Pricing and distribution havoc hits in-destination with rise of OTAs: Klook’s Fan predicts shift to dynamic pricing
Tours, as a category in travel, have been around since the beginning of well, travel. Laurent Kuenzle, CEO of destination management company Asian Trails, subtly reminded delegates attending Arival last week in Bangkok, “We’ve been doing tours since the beginning, tours are our DNA, experiences [...]
Agoda sees Yanolja stake as opportunity to break “wall between booking and on-property experience”
Booking Holdings’ investment into South Korean accommodation startup, Yanolja, its first foray into that market, was motivated by two key factors – the market opportunity as well as Yanolja’s unique model “which includes tens of thousands of hotels installed on its PMS”, said Agoda’s vi [...]
Guest Blog: Does your website really sell as much as you would like?
If the average hotel website conversion rate is 2.2%, there’s a consequent gap between the top 20% of hotels that perform a 5.6% conversion rate and the bottom 20% that painfully reach a conversion rate of 0.3 %1. These figures raise two questions for your hotel’s website: where does it stand a [...]
American Express GBT acquires German business travel management company
Another day, another acquisition. This time it is the turn of American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT), the world’s leading business partner for managed travel, which announced Tuesday (June 25) it would acquire German business travel agency DER Business Travel (DER) for an undisclosed [...]
Gillian Tans appointed Chairwoman of Booking.com
Booking Holdings announced that Gillian Tans has been appointed to the role of Chairwoman of Booking.com and Glenn Fogel, CEO of Booking Holdings, will take on an expanded role that includes CEO of Booking.com, effective immediately.
"Gillian has led Booking.com through a period [...]
Want a quick exit? Try Shanghai and Perth
A new report on the quickest “seat-to-seat” times by Blacklane shows Shanghai and Perth having Asia Pacific’s fastest international and domestic terminals for arrival flyers to exit: 22 minutes and 12 minutes respectively. The slowest? Kansai International for international (80.5 minutes) and [...]
The Wrap: Finnair flies into the tours and activities sector with new digital travel service
News Roundup: Finnair's newly-launched Here/now aims to attract international tourists to Finland and the Nordic, ATPCO signs new expansion deal with Google Flights, Ypsilon join forces with Amadeus to streamline payments to low cost carriers.
Travel: Finnair flies into the tours and activities [...]
Boosted by General Atlantic deal, Kiwi.com wants to take virtual interlining to new highs
If Oliver Dlouhý, founder and chief executive officer of Kiwi.com, has his way, one day he will be able to fly on an unmanned civilian flight from Brno, the small town where he lives in Czech Republic, to any major European airport and connect to anywhere in the world.
Indeed, that was the reas [...]
How one Japanese genius detective boy whipped up a frenzy in Singapore
Yeoh Siew Hoon caught “Detective Conan: The Fist of Blue Sapphire” in action at the Singapore premiere and goes behind the scenes to find out why this first-to-be-set-outside-Japan-in-24-years manga and anime movie matters so much to Singapore tourism and the future of Japanese outbound.
It [...]
BeMyGuest raises new funds for expansion in Asia
Singapore-based provider of travel activities and tours in Asia, BeMyGuest, has secured a new round of funding in Series B "largely from internal stakeholders" to drive continued development in its Asian home market.
The technology and distribution specialist did not disclose the amount of the n [...]
