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 [...]
Booking bullet trains. Azgo cashback. Velma assists Warwick Hotels. More.
Booking the bullet now easier
Tokyo-listed Inbound Platform Corp has launched its Shinkansen (bullet train) ticket service, which includes basic fares, express tickets and ticket issuance via QR codes, for international travellers and foreign residents in Japan.
Through the ‘Japan Bullet Train [...]
Letter from Cape Town: Of diamonds, dassies and naked surprises
As the Singapore Airlines flight came in for a landing in Cape Town Monday morning and I watched the beautiful vistas of the Western Cape unfold before my eyes, the first question that popped into my head was, “Why has it taken me so long?”
I first came to South Africa when I was still living [...]
Online travel giants set new record for marketing spend in ’23
Financial figures from Expedia Group, Booking Holdings, Airbnb and Trip.com Group – four of the largest online travel agencies in the world – show the companies spent a record amount of money to promote their brands and attract customers in 2023, as pent-up demand from the pandemic is stil [...]
Swiftonomics leaves Singapore with post-concert gains
More than any other entertainment event, The Eras Tour brought with it invaluable lessons for the APAC hospitality scene
After six spectacular nights of the highly anticipated Eras Tour in Singapore, pop icon Taylor Swift has left the Lion City for Los Angeles, where she’ll rest for a couple of m [...]
I&CO expands in Asia, forms design capital alliance with Trambellir
I&CO, a global design agency, has officialsed a strategic alliance with Trambellir, a Malaysia-based online medical tourism booking platform. The collaboration entails enhancing Trambellir's user interface (UI) and overall business assets through I&CO's design expertise.
Trambellir serves [...]
Koreans’ top picks for value-for-money travel
Tourvis x Consumer Insight analysis on cost-effective travel trends
Key points:
Japan: #1 destination for first six months of 2024, consecutively
March and April focus on Tokyo, Osaka and other Japanese cherry blossom destinations
May and June strong for Cancun and Honolulu, du [...]
TravelAI rescues Casai. Women in the workforce. Jeeves the Snackbot. Hotelbeds of the Caribbean.
Women in the workforce: The Economist crunches the numbers
To mark International Women’s Day on 8 March, The Economist has released its annual glass-ceiling index, its measure of the role and influence of women in the workforce.
The publisher looked at 10 indicators—from labour-force partici [...]
Wayra and HBX Group unveil winning startups to join TravelTech Lab
B2B platform HBX Group and Wayra, Telefónica's Corporate Venture Capital arm, have announced the winners of the second TravelTech Lab challenge. The announcement comes after a rigorous evaluation of 120 companies hailing from 25 countries, including Spain, France, UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Sing [...]
Growing regulations, shift towards online and AI driving change in experiences sector
The response by authorities to over-tourism and environmental concerns by either the introduction of fees and limiting tourist numbers are posing a challenge to the experiences industry, said Arival CEO and co-founder Douglas Quinby at the opening of Arival in Berlin this week.
“In some popul [...]
