Sectors
Fancy staying a night at the Eiffel Tower?
23/05/2016 by WiT
Eiffel Tower is a “must-visit” attraction for almost all visitors to Paris. Now you can spend a night there, courtesy of HomeAway. The vacation rental service is giving away the chance to four contestants to sleep over at the Eiffel Tower in a competition as part of its sponsorship of this su [...]
Dreamers may still win the day in online travel as brands go “upper funnel”
20/05/2016 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
Ten years ago, we struggled to get the word “inspiration” mentioned at online travel conferences. Everyone was more interested in clicks, conversions and transactions. I remember a debate we had at the WIT Conference over “Inspiration vs Transaction” and the dreamers among us voted with o [...]
The Wrap: What Singapore travellers want when flying
19/05/2016 by WiT
In the news: Expedia Sky Conduct Report, Carlson Rezido’s acquisition of India’s Country Inns & Suites, Sabre and AWS Cloud What Singapore travellers want when flying Comfort, sleep and staying hydrated during their journey are what Singapore flyers value, reveals findings from Ex [...]
London is world’s most connected city, HK leads in Asia
19/05/2016 by WiT
London is the most connected city in the world with direct flights to 351 global destinations, while Hong Kong takes the same ranking in Asia connecting to 147 cities. These are findings from the inaugural Global Connectivity Ranking produced by multimodal search specialist, Rome2rio, and social [...]
Virtual Reality to help shape the future of luxury travel
17/05/2016 by WiT
Virtual Reality (VR) escapism and immersive brand experiences will play a key role in influencing the future of luxury travel, predicted Fortune 500 futurist Faith Popcorn. Described as ‘The Trend Oracle’, Popcorn teamed up with InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, which celebrates 70 years [...]
The intent behind Air Black Box and how it got to power Value Alliance
16/05/2016 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
The technology powering the just-announced Value Alliance, which sees eight low cost airlines partnering on a sales and distribution platform allowing customers to book on all of them, including ancillaries in a single booking, was developed by UK-based startup, Air Black Box. ABB was set up by c [...]
Value Alliance, a breakthrough in low cost airline distribution
16/05/2016 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
When you think about it, the first pan-Asian low cost airline alliance, Value Alliance, launched today in Singapore is a pretty big deal in the annals of airline distribution. One, it’s a world first and shows Asian LCCs ahead of in their innovative thinking and two, it is primarily a technolog [...]
Meet China’s new wave of travellers – young, free, independent, affluent, sophisticated
12/05/2016 by WiT
A new breed of Chinese travellers is emerging in China, dubbed free independent travellers (FITs), who increasingly shuns escorted travel in favour of spontaneous exploration. Travel site TripAdvisor shared findings from a Phocuswright study, which provide insights into the behaviour, spendin [...]
Google’s quest to become our personal travel assistant – to be loved or feared?
12/05/2016 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
You could almost feel the air being sucked out of the room as Oliver Heckmann of Google closed off Day 1 of Phocuswright Dublin with a talk on everything the world’s largest search engine was doing in travel. I sensed everyone was grappling with the massive implications everyone of its products wo [...]
Rome2rio launches instant bookings for train journeys
12/05/2016 by WiT
Rome2rio, the Australia-based multi-modal search specialist, has made available on-site bookings for train journeys in the UK. Launched in partnership with SilverRail Technologies the new feature allows Rome2rio users to search its site for available transportations between any UK locations. They [...]