The Wrap: No passenger left behind – a pledge from IATA
In the news: Special "rescue fares "initiated by IATA, high demand for Bali hotels despite room glut on the island, workation for most Southeast Asian travellers No passenger left behind – a pledge from IATAThe International Air Transport Association (IATA) has unveiled a new arrangement to help p [...]
Stand aside USA, Germany is now “best nation” in brand index
Germany has knocked USA off the top spot to second place for "best nation", and now takes the lead in the Anholt-GfK Nation Brands Index (NBI).According to the annual study, Germany achieved the largest overall NBI increase partly due to its score gain on “sport excellence”, which is the lar [...]
Letter from Antwerp: Dear hotels, it should be about me, not you
Having completed a round-the-world trip in under 14 days – Singapore to LA, New York and ending in Antwerp, Brussels – I feel I have enough material to write a trilogy but I will confine myself to one column about something that really stood out for me during my travels – the difference be [...]
The Millennial Traveller: The Lonely Road
I always check in online before heading to the airport. I beat the queues, head straight to the bag drop and before I know it, I’m at security, waving the security guard away as he keenly asks whether I am carrying liquids, a laptop or any obviously lethal weapons like, God forbid, a pair of tweez [...]
AirAsia X defers new plane deliveries, cuts cost and re-strategises to improve financial standing
In the past few days the media, both in Malaysia and abroad, was full of reports that AirAsia X, the longhaul budget arm of AirAsia, is facing financial constraints and having problems paying salaries and allowances, in addition to an imminent management shakeup.In response AirAsia group chief execu [...]
The Wrap: AirAsia Asean Pass to boost intra-regional travel
In the news: AirAsia introduces the Asean Pass, Westminster Travel deploys Abacus TravelPlus, Cebu Pacific Air offers a Fun Data SIM to its guests.AirAsia Asean Pass to boost intra-regional travelLow cost carrier AirAsia will live up to its name of being a “true Asean airline” with the commerc [...]
Safety, health pandemics, unfair taxation among key challenges faced by APAC airlines
Asia Pacific (APAC) airlines, despite achieving significant growth over the past year in the face of intense competition and regulatory policies, are still facing many challenges chief of which safety and health pandemics that often undermine industry development.These were highlighted at the just c [...]
Ctrip vs Qunar: Difference is not only in business model but also in leadership style
It was interesting to see the contrasting styles of China’s top two online travel leaders on display at the Phocuswright conference in Los Angeles – Ctrip’s James Liang’s soft spoken, assertive, almost professorial-like tone vs Qunar’s CC Zhuang’s confident, aggressive and “we will sol [...]
OTAs – The Coming Wave: Lessons from abroad and local nuances
Lorraine Sileo, senior vice president, research of Phocuswright, kicked off the “OTAs – The Coming Wave” session at the WIT Conference by painting the big picture of how OTAs were evolving. Here’s a recap of what she shared on stage. Q: Your study shows one quarter of travel is now booked on [...]
Two men, one wish: Time for their lives
As I listened to Groupon founder Andrew Mason talk at the Phocuswright conference in Los Angeles last week about the epiphany he had while on his break in South-east Asia – about how technology was making us, including him, shitty people and he wanted to do something different with his life [...]
