Hoteliers should be panicking about Airbnb, says Ian Schrager
Hoteliers should stop being in denial about the impact of home sharing on their business, believes Ian Schrager, the hotelier extraordinaire hailed for his ground-breaking concepts.
“They should be panicking,” he said, during an interview at the Expedia Partner Conference in Las Vegas ear [...]
The Wrap: AirAsia BIG Loyalty launches online store
In the news: An online store for AirAsia’s loyalty programme members, Singapore Airlines has a new chatbot, Travel Startups Incubator adds Streetography to its portfolio and Jetstar Group inks new agreement with Travelport
E-COMMERCE: AirAsia BIG Loyalty launches online store
If you ar [...]
How to play the infinite game, curing loneliness with travel and living forever
Long game or infinite game, whatever the term you choose to use, I am sure there was purpose behind the choice of Simon Sinek as keynote speaker at the Expedia Partner Conference held in Las Vegas last week.
Sinek, who’s working on a new book called “The Infinite Game”, drew an analog [...]
Expedia continues global push, invests in new tech to power hoteliers and travellers
The Expedia Partner Conference held in Las Vegas last week opened on a defiant and upbeat note. Mark Okerstrom, walking on stage after the opening rhythm and drum beats of Le Reve, The Dream, said that despite the crazy year of terrorism and natural disasters, the world travelled more in 2017 with $ [...]
It may be raining money for tours & activities but for GetYourGuide’s Tao Tao, the sector’s only just beginning to get on fire
Armed with its latest fund raise of US$75 million, GetYourGuide is expanding its global presence with the launch of four new domains and has added Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Russian and Mexican Spanish as supported languages for its global inventory of tours, attractions and in-destination activ [...]
The Wrap: Hungary is the new destination hotspot for Chinese travellers
In the news: Partnerships between travel companies to provide better travel rule the news front this week – Ctrip joining forces with the Hungarian Travel Agency, Fiji Air going mobile with Travelport’s assistance and Klook tying up with Korea’s LOTTE Duty Free Shop, and some fun from Air Ne [...]
As cruises grow in Asia, will tech and customer behaviour converge to rock the boat?
There are many things cruise companies say that they hold to be true. One of these is, if you’ve been on a cruise, you will become a fan for life.
I don’t necessarily believe that to be true – I went on my first sea cruise when cruising was just taking off in Singapore in the 80s with the l [...]
Letter from Las Vegas: The cowboys are coming, travel goes on, no matter what
As the plane approached Las Vegas, I wondered if I would find things changed. After all, it’s only been two months since that horrific shooting when 58 fans attending an outdoor country and western concert at Mandalay Bay were gunned down.
The year before, I had gone reluctantly to a shooti [...]
Travelstart ‘supercharges’ its accommodation offering with purchase of SafariNow
South Africa-based online travel booking website, Travelstart, has bought a majority stake in Cape Town-based SafariNow.
Described as "South Africa's largest accommodation booking website", SafariNow represents accommodation over both the informal (self-catering and vacation rentals) and formal [...]
Baidu Capital, armed with $3b, still looking for the right travel bet
Travel, like every industry, is dominated by giants but Jenny Wu says there are “good seeds” of innovation happening and it’s just a matter of time before Baidu Capital picks the next big travel bet. For now, it’s banking on an autonomous future as well as logistics and e-commerce.
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