Indie travel, rewritten: Four shifts reshaping Asia’s independent traveller
At WiT Indie, Klook, AirAsia MOVE and Booking.com unpack the generational, AI, supply and community forces changing how APAC travellers explore on their own terms
Hot on the heels of WiT’s newly released “The Indie Stack”, which dove into the fast-growing and equally-fast-changing independent [...]
The Icelandic startup connecting the dots for air travellers, Asia next on radar
David Gunnarsson does not waste words. The CEO of Dohop, the Icelandic travel technology company that has spent two decades solving one of aviation’s most stubborn problems – how to connect passengers across airlines that do not talk to each other – speaks the way he thinks: directly, precisel [...]
How OceanAir’s Essam Al Salah built his experiences from the desert
Essam Al Salah remembers the moment it clicked. It started with building a small website to start selling tours. In the early days, like most operators, he worked with the companies already in the market, the ones selling seat-in-coach packages. He booked through them, sold through them, and watched [...]
Saudi travel’s new shape: Domestic, westward and betting on Itself
The interview with Muzzammil Ahussain, CEO of Almosafer, at WiT Phocuswright Middle East started with a provocation. Saudi Arabia is reportedly projecting a $44 billion deficit for 2026. Construction contract awards fell 72% year-on-year. NEOM wasn’t even mentioned in the national budget. So: is t [...]
The next generation of hospitality: When the room is no longer the point
A ryokan owner, a global brand VP, a lifestyle acquirer and a boutique operator debate what will actually make a guest choose you in the next 20 years.
A panel at WiT Japan on “The Next Generation of Hospitality” brought together four voices with sharply different stakes in the answer.
Kyohe [...]
Letter from Penang: How AI sent a stranger to our door and what he, and we, learned
Mo, a hospitality software executive, woke up at 6am in Penang on Friday, July 3. Between brushing his teeth and gargling, he asked Gemini what he should do that day. He was on a solo weekend escape from Singapore, where he works.
One of the first recommendations was “an indie travel event” � [...]
Vio Travel could automate 99% of bookings. Its CEOs explain why they won’t.
It’s also the first DMC in Asia to pass a 100% sustainability audit
Vio Travel has spent the last few years trying to fix a problem most travel agents know all too well, which is building multi-country itineraries by hand is slow, messy, and inconsistent. The company has combined direct supplie [...]
The leaps made and those to come: Stephan Ekbergh on building in Africa
25 years in, Travelstart’s founder is still restless, still betting, and still asking the question: what’s next?
It probably comes from having lived the last 25 years amid the natural landscapes of Cape Town, South Africa. In his interview at WiT Phocuswright Middle East in Barcelona, Stephan E [...]
Money, moats and the AI mirage: What it takes to build and fund a startup now
There is a peculiar kind of vertigo that comes with being a travel technology founder right now. On one side, Silicon Valley is minting billionaires at a pace not seen since the dot-com era. On the other, investors are skittish, M&A is grinding, and raising a seed round can feel like pushing a b [...]
From Mykonos to Red Sea, from beach vibe to luxury hospitality: The building of Nammos
Carolyn Turnbull on luxury with personality and why she didn’t run a mile when the war started
Carolyn Turnbull grew up four hours south of Sydney, in a small country town where, she says with a grin, the sleeves stay rolled up.
She has since led luxury hotels across Asia for Aman, run destina [...]
