Forget FOMO, have COMO and JOMO will follow
I love this time of the year. It’s full of rain and wind in Singapore, and birdsong. Birds love the rain. Why, the other day on a Zoom call with a colleague in Kuala Lumpur, there was a constant squeaking noise in the background, and I asked him if his door hinge needed oiling? And he said, “It� [...]
No more pre-pandemic, no more looking back, 2024 is the year we move forward
If, like me, you’re winding down for the year and taking time out to reflect, well, do it. Power down the laptop, switch off the mobile, take a deep breath and slow down. Know you have deserved it. You helped build back travel in APAC.
For us in the region, it was just Year 1 of building back a [...]
Booking a flight direct is still not easy – is this why OTAs are winning?
Last week, I tried to book a one-way flight from Seletar, Singapore to Subang, Kuala Lumpur. How hard could it be after all? It’s really only one airline that plies this route and it’s a flight I’ve taken several times – in fact, a flight I always look forward to because it’s on a smaller [...]
On the Road: A journey through hotels, high lines and human interaction
I am back in Singapore after an epic month of travel which took me from Seoul to New York, Fort Lauderdale and Bangkok and this lull on the ground has given me a chance to reflect on the very different hotel experiences I had.
At a time when we in travel keep saying that travellers are extra dema [...]
Letter from Fort Lauderdale: Pongy pooches inflight, and an underdog at his best
Hopper to reach profitability next year, doubling down on B2B and lodging
I am writing this on Delta Airlines from Fort Lauderdale to New York where I will catch that epic 18-hour flight back to Singapore. It’s been quite a week. In New York, it was unseasonably warm, and I was able to spend a lo [...]
Letter from New York: Sleep tourism’s the next big thing
From Booking.com’s “Reboot Retreaters” prediction to sleep suites in hotels, travellers are yearning for a good snooze
I suppose it is ironic that I am writing about sleep in a city that doesn’t sleep but travelling to New York on that epic 18-hour flight from Singapore has a tendency to se [...]
Letter from Samarkand: Forget alien encounters, this happened for real
I’ve been to many events in my life but never have I had an experience where a woman was vacuuming the stage, three minutes before the scheduled starting time, and in the middle of my delayed-by-an-hour panel, we were interrupted by a helicopter taking off on the lawn outside the venue.
That it [...]
Letter from Samui: Great balls of fire and long live The Human Revolution
Key takeaways from WiT Singapore 2023
I am writing this from Rocky’s, a resort in Samui, a Thai island I haven’t visited in at least a decade. There’ve always been other destination distractions and somehow, Samui had lost its appeal to me – the over-building in Chaweng, the main beach stri [...]
Will AI make us less or more human? To be answered next week
“It will force humans to think more about what it is that actually makes us human”
Next week, the WiT Singapore conference will close on our Great Debate with the question, Will AI make us less or more human?
I’ve been mulling over the question for a while and there are days when I believe [...]
Cultural knowledge cannot be codified – that is travel’s human edge in this revolution
I recently attended the book launch of George Yeo’s “Musings”, the former Singapore Minister of Trade and Industry’s third in a series of essays capturing his thoughts on politics, economics and life.
Held at the Victoria Concert Hall, it was opened by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Kiat [...]
