Technology
Top of the WiT 16: Dance of the Golden Lion, believing in sustainability, and million-dollar data hubs
03/02/2023 by WiT
Top Of The WiT is a grab of the trendiest news that happened this week in travel, tech and Asia - all condensed into a quick-and-easy nugget-sized podcast. On this week's episode, we talk about a recent interview with Greenview's Eric Ricaurte and how holding on to a belief in the future of susta [...]
Travel-tech should follow the money, aviation recovery, and travellers making up for lost time
03/02/2023 by Ian Jarrett
Is travel tech the next stop for out-of-work bankers? Some of the best-educated, hardest working, multi-skilled talent is being shifted out of the under-pressure global banking sector. But where to next for these workers from Goldman Sacks and Morgan Stanley whose transferable skills range from fin [...]
Travel-tech group Bookaway invests millions in building centralised transportation hub – here’s why
31/01/2023 by Arvindh Yuvaraj
Bookaway Group says the industry is fragmented and aims to aggregate data for over 100 markets globally “The centralized hub will be a standardized database for the entirety of Bookaway Group’s network and subsidiaries”, said Omer Chehmer (COO and co-founder, Bookaway Group) when asked by WiT [...]
Tech In Travel: SITA steps out with travel identity company; revenge is still sweet for some; the chatbot that will change travel; and a tech tip for hoteliers
27/01/2023 by Ian Jarrett
SITA lays another steppingstone on the digital travel path The way data management is handled within the aviation industry is at the heart of a partnership between SITA and travel identity company Zamna Technologies. Zamna’s solution uses a decentralised blockchain based model to transform h [...]
Rise of a region: Digital transformation to supercharge Southeast Asia’s travel recovery in 2023 and beyond
26/01/2023 by Arvindh Yuvaraj
Digital transformation will continue to accelerate rapidly across Southeast Asia, with online bookings more than doubling between 2022 and 2025 It’s no secret that the pandemic hit different regions and their travel sectors in different ways, and there’s no common rulebook on how to recover fro [...]
Top of the WiT 15: Singapore doubling on tourism, Bookaway Group prepares for surge, coliving Spaces – slow burn or fast fad?
20/01/2023 by WiT
Top Of The WiT is a grab of the trendiest news that happened this week in travel, tech and Asia - all condensed into a quick-and-easy nugget-sized podcast. On this week's episode, we talk about Singapore's tourism projections for the next twelve months and how it forecasts a doubling of tourism [...]
The “shopping cart” no longer evades travel as Agoda becomes one of the first to launch feature
19/01/2023 by Arvindh Yuvaraj
IT’S interesting to note that, despite leading e-commerce transactions globally, travel and hospitality booking platforms have largely existed without this standard mechanism of online sales - the shopping cart.  This week, Agoda became one of the first online travel agencies to offer this fun [...]
What do metaverse, ChatGPT mean for a destination like Singapore?
19/01/2023 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
Blended answers, by man and machine Keith Tan, chief executive officer of the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), opened his agency’s media briefing this week by jesting, “I’d like to confirm that ChatGPT didn’t write the press release.” (See related article) Curious, I decided to start a [...]
Tech In Travel: A new way of selling cruises; VR gains new friends; the sector that ‘knows too much’ but not enough; cruise ships get TikTok
19/01/2023 by Ian Jarrett
Cruisebound, a new online travel agency for cruise travel, has launched with US$10 million in Series A funding, led by former Booking Holdings chairman and Priceline CEO Jeff Boyd and PAR Capital Ventures. Other participants are TripAdvisor founder and former CEO Steve Kaufer, Concur founder and [...]
Bus, ferry, or train? Bookaway prepares for a surge as travellers return and China reopens
18/01/2023 by Arvindh Yuvaraj
“We’re focusing on getting the business back post-Covid and scaling really, really fast with our existing operators.” When we last spoke about Bookaway, it was Noam Toister, CEO and co-founder of Bookaway Group, who said that business in Asia was more affected than elsewhere because it was re [...]