Tale of 3 startups: Education through experience, digitising African tour operators and solving payments for small businesses
Africa receives 90 million tourist arrivals a year. Spain alone receives more. A continent of breathtaking biodiversity, ancient culture, and unmatched wilderness experiences is, by most global travel metrics, still flying under the radar.
Three entrepreneurs who have staked their careers on chan [...]
Fly first, earn later: How HeyMax wants to turn loyalty upside down
Joe Lu has a simple problem with loyalty programmes. You earn for months, sometimes years, working towards a reward that may be devalued, unavailable, or simply not worth the wait by the time you get there. The goalpost, as he puts it, can move at any time.
So he decided to move it first.
HeyM [...]
OTAs: The Next Frontier — trust, plumbing and the local advantage
Three OTA veterans take on the existential question: in a world reshaped by AI, geopolitical disruption, and the complexity of African markets, what does it mean to be a travel platform – and does the name even matter anymore?
The panel, “OTAs: The Next Frontier”, opened with a show of hands. [...]
Rome2Rio’s ChatGPT app. Travelgate buys AO UK. Japanese hotels vs localization. Spring Airlines joins DerbySoft.
Travelgate acquires UK content management firm AO UK
Travelgate, part of Travelsoft Group, has acquired AO UK Ltd, a content orchestration software company founded in 2006 and headquartered in the UK with operations in Australia and North America. AO UK's core product, AO Campaign, combines Product [...]
Klook now offers sports and live events, including World Cup, Wimbledon and Formula 1
Klook has announced the expansion of its offerings to include sports and live events, bringing together four of the world's most iconic sporting properties: World Cup 2026, Roland-Garros 2026, Wimbledon 2026 and Formula 1. The launch adds Sports and Live Events to Klook's wealth of experiences, conn [...]
Aviation’s record technology investment hinges on one thing: data coordination
SITA research finds a consistent pattern across AI, cybersecurity, digital identities and sustainability: sharing and coordinating operational data across systems and partners is a key focus for the industry
SITA’s 2025 Air Transport IT Insights report finds that, while the air transport indust [...]
Wego’s Craig Hewett: Homecoming, building through crisis and carrying Cape Town
At WiT Africa, the Wego co-founder returned home and in doing so, revealed a story not just about building a global travel company, but about resilience shaped by place, crisis and the long arc of time.
Craig Hewett rarely steps on stage to speak. In fact, after more than 20 years of building Weg [...]
Minor Hotels partners with Google, Salesforce and Deloitte to build AI-driven guest data platform
Global partnership with Google Cloud, Salesforce, OneTrust and Deloitte will unify guest data and enable AI-driven personalisation, leapfrogging legacy systems
Minor Hotels has unveiled plans to build a new global data and AI platform from the ground up in partnership with Google Cloud, Salesforce, [...]
Trust, leapfrogs and the big bets on Africa’s travel
Africa will leapfrog. Again.
That was the consensus running through a panel at WiT Africa featuring Mike McGearty, CEO and co-founder of Meili, Tania Platt, global head of B2B travel at Visa, and Adebayo Adedeji, group CEO of WakaNow.
To a packed room of close to 200 delegates at Innovation City [...]
Smartvel’s AI accessibility tool. Almosafer’s ChatGPT app. Staynex acquires Sleap.io. Airbnb’s $10M community fund. More.
Fliggy and Alibaba's Qwen app expand AI travel integration to 80+ brand partners
Alibaba's travel platform Fliggy and its Qwen AI app have grown their joint travel integration initiative to over 80 brand partners after adding 30+ new names, including Cathay Pacific, Etihad Airways, Hyatt Hotels, an [...]
