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Growing Hilton in APAC: Deploying AI, innovating the app and enhancing “the...
With 126 hotels opening this year in Asia Pacific, you could say Hilton is growing at its fastest in the region, although Ben George, APAC SVP & commercial director, concedes, not as fast as...
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Dancing in the rain: ZUZU raises $9m, ready to use AI to empower independent...
Coming out of the pandemic, Vikram Malhi, CEO and founder of ZUZU Hospitality Solutions, told his team that “we didn’t just weather the storm but we danced in the rain”. Well, he and his team now have...
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Meet the 15 semi-finalists of the Global Startup Pitch
After an almost five-hour marathon of startup pitches that went around the world, 15 companies have been chosen to proceed to the Semi-Finals of the Global Startup Pitch, run by WiT and Phocuswright....
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Let’sfly sets up HQ in Singapore to “go deep” into low cost airline content
Dusting off the aftermath of the pandemic, Let’sfly, the Chinese flight platform which prides itself on providing good quality low cost airline content via direct API, is building up its global team to...
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Letter from Phuket: A destination for all seasons, all tastes, Zombies included
As I boarded my Singapore Airlines flight from Singapore to Phuket this week, I couldn’t help but reflect on that first flight I took to New York back in November 2021 when travel was still largely...
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From baseball hotel stay to Suica integration, SQUEEZE hits home run with...
Fancy staying in the middle of a baseball stadium? Try Tower 11 Shinichi Tatebayashi, CEO and founder of SQUEEZE, is understandably very excited about his newest hotel, which he says is a world first....
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AI will allow more meaningful human service, says Montara Hospitality chief
“Hospitality is about innovation, creating a product ahead of its time” “My job is going to be replaced soon,” laughs second generation Thai hotelier Kittisak (Kitt) Pattamasaevi when we were...
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Letter from Girona: The stuff of legends and travellers’ dreams
I suppose it is fitting that I should be staying in the Hotel Museu Llegendes in Girona because this ancient Catalonian city is so full of legends that even the locals have trouble keeping up with the...
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Rakuten STAY: Japanese e-commerce giant unveils new, unmanned vacation...
Alibaba has its future hotel, FlyZoo, launched in Hangzhou inn 2018. Tencent launched an AI Smart Room at the Atour S Hotel in Beijing. There was a time when Amazon sounded out the idea of...
View ArticleLook out for the “Uber of generative AI” in travel
“I hope to be around when the next big thing arrives,” says Chris Hemmeter Who will be the first travel startup to create the “Uber of generative AI”? That’s the challenge Chris Hemmeter, managing...
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Mini-apps, flagship stores, Rapid API: Travel tech brands build windmills for...
Wego, Expedia, Alibaba Fliggy share product roadmap There is a Chinese saying, “When the wind of change blows, some build walls while others build windmills.” Well, travel tech brands around the world...
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Letter from Barcelona: From Gaudi dreams to Dali metaverse, a whimsical...
My first night in Barcelona after having spent a week traipsing around the coast of Costa Brava and rambling through the vineyards and isolated, mountainous villages of Priorat without encountering...
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Shifting traveller trends: Asia and Middle East make waves in Barcelona
I’ve always felt at home in Spain, almost a sense of déjà vu each time I visit, and it thus felt fitting that I should be bringing the flavours of Asia, as well as the emerging markets of Middle East...
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Technekai Global Hospitality Tech Fund sets up in Asia
“Y Combinator of Hospitality” plans $100m fund Technekai, a global hospitality tech fund based out of Silicon Valley, has set up office in Singapore and is looking to raise $100 million of funding to...
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As tours & activities heat up, Go City keeps focus on profitability
Singapore from zero to hero, “people will always travel to cities,” says Jon Owen Let’s face it. The tours and activities sector is blazing hot again. GetYourGuide’s latest fund raise of $194 million...
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Building Meili and Manna: How Bobby Healy wants to end “fiasco of car hire...
The one thing you can count on when you speak to Bobby Healy is, he’s a straight shooter. When you ask him why he founded Meili Travel Technology, his new car rental business in direct competition with...
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Trials & Tribulations of Nigeria: Not for the faint-hearted but vast potential
Travelstart builds new tech to fuel new dreams on back of recovery You couldn’t pick a more challenging market than Nigeria to build an online travel business – poor economy for starters, 1.6% credit...
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NDC Revolution: Time To Face The Oncoming Train
Sabre’s Mendis on NDC’s momentum, painful transition to new world, AI innovation For the last eight years or so ever since it was first introduced into the airline vocabulary, the acronym “NDC” has...
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Biggest pain point in transition to NDC world is post-booking and servicing:...
“This moment will reshape the industry,” says CEO Rajeev As NDC adoption by airlines accelerates, led by American Airlines, intermediaries are struggling to remain relevant as new pain points emerge....
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Letter from the Priorat, Catalonia: Listening to the wines, and the silence
To be honest (and I’ve always been told to be wary of people who start their sentences with those three words but in this case, it’s sincere), I had never heard of Priorat until, well, this year when I...
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