Why you must concentrate on this
A fresh breeze is rustling the leaves outside my window where I work. Birds are chirping. Traffic is trundling along. It feels like any other day really. But is it?
I spent the last two weeks, hiding from today’s space invaders. I did as little work as I could get away with. I spent as li [...]
Excuse me, are you real or not? How AI could change customer service
Traditional travel agents have always claimed that their one advantage over online players is their level of customer service – that the human touch is still critical to travel transactions.
That is true of course as long as that “human touch” is well trained and knowledgeable but I t [...]
Letter from Tokyo: It’s all happening here as city goes into hyperdrive
Got into Tokyo on the red eye from Singapore – landed at Haneda just as the sun rose over the city. I got so excited at immigration that I even engaged in conversation with the officer.
“I am so happy I don’t need a visa anymore,” I said, as I handed her my Malaysian passport.
� [...]
Japan steps up inbound efforts but faces challenges in catering to foreign tourists
The third WIT Japan opened last week to the personal welcome of a Prime Minister and the beating of drums, heralding what many believe is the rise of a new dawn for the country’s travel industry.
In his video message, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (right) told delegates that the Internet had [...]
Recruit wants to liberate small businesses to unleash ‘omotenashi’ globally
More than 50 years ago, in 1960 precisely, the founders of Recruit Holdings saw an opportunity to match students with jobs and thus started the company’s magazine business.
In the 1990s, with the rise of the Internet, the company began developing information services for the new media a [...]
Inbound fillip for Japan, online travel boom for South Korea – WIT Japan opens May 16
Usually at this time of the year, I’d be fretting about having to get a visa to travel to Japan – the forms to fill, the documents I must secure, the approval process …
You cannot imagine what a liberating feeling it is that I no longer have to go through the process since visa regula [...]
The magic sauce of content creation – keep it you and make it about your audience
(The WIT Next Content panel - from left, Steve Lai, Jacylnn Seah, Koay Yi Ling, Luke Clark and Turochas Fuad)
I remember the first time I saw Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe-Zambia border. This massive body of water just falling over the edge of the cliffs, splashing everywhere an [...]
As competition heats up in Indonesia, disruption could just be around the corner
It’s interesting how the online travel market in Indonesia is evolving. One thing’s for sure, the competition has intensified since the first WIT Indonesia last year – you could even say it’s gotten vicious, as more players enter the market and compete not only for customers but staff [...]
Letter from WIT Indonesia: Welcome to Day 1 of the Internet and be a Calculated Mad Man
As far as Oliver Hua (right), managing director of booking.com, Asia Pacific, is concerned, we are just at “Day 1 of the Internet” in terms of the potential of online travel in the region.
In his first appearance at a travel conference, the former eBay executive, who joined Planet Earth [...]
As with Middle East, youths will drive change in Indonesia – are you ready?
Getting rather excited about our second WIT Indonesia coming up in Jakarta (left) next Thursday – as I do my homework for it, I am struck by the similarities between what’s happening in the Middle East and this archipelago (I love how that word just rolls off the tongue).
It’s easy to [...]
