South-east Asia: Reality vs hype
Lightspeed report, from Gojek co-founder, aims at resetting expectations of founders and investors
Lightspeed Venture Partners, the multi-stage venture capital firm focused on accelerating disruptive innovations and trends, has released a report on “South-east Asia: Resetting Expectations”, to [...]
Letter from Ho Chi Minh City: From instant noodles to skyscrapers
Listen to the podcast here:
“When you live in it, you don’t see it.”My friend said this with a wry smile as she navigated the busy streets of Ho Chi Minh City. I sat beside her, wide-eyed, taking in the sweeping changes of a city I hadn't seen sinc [...]
A brief history of online travel, 1999-2024, visualised
Inspired by Hans Rosling’s “200 years in 4 minutes”, where the late Swedish stats guru and public educator visualised the story of the world, using 120,000 numbers, Wego’s vice president, strategy and planning, Nedyalko Terziev, has put together this visualisation telling the story of online [...]
Travel is a great place for scientists, says Agoda’s Idan Zalzberg
Going full power on using AI to give better, quicker answers to customers
Growing up, Idan Zalzberg never had any doubt that he would end up in the intersection of science, engineering and tech. Travel just happened to fall into the mix.
Now the Chief Technology Officer of Agoda, one of Asia [...]
Accor on hunt for global media agency, limits distribution partners to four
Karelle Lamouche: “The consumer has changed, distribution has changed”
There’s no denying the massive job ahead for Karelle Lamouche as she aligns commercial strategies for Accor’s Premium, Midscale & Economy division, which encompasses 21 different brands and 90 percent of Accor’s po [...]
Apple Intelligence: Much to be excited about but mind the realities and complexities of integration with travel
The impending rollout of Apple Intelligence, the personal intelligence system that combines the power of generative models with personal context to deliver useful and relevant intelligence, across Apple devices is being watched closely by travel industry product veterans.
Apple has announced that [...]
InterparkTriple teams up with Sabre to boost inbound tourism to Korea
Travel and entertainment platform to lure “set-jetters” inspired by K-drama
In a move that both companies hope to boost inbound tourism to Korea, Sabre Corporation and InterparkTriple, Korea’s leading travel and entertainment platform, have signed a new long-term, strategic partner agreem [...]
Accor’s new dynamic duo driving innovation across 21 brands: “The answer is always in the consumer”
Former Estee Lauder and W veterans take reins to hone brand promise and differentiation
A day after their announcements as the new global brand presidents for Accor’s Premium Brands, Midscale & Economy Brands (PM&E), I caught up with Benoit Racle and Jean-Yves Minet in Bangkok where they [...]
Reiwa Travel raises US$33m to deepen tech at NEWT and expand beyond Japan
New fund raise hailed as “major turning point” for travel packaging startup
In March this year, Reiwa’s founder Takaya Shinozuka had spoken to WiT about his plans to take his new travel packaging startup global and that he was in the midst of raising a new round of funds to power the expansio [...]
It’s the golden age for product leaders in travel, says Trip.com’s Amy Wei
Founder of TripGenie on what makes her AI travel assistant different from others
While it’s never been more exciting to be in product tech, with new tech such as Generative AI to spice things up even more, it’s also getting more challenging to fit a growing “multiverse” of pro [...]
