My four lessons learnt from watching CODE
Last night, I caught a private screening of CODE: Debugging The Gender Code, at The Projector, a cool new movie space booked by Expedia to mark a week of activities around International Women’s Day. It was hosted by Britta Wilson, vice president global diversity and inclusion.The documentary, made [...]
Women – not just one day but everyday
I’ve been getting lots of reminders that today is International Women’s Day – lots of press releases from companies talking about women and how important the feminine sex is to them. TripAdvisor releasing a study that Asian women take the lead in travel decision making; Accor Hotels issuing a [...]
The Millennial Traveller: Get off my cloud – Are Apple and the FBI our generation’s David and Goliath?
The ‘FBI versus Apple Inc.’ case – wherein US Federal authorities have demanded that Apple create a ‘backdoor’ to unlock a phone tied to the San Bernardino shooting last December – is like something out of a freshman Intro to Philosophy textbook.
It poses as probably the most apt mor [...]
Don’t be a sitting duck, join us in a deep dive into hospitality
In between evening walks, painting and writing, I’ve been preparing the content for our first WIT Hospitality conference in Hong Kong on March 22.It’s our first hospitality-focused event and we really want to do a deep dive into the issues that are holding back hoteliers from fully embracing dig [...]
VR is going to need a woman’s touch to make it real in travel
There’s a by-now famous photo that’s been making the rounds in the digital world – it shows Mark Zuckerberg striding very confidently down an aisle in a room full of people wearing Virtual Reality headsets.What struck me in the photo was not that Zuckerberg looked inordinately pleased with him [...]
A fine line between celebrating tribal culture and “gawking at natives”
The man of undetermined age swings his leg back and forth, then stamps hard against the dusty ground. The air is hot and still but his energetic dance celebrating the harvest season sends his loincloth flapping. His face may be inscrutable, but his motions are practiced and confident.I am seated in [...]
Letter from Phoukhuone, Laos: At last, a chance at a future for girls
If you google “Phoukhuone Laos”, not much information appears. There are a couple of posts by intrepid travellers who have to cross the town on their way somewhere in this landlocked country, bordered by Myanmar and China (north), Vietnam (east), Cambodia (south) and Thailand (west). One post ta [...]
Letter from Penang: Lessons from the Monkey King
I was sitting in my doctor’s office and browsing through his reading materials, I came across comic books about the Monkey King, a main character in the Chinese classical novel, Journey To The West.Known as Sun Wukong, the Monkey King has been in my consciousness since childhood. Sun Wukong, a mon [...]
Why Travelstart’s Ekbergh decided to get married after 10 years of bacherlorhood
It was around March last year that Stephan Ekbergh, sole owner and founder of South Africa-based Travelstart, was first approached by Amadeus Capital Partners (not related to Amadeus IT by the way).The first meeting with Andrea Traversone took place in ITB Berlin and Ekbergh recalled it didn’t go [...]
Silence of the web at ASEAN travel leaders level
For all the chatter and plans unveiled at the ASEAN Tourism Forum held in Manila earlier this month, nowhere did the Internet feature, or any discussion on the impact of the web on travel.The silence on the topic was staggering – aside from the Malaysian national tourist office (NTO) press briefin [...]
