Golden age for SMEs provided they seize the AI moment
“Without data, SMEs can’t scale. Without SMEs, the ecosystem loses meaning.”
By the time the SME-focused panel on “Smarter Tourism: Scaling Strategies For Success” was held on the third and final day of TOURISE in Riyadh, one message had been echoing across the corridors – it is time th [...]
Different origins, same destination: Inside Asia’s three OTA journeys to the future
AirAsia MOVE’s social pivot, Traveloka’s scrappy reinvention, and Rakuten’s ecosystem edge show that the future of travel may be powered by tech, but fuelled by people.
If the past 20 years were about putting travel online, the next 20 will be about keeping it human, while algorithms, agents, [...]
APAC airlines see 9% increase in demand amid geopolitical tensions in the region
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released data for November 2025 global passenger demand with the following highlights:
Total demand, measured in revenue passenger kilometers (RPK), was up 5.7% compared to November 2024. Total capacity, measured in available seat kilometers ( [...]
How Mi Sun Song rewired HanaTour and why the hardest work starts now
When Mi Sun Song took the helm of HanaTour, she arrived as an outsider in almost every sense that mattered.
She wasn’t a career lifer from Korea’s traditional travel agency world. She wasn’t part of the old hierarchy. And she was stepping into a company long defined by scale, group trave [...]
Fliggy’s holi-data. Mega-events surge. OYO owner’s IPO push. Robotaxi tests.
Uber, Nuro and Lucid begin robotaxi road tests ahead of 2026 launch
Uber, Nuro and Lucid confirmed that on-road testing of their robotaxi engineering prototypes began last month, with commercial service targeted for the San Francisco Bay Area in late 2026. Announced at CES 2026, the programme is le [...]
Data, not drama, should shape Airbnb’s short-term rental rules
What does it mean to be a lawyer for a platform operating across various jurisdictions, and doing it in real time? In a conversation with Darrell Chan, Airbnb's APAC General Counsel, the idea of “guerrilla lawyering” is used as a working philosophy. But what does that look like when regulations [...]
Sir Richard Branson on space tourism: “The journey is the destination”
Speaking virtually at TOURISE 2025 in Riyadh in November, Sir Richard Branson reflected on his decades-long mission to make space accessible through Virgin Galactic, and on the deeper meaning of space tourism beyond the technology and spectacle.
Branson said his entrepreneurial decisions have [...]
The experience surge: Where meaning, AI and human connection collide
In an age where travellers crave meaning as much as adventure, the experience economy is surging again, not through algorithms alone, but through the people and purpose behind them.
At WiT Singapore 2025, the session title said it all: The Experience Surge: The Quest for Personalisation, Meaning an [...]
The real threat to mobility tech isn’t competition, it’s how travel gets discovered
When Mike McGearty returned to the WiT Studio this year, the conversation quickly moved beyond “what’s new” in mobility tech to a more complicated question; has the industry actually changed all that much? From his vantage point as CEO and co-founder of Meili, the answer is nuanced. While the [...]
Relive the Unconference with The Next Generation Leaders recap
Next Generation Leaders: The Unconference, powered by Booking.com, set the tone for WiT Singapore: The Next 20 with a room full of under-35 rising leaders prepared to challenge how travel will be built, led and governed in the decades ahead. Held alongside WiT Singapore, the Unconference moved quick [...]
