to the region with industry gatherings in Bangkok and last week, in Singapore.At the Singapore event, attended by close to 100 hoteliers, the leadership team, led by interim CEO Jonty Neal and Mi [...]
Best of TW Asia Global Wrap: South Korea declares MERS is no more
Featured stories from TravelWeekly: South Korea's MERS free, focus on Chinese outbound market in Hotels.com’s travel monitor, boom time for China’s cruise line sectorSouth Korea declares MERS is no moreSouth Korea will launch a massive marketing campaign to woo tourists after an end to a deadly [...]
OTAs vs direct hotel bookings: A traveller’s perspective
The rise and rise of monolitic online travel agents (OTAs) are squeezing hotel margins – but is this necessarily bad for the industry? A report by global hotel consultancy HVS, published earlier this month, described how Priceline and Expedia have become “ever-more powerful” following strategi [...]
Amadeus NEXT aims to power start-ups
As part of its drive to nurture and partner with travel start-ups in APAC, Amadeus, through its Amadeus NEXT programme, held a Bangkok Startup Weekend from July 24-26. The NEXT programme aims to leverage on the company’s technology, expertise, reach and funding to evolve new and original ideas in [...]
Chinese car rental companies need to explore supplementary distribution avenues
Travel suppliers are increasingly becoming adept at meeting the overall trip requirements of their customers. Brands are diligently trying to ensure that the traffic that reaches their direct channels identifies with the travel products that are relevant to customers’ journey, and hence ends up bu [...]
Russians generous with hotel reviews, UAE travellers most demanding
The scores are in – that is for hotel reviews. Russian travellers have emerged as the most generous in rating hotels and tend to give the highest scores, while travellers from the UAE are the most demanding.These were the results of the recent Travel Smarts survey by leading accommodation site, Ag [...]
Ctrip to bank on product and customer service to succeed in South-east Asia
Ctrip, China’s largest OTA, opened its doors in Singapore with the official launch of its brand in Singapore this week. The move signals the company’s regional ambitions with localised websites that went live earlier this year in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.Explaining the company [...]
The Wrap: Booking.com offers global accommodation options to Air China’s guests with new partnership
In the news: Booking.com’s partnership with Air China, new chief commercial officer for Malaysia Airlines, marketing deal between Canton Fair and Travelport, Wego insight into Lebaran 2015.Booking.com offers global accommodation options to Air China’s guests with new partnership Booking.com has [...]
WIT Warrior Spotlight: Kei Shibata wants to use content and price to change the way travellers make decisions
At the WIT Conference last year in Singapore, we recognised 11 individuals whom we felt have had the most influence on the development of online travel in Asia Pacific. This is the seventh article in a series of interviews profiling the WIT Warriors.Kei Shibata is a pioneer of travel meta-search in [...]
