The luxuries of human interaction in travel and hospitality
Anyone who’s been on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, any given podcast platform or any bookstore in the last decade has heard or seen the works of Simon Sinek. He’s a leadership coach, motivational speaker, podcaster and bestselling author of several books including ‘The Infinite Game’, and he r [...]
European tourism under fire – new ETC chief steps up to face the challenges
Beyond numbers, destinations need to rethink what they really want from tourism, says Miguel Sanz Castedo
With European tourism at a critical juncture, coming under pressure on several fronts, including environmental and social, the new president of the European Tourism Commission (ETC) says it is [...]
How did we allow this to happen? Viator’s founder Rod Cuthbert on the rise of Google
As Google continues to roll out AI-powered search features, which will undoubtedly increase its dominance in travel, Rod Cuthbert, the founder of Viator and generally acknowledged as the “Godfather of tours and activities”, got quite indignant during his session at WiT Japan & North Asia in [...]
The Symphony of Humans and Machines: A travel CTO’s balancing act
At the Phocuswright WiT Middle East summit in Dubai, held May 3, 2024, a panel of four senior CTOs discussed the critical issue of AI’s interface to humans. Timothy O’Neil-Dunne provides this summary.
In the ever-evolving world of travel technology, CTOs stand at the precipice of a [...]
Atom Capital: What kind of AI entrepreneurs impress us the most
Editor's note: The following article was originally published on Medium. Although not directly travel-related, the interview spotlights Melissa Yang, formerly the co-founder, CTO and Vice Chairman of Tujia.com - which was famously known as China's Airbnb alternative albeit with a wider focus.
Yan [...]
Letter enroute to Riyadh: A journey into The Land of Incredulous Possibilities
I am off to Riyadh today via Singapore. It was meant to have been via Paris but a flu bug changed my plans. It has a nasty way of doing that, as we’ve all learnt in the last few years. Nothing’s going to stop us now – yeah! A bug will.
So, I am sitting at the Emirates Lounge, which is freez [...]
How an Indian techie, inspired by his first computer, is disrupting corporate travel
Building tech alone won’t make an impact, says company co-founder. Products must be business-first.
You’ve heard of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), but Travel-as-a-Service is a term uniquely coined by Spotnana – a service provider that calls itself a cocktail of ‘Online booking tool provider, [...]
Amadeus’ Picard delves into field trips, AI PAs, and simplified digital expenses
'Bleisure' anticipated to reach US$731.4 billion by 2032, with Gen Z representing 27% of the global workforce soon
Industry analysts anticipate that business travel spending will fully rebound by the end of 2024, returning to levels seen before the pandemic in 2019. Adding to those analyses, Amadeu [...]
WiT Podcast: Creating customer love in tours and activities
How “the connected trip” is evolving in Booking.com and how Klook is solving local pain points
This final episode of “Customer Love” fittingly covers tours and activities – the things travellers do in destination. It’s the most exciting part of travel and it’s coming online at great s [...]
Fritz Demopoulos on new frontiers in travel & beyond
Where others see bad traffic and chaos, this entrepreneur sees opportunities. It was with this thinking that he fearlessly co-founded the first travel metasearch company in China in 2005, Qunar, which is now part of the Trip.com Group. Since his exit, he’s been keeping a watchful eye on travel tec [...]
