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Travel Zero.O: 10 Key Takeaways from WiT Experience Week
There was as much to learn about organising a hybrid event as there was to learn about travel at this most pivotal of times. Here’s a summary of the key takeaways garnered over the four days of Sept...
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Climbing Hybrid Mountain: Lessons learnt from staging WiT Experience Week
Just before Year 2000 kicked in I had the crazy idea that I wanted to mark the decade’s end on top of South-east Asia’s highest mountain, Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, East Malaysia. I called my best...
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Psst, fancy spending Christmas in Hong Kong?
Industry welcomes opening of no-restriction travel corridor between Singapore and Hong Kong I am already imagining spending Christmas in Hong Kong, feeling the crisp cold of a winter season, taking in...
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Globalisation and OTA power, two sacred cows killed by Covid
Scoot’s Wilson on distribution: “Use the opportunity to recalibrate and build back better” while Pan Pacific’s Choe says, “The Netflix culture is coming” Globalisation and OTA power are the two sacred...
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How Almosafer’s omni-channel strategy helped it ride out Covid-19
Ronnie Varghese, head of digital for Almosafer, the flagship consumer travel brand of Saudi Arabia’s Seera Group, is the first to admit his initial scepticism when the company announced it wanted to...
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Don’t fear, K-travel is alive and well – industry’s bursting with creativity...
WiT Seoul 2020 captured how online travel players are executing by millimetres to last the long game If there’s one overwhelming feeling I got out of hosting WiT Seoul Virtual yesterday, it is that...
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How much do you miss staying in hotels? I didn’t know the answer till this...
Hello, Mr Doorman. Here I am. I never thought I’d ever say “I miss staying in a hotel” but when I got out of the car and was greeted by the doorman at Raffles Singapore, I felt almost weak at the...
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Tourplus, armed with $1m fund raise, moves from transactions to content to...
Rickson Goh (centre) and his team: Sticking together through Covid. Goh said there has been no layoffs but the team agreed on pay cuts and unpaid leave to get through this period. Malaysia-based...
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“What Travel Recovery Will Look Like For Asia”: McKinsey’s Saxon lays out a...
Not surprising, as of September, the first three markets in Asia that have recovered the fastest are those with domestic markets. Sharing “Reboot: What Travel Recovery Will Look Like for Asia” at WiT...
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“Hello, I am Zooming in while cruising” – and best news of all, a vaccine...
From cruises and conferences, to Tokyo Olympics and Expo2020 Dubai, slow and steady steps are being taken to revive economies. I can’t believe I am saying this in 2020 but I had a Zoom meeting this...
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Covid has made online travel a game of millimetres, and he who solves testing...
Covid has turned online travel from a game of inches to one of millimetres, said Timothy Hughes, vice president corporate development of Agoda, paraphrasing an oft-quoted phrase of former Expedia CEO...
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From global to local hero: The Singapore fight to stay ahead of Covid and...
SAFE bubbles; pilot events; partnerships with Klook, Airbnb, Expedia, Trip.com; domestic vouchers – you name it, Singapore Tourism Board is pulling out all the stops to buy time for local businesses...
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JTB’s new chief sets end-to-end customer experience as key goal but for now,...
EIJIRO Yamakita, who was appointed president of the 108-year-old company this year, is committed to continuing globalisation and digitalisation. In this wide-ranging conversation during WiT Japan...
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Could I have attended this virtually? Events in the age of new protocols,...
I had my first ART yesterday. I wished I could say this involved me splashing blobs of paint on a blank canvas like Pollock or Picasso; rather it was having cotton buds stuck up my nostrils. Honestly,...
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Meet the OTAs investing their way out of crisis in Middle East
WEGO launches Shopcash, MakeMyTrip starts TripMoney, Seera enters alternative accommodation and car rentals, Cleartrip goes back to roots From top, clockwise, Stephan Ekbergh, Travelstart, moderating...
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Some hiccups at launch, the “monumental” making of SingapoRediscover Vouchers
What went on behind the scenes to make this happen and concerns remain over the fate of smaller agents and operators who may not be able to outlast Covid. ON midnight December 1, Singaporeans were...
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Google launches free “living” data tools for destinations and hoteliers in APAC
GOOGLE is leveraging the power of its search data to launch today Travel Insights with Google, two free real-time tools to help destinations and hoteliers understand live demand patterns and respond...
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Expedia’s Peter Kern (and moose) looks forward to “rebirth” of travel, “we...
AT Expedia Explore this week, CEO Peter Kern spoke to me about the moose, his spirit animal; his “zero doubt” that travel will be back; the pain Expedia has gone through to simplify and focus; and his...
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Tech adoption accelerates on cruises as safety takes top priority and...
Singapore, Taiwan good models for restarting as safe cruise bubbles THE forced adoption of technology along the cruise customer journey – from pre-boarding to onboard – and the massive shift of...
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Don’t lose the travel spirit, learn from fungi – see you on the road in 2021
THE other day, I watched in horror as my sweet golden retriever pounced on a young monitor lizard, grabbed it by the neck and whipped it about three times. By the time I pulled Bowie off the creature,...
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