AI wave, local reckoning: Four trends cruise can’t ignore
Confession first: the woman opening a cruise conference is not, by her own admission, a cruiser.
“I am not a big cruiser,” Yeoh Siew Hoon told delegates at Cruise World Asia in Singapore on Wednesday morning, before explaining why she was on stage anyway – WiT, the travel platform she found [...]
Vietnam travel surges. China OTAs under pressure. Cloudbeds’ new RMS. Zeal CRM debuts. Airbnb names Asia director.
Vietnam leads growth as Southeast Asians increasingly traveling within the region
Agoda's H1 2026 data shows Southeast Asian travellers are increasingly booking trips to neighboring countries, with Vietnam the standout destination; accommodation searches rose across every regional market, from 20% [...]
GetYourGuide sharpens tool kit for tour operators
GetYourGuide has unlocked a set of new tools to help tour and attraction operators sharpen performance, build stronger listings, and reach travellers faster.
The product updates, unveiled at its annual Unlocked Summit Berlin, were shared with Europe’s leading travel operators gathered to discus [...]
AirAsia MOVE bets on event tourism, fans who fly to catch a show
The airline's new MOVETIX bundle pairs flights with official event tickets, launching with Djakarta Warehouse Project 2026 as event-driven travel demand climbs across the region.
AirAsia MOVE has launched a bundle that combines flights and official event tickets into a single booking, aiming to sim [...]
From idea to pilot in 7 weeks. Why ZUZU Hospitality picked Queenstown for its new hotel tech platform
ZUZU Hospitality's new "Kea" platform wants to fix the data mess independent hoteliers deal with daily, and Queenstown is the testing ground before it goes global
Singapore-based ZUZU Hospitality is piloting a new AI platform for independent hotels in Queenstown, just seven weeks after founder and [...]
The next generation of hotels: Software companies that happen to have beds
Robots delivering room service in San Francisco, a 200,000-square-foot wellness floor in Athens with a longevity clinic attached. At WiT Queenstown, a panel of operators, owners and investors tried to work out what actually matters once the gadgetry is stripped away.
Travellers now have multitud [...]
Letter from The Cotswolds: Pretty little villages, naked gardens, buried bodies
In Wiltshire, in the Cotswolds Area, there is a tiny, sweet village called Castle Combe. Despite its name, it has no castle, but visiting it, I couldn’t help but think that the villagers living there (last count: 326) wished they had a fortress and moat to keep out the visitors.
It was past six [...]
Unfinished business: Inside the founding of Flagship Group
When I put it to Stephen Oddo that buying back into the tours and activities business he’d built and sold looked a lot like unfinished business, he answered rather reticently. “To a certain degree, for sure,” he said, and then proceeded at some length to explain it off as a “happy coincidenc [...]
Online travel: Today, tomorrow and what’s the day after
As VIDEC wraps its 2026 OTA benchmarking across India, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, CEO Virendra Jain sizes up how Trip.com, Expedia, Booking.com, Agoda, Wego, Skyscanner, Airbnb and Google are jockeying for position in travel's most volatile growth markets and what could upend the pecking order next.
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F1 boosts SEA travel. Booking loses Etraveli appeal. Laters.com raises $1.5M. VantisCorp’s TMC platform. More
VantisCorp debuts white-label automation platform for TMCs
VantisCorp launched a white-label corporate travel platform, aimed at Travel Management Companies (TMCs) still relying on spreadsheets, email approvals, and manual invoice reconciliation; it unifies hotel and flight booking (with TMC-specif [...]
