B2B: Where the real battle is being fought
The front end of travel gets all the attention. The apps, the campaigns, the loyalty programmes, the AI-powered search experiences – these are what travellers see and what the industry talks about at conferences.
But as a panel on “B2B: The Power Layer of Travel” at WiT Japan made clear, th [...]
Who is the Asian indie traveller? | Report
Asia's indie travellers are rewriting the rules of tourism and AI is along for the ride
Forget the old image of the backpacker figuring it out as they go. Today's Asian indie traveller is just as likely to be a 50-something supporting a family-run guesthouse, a Swiftie crossing borders for a concer [...]
AI in action: Reshaping travel
10 key takeaways from a presentation at WiT Japan by Amy Wei, Senior Product Director, Trip.com Group
1. The shift is already here and accelerating fast.
Trip.com launched its AI assistant TripGenie in February 2023, just 2.5 months after ChatGPT. Three years of real user data tell a clea [...]
HopeGoo’s Malaysia Bet: China’s Travel Muscle Meets Local Manners
When HopeGoo, the international travel platform of Tongcheng Travel, entered Malaysia, it knew it had to take a highly localized approach so that it wouldn’t be just another Chinese app chasing Malaysian travellers but to become a travel companion for Malaysians heading to China — and eventually [...]
The country you think you know (but don’t): Florian Sengstschmid on marketing Azerbaijan
Before my interview with Florian Sengstschmid, CEO of the Azerbaijan Tourism Board, at WiT Phocuswright Middle East, I asked Claude, give me three good reasons to visit Azerbaijan.
Claude, having apparently tracked my recent interest in Dylan Thomas’s birthplace in Wales, came back with three a [...]
Letter from Athens & Corfu: Of beds, seasonality and service
Landing in Istanbul en route to Athens, I had six hours to kill at IST. Turned out not to be a problem.
The largest airport in Turkey, the second busiest in Europe, and the largest privately-owned airport operation in the world – it is impressive. Massive, in fact. Generously spaced retail, wel [...]
JTB acquires EXO Travel. Trip.com eyes 200m travellers. Agoda platforms ethical hackers. Vietnam tourism surge.
EXO Travel finds its next adventure under JTB Group
Asia-based Destination Management Company EXO Travel has been acquired by JTB Group, one of the world's largest travel organisations, via JTB's Asia Pacific arm purchasing All Wise Holdings Pte. Ltd., EXO's parent company. Founded in 1993 and oper [...]
AI in ASEAN travel. What’s working, what isn’t, what’s next.
Because of the widespread nature of AI, conversations about its applications and potential can get pretty vague. We didn’t want that to be the case, so at Travel Tech Thursdays Vol 9, we had three experts on the panel who are already deep in the build - Sarah Wan, GM for Singapore, Malaysia, Indon [...]
The Ground Shift: 10 things we now know
Gathering the key takeaways from WiT Phocuswright Middle East 2026
“It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.” I simply had to open WiT Phocuswright Middle East last week in Barcelona with the opening line from Charles Dickens’ The Tale of Two Cities.
It felt apt – an event t [...]
Dispersal through discovery: Klook’s Wilfred Fan on using social to spread travel
The chief commercial officer on creator networks, the Hiroshima playbook, self-disruption — and a spontaneous detour to Heidelberg
There is an irony at the heart of social media’s relationship with travel. The same platforms that have made the world’s hidden places discoverable have also made [...]
