Serko’s Darrin Grafton: “It’s open season right now in corporate travel”
To introduce Serko’s co-founder and CEO, Darrin Grafton, in a way that would summarise this Kiwi entrepreneur’s nearly-four-decade journey to trying to solve corporate travel’s pain points, I prompted AI.
The result – that he runs Serko “like a jazz band,” part CEO, part roadie, “10 [...]
Banks see travel as a path to high-value loyalty, but trust is tricky.
Agoda's Damien Pfirsch on why travel is no longer a side perk for financial and loyalty brands, but one of the most valuable, and hardest to get right, customer relationships in their portfolio.
Travel used to be the reward you cashed in your points for. Now it's shaping up to be one of the most po [...]
The secrets to mastering social and commerce in the age of AI
A panel at WiT Queenstown representing Klook, Google and Fabulate shares tips and insights on what’s working and what’s not
Social and AI have increasingly become the means by which travellers discover places and things to do – and the panellists at WiT Queenstown – Marcus Yong of Klook, B [...]
Google buys Spirit Airlines’ data. KLIA amps security. Spotnana x Singapore Airlines. Atlas’ open-source flight booking.
Google buys Spirit Airlines' data for $10 million
Google agreed to pay $10 million for the data assets of defunct Spirit Airlines, outbidding AI-training firm Mercor's $7.5 million offer, according to an Aug. 14 court filing tied to Spirit's court-supervised liquidation (Spirit shut down May 2, 202 [...]
The experience surge: When singular obsessions become the product
What’s your unique obsession? That was the question Jacinta Lim, co-founder and CEO of Seek Sophie, asked the audience at WiT Indie when she moderated the session on “The Experience Surge”.
It was a perfect set-up for a panel whose three guests have each done exactly that – built business [...]
When the founder hands you the keys: SiteMinder’s Sankar Narayan on scaling without breaking what made it great
Sankar Narayan has done this twice now. Not built a company from zero – inherited one. First at Xero, where he arrived as CFO and left as COO with the company’s enterprise value multiplied threefold. Then at SiteMinder, where he has spent seven years as CEO alongside founder Mike Ford, scaling t [...]
Data: The light behind AI
10 key takeaways from a presentation by Filip Filipov, CEO, OAG at WiT Japan
AI is only as good as the data behind it.
Every platform shift in travel – internet, mobile, payments, now AI – has rewritten the rules. But unlike previous shifts, AI's value is entirely dependent on the qual [...]
Paul Scurrah on timing and building the world’s happiest airline
When it comes to timing, Paul Scurrah, CEO of Fiji Airways, hasn’t quite got it right. In fact, he started his coffee chat in WiT Queenstown with an apology.
“I feel like I should apologise,” Paul Scurrah said. “I was appointed CEO in Australia in March 2019, and less than a year later CO [...]
Full cycle: Hermione Joye on 12 years in Asia travel
In the Chinese calendar, 12 years is a full cycle – every animal has had its turn, and you’re back where you started. Well, Hermione Joye, who has just stepped down as Google’s Head of Travel, APAC, has spent exactly a dozen years in the region and as someone born in the Year of the Rat, she l [...]
Thankless travel planners. GlobalTix x Myrealtrip. Fliggy’s next-gen agent. Saudi’s investment appeal. More.
GlobalTix partners with Myrealtrip
GlobalTix, an Asia-based reservation and distribution platform, announced a partnership with South Korean travel platform Myrealtrip to make GlobalTix's network of over 180,000 experiences available to Myrealtrip's 10 million users, giving GlobalTix's global opera [...]
