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APAC key to driving pace of change and growth for Booking as it works on...
The day I catch up with Angel Llull Mancas, the managing director for Booking.com, APAC, comes the news of the collapse of Thomas Cook Group, one of the most well-known brands in the history of...
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In bid to differentiate meta-search service, LINE Travel jp plays Loyalty and...
A year after its rebranding into LINE Travel jp, following a 34% equity investment by the messaging giant, Japan’s travel meta-search service will offer its customers a LINE Point-back service when...
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How Sojern’s Travel Advertising report unearthed a stark difference in Asia...
When Stephen Taylor, chief revenue officer, was going through the results of Sojern’s 2019 Report on Travel Advertising, one finding stood out for him. “Driving direct bookings” was the biggest...
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Asia Partners’ Rippel on why SEA could produce up to 30 unicorns and how he...
Oliver Rippel, co-founder and partner of Asia Partners, believes South-east Asia could yield between 20 and 30 tech unicorns. And he believes there are only certain sectors that can have global...
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How Zouba intends to build its way to become a meta-book marketplace for...
Malaysia-based GoQuo, which calls itself an “airline’s best friend” helping them sell ancillary revenues, has taken the plunge into the tours and activities space by launching Zouba (meaning “let’s...
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Forter’s Whiteford on why travel is highly susceptible to fraud and how to...
Imagine how much bigger travel would be if we took on the bad guys collectively and with a level of sophistication that combines human intelligence with machine learning? That’s the message Angela...
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WiT Singapore 2019: Allen Law, the good son steering Park Hotel Group into...
How many of us can say “well, my dad bought a hotel and asked me if I would run it”. Not many, I guess, but that’s how Allen Law, CEO of Park Hotel Group, got his start in hospitality. He was 24,...
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WiT Singapore 2019: Alipay and Fliggy collaborate to provide seamless travel...
A year on since she last spoke on the WiT Singapore stage in October 2018, much has changed in Cherry Huang’s life – from looking after Alipay cross-border payments for South-east Asia, she’s now the...
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Letter from the South China Sea: Time for unusual thinking, unorthodox...
Yeoh Siew Hoon gets stranded on a coral reef off Cempedak and ponders the secrets of the travel universe as they were revealed at last week’s WiT Singapore 2019. The sun was about to call it a day...
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Transformation of a sacred cow: The flight path of SIA into a digital...
Singapore Airlines (SIA) started its digital transformation in 2016. Since then, hundreds of millions have been invested in IT capex with the vision of creating a “future where SIA remains a...
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Twenty years on, from Ctrip to Trip: From China power to “glocal” giant
It felt like I was going to a rock concert. The night before, on a cruise on the Huangpu river, the city lights were in full blaze but one illumination stood out, the Pearl Tower lights announcing...
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A tale of three places: Bamboo, Bali and never-ending neon
Travelling straight from the private island of Cempedak to the mass tourism island of Bali is one thing, but going on from Bali to Shanghai the day after, well, that’s another. The contrasts are...
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Expedia sets as its “Everest” – a frictionless travel experience
He got burnt badly at a beach party in Koh Tao, Thailand, was told he’d never walk again and ended up climbing several mountains including Everest and walking across the Antarctica. Colin O’Brady...
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Letter from Explore ’19: Persevere, respect, be mindful – and oh, get more sleep
If I had to sum up the first day of Expedia Group’s Explore ’19 conference in Las Vegas today in three words, they’d be “perseverance, respect and mindfulness”. The morning opened with a talk by Colin...
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Immigration, inequality, inclusion – the themes occupying America
It is interesting the amount of soul-searching that’s going on in North America, both on the political and corporate front, as I discovered on this recent trip which started in Las Vegas, continued to...
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How Trip.com intends to execute its way to becoming the top travel brand in...
The message is loud and clear – Trip.com Group wants to have the leading international travel brand in Asia in three years and to be the leading international travel brand in the world by 2025. Those...
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Letter from Fort Lauderdale: Time shifting as search chokes, funds bloat and...
As I wait for the first of three flights that will bring me home from Fort Lauderdale to Singapore via Houston and San Francisco, I have downloaded the Timeshifter jetlag app, one of the startups that...
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Are you happy and dissatisfied? If so, Steve Hafner wants you and it’s why...
If there’s one question Steve Hafner, co-founder and CEO of KAYAK, gets asked a lot, it is “Why are you still here?” After all, he and co-founder Paul English founded their meta-search business in...
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After a 5-year turnaround, Hedlund gets set to take Etraveli into next phase...
Mathias Hedlund strikes one as the kind of executive who’d do what it takes to get what he wants done. Since 2014, when he took on the reins of Etraveli Group, he has transformed the company, which...
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Mystifly lets go of China, refocuses on its roots of value creation, not just...
After a rough start to the year, which saw it let go the China Business Team, Mystifly is back on track doing what it does best – “being an intermediary business that creates value for its partners”,...
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