WiT Thoughts
A thought for the Rooster year – can fortune tellers be replaced by AI?
19/01/2017 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
The bad jokes have started. The first press release arrived last week with a headline that used words like “crowing” and “strutting” and phrases like “feather in our cap”. Yes, right after we’ve just said goodbye to the new year, it’s time to greet the Fire Rooster as he comes fly [...]
Reflections on 2016 and Predictions for 2017 (Part III)
13/01/2017 by WiT
It’s that time of the year when we ask industry leaders for their thoughts on what happened in 2016 and what they forsee will happen in the new year. Here’s Part 3.    Guillaume De Marcillac, Co-CEO, FASTBOOKING 3 Top Things That Happened and That Mattered in 2016 1. Is bigger [...]
Letter from a Homeliday: I wished I had stayed in La La Land
12/01/2017 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
Warren Buffett once famously said, when everyone is doing one thing, do the other. It’s something I try and keep in mind whenever I feel a herd instinct come over me. It’s something I do particularly over the holiday season – while everyone’s travelling, I have a “homeliday”. A holida [...]
The Millennial Traveller: Unplugged then plugged back in again
09/01/2017 by WiT
In major cities across the world much like Jakarta and Singapore, many of us peer at our smartphones, skimming the news on their way to the office, or scroll through the muted group chat on Whatsapp that we have neglected to open for far too long. Meanwhile at the peak of a small mountain on an i [...]
Reflections on 2016 and Predictions for 2017 (Part II)
04/01/2017 by WiT
It’s that time of the year when we ask industry leaders for their thoughts on what happened in 2016 and what they forsee will happen in the new year. Here’s Part 2.   Kei Shibata, CEO, Venture Republic 3 Top Things That Happened and That Mattered in 2016 1. Ctrip acquired Skysca [...]
Mobile is generation-busting, it’s not all about Millennials, be Mindful of that
30/12/2016 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
I know there are many of us who can’t wait to see the end of 2016. It’s been a horrible year and even one day before New Year’s Eve, there are people saying, “Hey wait, it hasn’t ended, let’s get through 2016 first.” It’s like we’re constantly bracing ourselves for more bad news [...]
Reflections on 2016 and Predictions for 2017 (Part I)
23/12/2016 by WiT
It’s that time of the year when we ask industry leaders for their thoughts on what happened in 2016 and what they forsee will happen in the new year. Here’s Part 1.   Steve Hafner, CEO & Co-founder, KAYAK Top 3 Things That Happened and That Mattered in 2016 1.  Rise of AI. [...]
Tours & Activities: The Misunderstood and Under-Loved Segment
22/12/2016 by WiT
The tours and activities space could almost be described as a final frontier in travel simply because of how vast and often misunderstood the space truly is. At the Expedia Partner Conference earlier this December, Douglas Quinby (VP Research, Phocuswright) shared the key challenges facing the to [...]
Letter from Las Vegas: Where polar bears play, Elvis is alive and Trump rules
07/12/2016 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
At San Francisco airport, the queue for immigration is packed with mainly people of Asian descent – Malaysians, Singaporeans, Indonesians, Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese, Koreans and Indians. Maybe it’s the timing – I have flown in direct from Singapore – and the flights at this time of the [...]
Getting real and more human is the only way we can beat the machines, AI included
01/12/2016 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
I was at the Accor Hotels Showcase last week. This is an annual roadshow put together by the fastest-growing hotel company in Asia Pacific to showcase their range of hotels across the region. It’s an event that’s been going for 13 years (formerly named World of Accor) and Singapore was the fi [...]