Letter from Bhutan, Pt 4: Living on the edge of happiness
“The thing is, nobody says don’t make money. Just that if you don’t, it’s okay,” said our dinner host, shrugging. “It’s important not to take things too seriously.” Tobgye Dorji (left) shrugs and laughs a lot. A wonderul host during our stay in Paro, he comes across as someone who's [...]
A young entrepreneur’s view: Lessons from WIT*e
Brett Henry of Abacus and Mohan Belani (left) of e27 started off the April 28 WIT*e session with valuable insights for entrepreneurs, like myself, on high potential and investable opportunities in the travel industry.Henry’s six HOT categories for business opportunities were things many could re [...]
Letter from Bhutan, Pt 3: Punakha for spirituality and a Karma break
At Dochula Pass, 3,000m above sea level, low clouds partly shroud the 108 stupas that were built to commemorate fallen warriors.This is the midway point between Thimpu and Punakha Valley, where we are headed on Day 3 of our journey through Bhutan, the Land of Thunder Dragon.The drive uphill has been [...]
Letter from Paris: It’s like falling in love again
I am sitting backwards on a TGV from Paris to Pornic via Nantes. It’s not the best direction to be facing but the train is full. It’s August and technically, the whole country is on holiday and so it’s full of Parisians heading to the coast for their annual vacation.At boarding, we meet a youn [...]
We’re off! WIT BootCamp – the many and varied opportunities that is Asia Pacific
Bootcamp this year was kicked off by Siew Hoon - of course! She reminded us that you can follow all the action this year on our hashtag - #WIT2011 on Twitter. We then heard from some regional experts working in some of the key locations in Asia Pacific - one region, but each with some speci [...]
WIT Day One – C of Change or Confusion. Which is it?
Using copious amounts of data, Joe Nguyen, VP South-East Asia for ComScore convinced us all that change is happening rapidly in Asia Pacific. Did you know that travel information rules online? 130 million unique visitors were visiting travel websites in Asia Pacific in August 2010! It was inter [...]
WIT Day One – Independents vs Brands. Who do you think wins?
There's nothing better than seeing two teams duke it out, trying to win the argument. This time the debate was between the power of brands, or is it better to go small and independent? In the INDEPENDENT corner we had Robert Hornman, Managing Director of WORLDHOTELS, Nick Downing, Director of Ope [...]
WIT Day One – Rebel with a focus
He’s irreverent, brash and peppers his language with the “F” word, but today at WIT Morten Lund (pictured right) played it cool. He is the guy who said no to Twitter, who made and lost over US$200 million in his twenties, who says his weakness is a love of life that has led him into some weird [...]
WIT Day Two – Igniting the Romance of Travel on a Wednesday morning
We're opening day 2 on a wonderfully romantic note. No technology, no gadgets, no stats … just love … a story that exudes the love of travel. Goh Mia Chun and his wife Sam went on a inspirational 2.5 year journey through 40 countries that became their very own Motorcycle Diaries. As Mia Chu [...]
WIT Ideas Lab: Social Media, Search, Mobile & Stuff – a Summary
After a day of WITovation at the start of the week, two days of Web in Travel and the first day of WIT ideas Lab, it’s time to catch up again with three of the most active panelists of the week. They are:Timothy Hughes, Vice President Commercial, Orbitz Worldwide and HotelClubMorris Sim, CEO &am [...]
