Indonesia’s online promise is huge but the earth remains shaky
On the plane returning from Jakarta yesterday, I was reading an article by Banyan Tree executive chairman Ho Kwon Ping. He was warning Asia’s business leaders about “hubris in Asian triumphalism”.He said, “My biggest fear is that in the rush towards the exuberant expectation that Asia’s t [...]
TripAdvisor’s top hotels for families
TripAdvisor’s 2012 Travellers’ Choice award-winning Hotels for Families features 504 properties in 25 markets around the world including Asia, Australia, South Pacific, Africa, Caribbean, Europe and United States.In Asia, Club Med Sahoro – Karikachi Kogen in Shintoku-cho, Japan (pictured be [...]
TravelShark unveils 30 unique travel discoveries
The first 30 winners in TravelShark's first quarterly TravelShark Awards are a collection of rare discoveries and unique finds divided into three categories - People, Places and Things.The awards programme is designed to recognize the freshest, most inspiring travel experiences across the g [...]
AirAsia X’s giving away a plane!
Malaysia Airlines started the “reward your fans with free flights” with its recent social media campaign, "The Big Flight" competition on its official YouTube brand channel to offer a free joyride for the winner and three friends on the airline's Airbus A380 aircraft in June (read story).Now [...]
The best ideas are collaborative; we learnt this in a classroom
It’s been a while since I sat in a classroom for more than an hour but last Saturday, I found myself sitting for four hours at an SMU (Singapore Management University) World Travel & Tourism Class – and guess what, the time just flew.I was there with Sue Heilbronner, CEO of TravelShark, wh [...]
Buyers’ registration for ITB Asia 2012 opens
Messe Berlin (Singapore), organiser of ITB Asia, has openedregistration for this year’s buyer programme, which is enhanced with the addition of the "Group" and “Individual” categories.New buyers can register for partial hosting status under the “Individual” category, and enjoy 50% off [...]
Here’s how we do it at Scoot, says ‘Chief Cash Cow’
Proving that customers are motived by low fares, Scoot, Singapore’s new low cost airline, sold 30,000 seats in less than a week after it announced S$88 fares for its launch flights to Sydney.“We are an online retailer that just happens to sell flights,” said Scoot’s head of commercial, Ste [...]
Expedia acts to make hotel reviews “accessible and relevant”
With the battle being fought over hotel reviews and which sites are to be trusted more, Expedia has announced “a thorough overhaul” of its hotel reviews feature to make its “verified hotel reviews more accessible and relevant to prospective travelers”.As a start, it will incorporate all t [...]
WIT Japan brings together Japanese and global brands
The WIT Japan Executive Forum, set for May 25 in Tokyo, is shaping up into what could be the first and highest level exchange of ideas and knowledge about the online travel space between Japan and the region. More than 60 travel industry leaders from across the region and within Japan, representi [...]
Pinterest – or should it be called Finterest?
There was a certain irony to the fact that while the panelists on the webinar were discussing the rise of Pinterest and the descent ofTwitter, we, the audience, were busy posting our comments on Twitter.But such are the contradictions of social media and, perhaps, the logic of women?The webinar I [...]
