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Addicted to change, the stuff of startups who can also stuff it up
This is the longest stint I’ve not been travelling since I started WIT 12 years ago. Two solid months on the ground – and it’s been wonderful, I feel like I’ve kinda settled into myself . Travel is not...
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Letter from Seoul: Deciphering the puzzle that is South Korea’s online travel
If there’s one country in Asia that has been successful in exporting its pop culture, it’s South Korea. Remember Psy and Gangnam Style that took the world by storm? Well, before and after him, there...
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By all means, pursue direct but learn to milk those distribution partnerships
No hotel is an island, especially in distribution, and once you accept that fact then the wisest approach to take is to then find the right distributors who can give you the most value. That was the...
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“Safe travels” is the greeting for the new normal
Over dinner in Bangkok, while drooling over the best crab angel hair pasta ever at Il Bolognese, our conversation inevitably moved to travel. The three of us, all working in the travel industry, had...
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Hoshino’s mission – building ryokans everywhere and championing family...
Yoshiharu Hoshino, who owns and runs Hoshino Resorts in Japan, a fourth generation family business, has two dreams. One, to see a day when there’ll be Japanese-style hotels (ryokans) everywhere just as...
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Local gladiators gear up for battle in South Korea travel market
When asked to describe the state of the Korean online travel market in an image, Min Yoon, CEO of TideSquare, shared an image of a gladiator scene from ancient Rome much to the amusement of the...
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I stayed in four hotels in 10 days. Here’s my report card.
Recently, I did one of those crazy city hops – going from Hong Kong to Seoul to Bangkok and Saigon in 10 days. In the process, I stayed in four hotels that, to me, capture the diversity of hospitality...
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Relux uses new funds to expand inbound business on back of Abe’s ambitious...
Loco Partners, which manages the members-only luxury hotels and ryokan booking site, Relux, will use the latest 500m yen (about US$4.5m) raised to expand its service for Japanese users as well as...
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peakwork sets up APAC office in global distribution play
Following its announcement late last year that it was ready to expand internationally, peakwork is opening an office in Singapore, to be headed by Tony Marshall. Marshall, who was APAC head for Orbitz...
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Letter from Penang: The artists who call it home and the making of a festival
It was a wonderful coincidence that on the Sunday I was in Penang to mark the Ching Ming (All Soul’s Day) festival, it happened to be the night for “Whispers of George Town Festival”. It was a sneak...
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Letter from Bali: It’s Indonesia’s time in the digital sun
It’s a full flight. The beginning of a long weekend for Singaporeans and Bali’s always a quick and good two-hour-flight escape for stressed out city folks. There are lots of Australians too on the...
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This was the news today – consolidation continues, money flows in, Huston exits
Proving that there’s never a dull moment in travel, while WIT Indonesia was happening inside the ballroom of Grand Nikko Bali yesterday, these things happened in the world outside. One, China’s HNA...
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She escapes a revolution, starts a ‘LinkedIn=Kickstarter’ for women...
Tunisian-born Mouna Aouri Langendorf remembers the Arab Spring well. Her first child was born three days before the outbreak of the Tunisian Revolution in January 2011. “I was lucky to get to a...
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Whether you’re a surfer or sumo wrestler, the big wave in online travel is...
Perhaps it was the Bali setting which has a way of inspiring anyone to flights of fancy but in the opening session of WIT Indonesia, there was talk of surfing, aquariums and team sports, even sumo...
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Google’s quest to become our personal travel assistant – to be loved or feared?
You could almost feel the air being sucked out of the room as Oliver Heckmann of Google closed off Day 1 of Phocuswright Dublin with a talk on everything the world’s largest search engine was doing in...
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Responses to Google’s travel plans – “bad news”, “they can go wrong” and...
A sampling of responses to Google’s talk yesterday at Phocuswright Dublin. Rod Cuthbert, CEO, Rome2rio “Google’s relentless push to replace existing travel intermediaries with their own solutions is...
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Value Alliance, a breakthrough in low cost airline distribution
When you think about it, the first pan-Asian low cost airline alliance, Value Alliance, launched today in Singapore is a pretty big deal in the annals of airline distribution. One, it’s a world first...
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The intent behind Air Black Box and how it got to power Value Alliance
The technology powering the just-announced Value Alliance, which sees eight low cost airlines partnering on a sales and distribution platform allowing customers to book on all of them, including...
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Art in hotels, and the role it can play in the grey space
This was my third stay at The Gibson in Dublin. I like this hotel. It has the right touch of creativity without being too contrived. Its staff are friendly without trying to be too cool. Its rooms are...
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Dreamers may still win the day in online travel as brands go “upper funnel”
Ten years ago, we struggled to get the word “inspiration” mentioned at online travel conferences. Everyone was more interested in clicks, conversions and transactions. I remember a debate we had at the...
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