Bye TikTok, Hello AI. Easier payments. Qatar’s try-before-fly.
AI, it’s the only way to plan travel.
A survey of US travellers has found more than one third — 36% —said they are likely to use AI to research or plan travel within the next 12 months.
The survey was conducted by travel publisher Matador Network, which recently launched the personal AI tr [...]
Velocity Ventures launches “heartware” initiative targeting various sectors in travel
Corporate Partners Program aims to support the ecosystem by helping startups access industry and innovation professionals.
Velocity Ventures, a prominent investor in travel and hospitality tech in Southeast Asia, is spearheading an initiative to address the challenges faced by the various s [...]
Mapping cherry blossoms in Japan. Airbus helps elephants. Hopper’s risky business, more
Flickr’s role in cherry blossom research
Research by Monash University experts has tracked Japanese hanami (flower viewing) via social media images, producing a remarkable map of cherry blossoms across Japan to document their annual bloom and calculate its peak in major cities.
The study gathe [...]
Listen: The golden age of travel disruption is here, says Wego chief
Last year at WiT Singapore, Ross Veitch, Chief Executive & Co-founder, Wego made a number of bold predictions about the future of travel, technology, and the Artificial Intelligence revolution. Trust us, you'll be surprised at how many he got right. He dishes out a few hot takes on the ways jobs [...]
Reviewing hotel reviews. Australia banks on Hopper. Digital nomads in Europe, more
Commbank opens a travel account with Hopper
Australia’s CommBank is the latest organisation to hop onboard Hopper to help make it easier for the bank’s customers to book flights, accommodation and car rental – both domestic and international.
Hopper ‘s range of travel features will be pa [...]
Atly Secures $18 Million in Funding for Location-Based Discovery and Mapping
The platform combines social media-like knowledge sharing with mapping and location discovery tools to create a more precise search experience.
Atly, a user-generated social mapping platform, has announced its official launch along with $18 million in funding from Target Global, Tal Ventures, and F [...]
GetYourGuide nabs $194M for global expansion, more AI development
TOURS and activities online booking platform GetYourGuide has closed $194 million in equity and credit financing and plans to use the funding to expand in key markets and to accelerate product innovation – including extensive work with generative artificial intelligence.
The financing comes in [...]
Calling Travel Changemakers who built back better with tech
WiT collaborates with ATTIA to launch new awards
WiT (Web in Travel), Asia Pacific’s leading travel tech news and events platform, will launch an awards series, the Travel Changemakers Awards, at its signature conference in Singapore this year. The Awards aim to recognise travel innovators that h [...]
Let’sfly sets up HQ in Singapore to “go deep” into low cost airline content
Dusting off the aftermath of the pandemic, Let’sfly, the Chinese flight platform which prides itself on providing good quality low cost airline content via direct API, is building up its global team to expand beyond China.
The flight platform, which started in 2014 focused on providing low [...]
Meet the 15 semi-finalists of the Global Startup Pitch
After an almost five-hour marathon of startup pitches that went around the world, 15 companies have been chosen to proceed to the Semi-Finals of the Global Startup Pitch, run by WiT and Phocuswright.
They are:
Asia Pacific
Igoroom
Roady Travel
Tour Amigo
Middle East & Afric [...]
