Only One Thing Will Disrupt OTAs (and It Ain’t Blockchain)
OTA bashing is about as old as OTAs themselves. It's been bountiful fodder for media hype and conference roundtable hysterics for decades. We've heard it all before, from airlines, hotels and the myriad technology companies, startups and consultants that seek to serve them: OTAs are expensive, innov [...]
SnapShot launches Marketplace to solve hotels’ data and tech woes
One of the biggest pain points in hospitality is fragmentation of data points, and hence too many data silos. One company that is trying to solve that problem, as well as solve the industry’s access to “a properly integrated data platform which would dramatically accelerate the hotel technology [...]
Best practices in storytelling, an STB case study: Use your brain and make people happy
Last year, Myfanwy McGregor, co-founder of Adhesive PR in Sydney, had an idea for a campaign – was there a way to measure the happiness levels that Singapore can create?
And so the agency for Singapore Tourism Board worked on a programme where it brought a team of influencers and neuro scientis [...]
STB to unleash passionate marketers and storytellers to support and animate its new brand
Having launched its “Passion Made Possible” brand last year, the success of which depends on unleashing the passion of Singaporeans and residents, the Singapore Tourism Board is investing in building an industry of marketers and storytellers.
As a first step, it has opened its internal Ma [...]
The Wrap: onefinestay launches personalised concierge service
In the news: Higher Living with onefinestay; STB partners with Grab to provide seamless experience to visitors; 250 airlines on board with Travelport's merchandising tool
HOSPITALITY: onefinestay launches new personalised concierge service
For your next stay at any onefinestay’s propert [...]
UAE-based ALFAHIM leads Series D in transport on demand service Blacklane
Blacklane, a Berlin-based startup company providing high-end transport on demand service for travellers to book chauffeur cars, has raised a Series D round to fund new cities, global airport concierge services and product innovation.
Blacklane said this series is the “largest investment in its [...]
Letter from Assam, Part 4: Cruising on the Brahmaputra and sleeping in the middle of nowhere
The final leg of our Assam Tea & Wildlife Adventure takes us on a five-hour drive to the city of Guwahati where we board a river boat, our home for the next two nights. On this cruise on the Brahmaputra, I learn about time, silk and breathing in the moments.
On our way out of Kaziranga Wildli [...]
The I in IT is no longer just ‘Information’
A new year is always a good time to take stock of what went before, in particular in a fast-moving industry like IT. I started 2017 at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas seeing technologies that I thought would alter human-technology interaction if they took off, and most have evolved a [...]
Chinese consumers prefer higher-rated hotels and last minute bookings, Ctrip reveals
There is a growing demand by Chinese consumers for four- or five-star hotels accompanied by shorter reservation time, according to findings in the 2017 Ctrip Hotel White Paper (in Chinese) on the latest trends and consumer data insights for the hospitality industry in China.
The Chinese travel [...]
Johan Svanstrom on how Hotels.com intends to stay on the pitch in Asia
Before he became president of the Hotels.com brand, Johan Svanstrom was based in Hong Kong and played a key role in building up the business in Asia Pacific. With Expedia committing more resources to growth in the region, Svanstorm and his team are riding high on the wave of globalisation. I caught [...]
