The WiT Podcast

They put their own money into the business, one of them selling his house. Together, they scraped together $1m. By 2018, their tours and activities platform was valued at around $1b, and the business continues to grow. It's hard to say who's more surprised by the achievement – Ethan Lin (CEO) or Eric Gnock Fah (President) or perhaps their parents whom they talk about openly – but one thing is clea...

AI, it seems, is creeping into everything. In a little café in a local neighbourhood in Penang, far from the madding tourist crowd, the young entrepreneurs running it offer "AI Fried Char Koay Teow".

On this episode, Siew Hoon (Founder, WiT) ponders on a new-ish trend that's being called "theme travel". New-ish because it used to be called special interest travel - people who travelled for specific interests. In this "Next Generation", let's call this tribe, "Themers". This includes runners who travel for marathons, music fans who go from festival to festival, and event-driven folks who fly ac...

This week, Siew Hoon (Founder, WiT) reflects on her recent stay in the tranquil village of Sheepstor, West Dartmoor, which also has a surprising connection to Sarawak, Malaysia. The Burrator Cottages, on the estate once owned by Sir James Brooke, the first Rajah of Sarawak, provides an idyllic retreat for travellers seeking a truly authentic experience.

Siew Hoon (Founder, WiT) is back in Shanghai for the first time since 2019, for Trip.com's global partner conference, Envision 2024. Experiencing first-hand the resurgence of China's tourism and hospitality scene, Siew Hoon highlights the cities eagerness to embrace tech, it's robust art scene and everything a revitalised Trip.com is doing to cater to fresh demographics. 

Siew Hoon (Founder, WiT) returns to the Middle East for the first time since 2019 for WiT Phocuswright Middle East 2024. But what she experiences there upon landing serves as both culture shock and eye-opener to the progress the region has supercharged itself with in the last few years. Yes, there are lots of expected – the masses of cranes; the construction going on everywhere you look; the traff...

While standing in a long queue at the café at the Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre, wondering why it doesn't have a robotic barista because the human ones were looking rather frazzled, Siew Hoon spotted a man wearing a delegate badge that says "Black Hat Asia". Intrigued because she associated Black Hat with hackers (Google says "the term black hat has been used to differentiate criminal hackers...

Author and travel writer Paul Theroux had a very simple way of describing people who travel. He divided them into tourist and traveller, saying, "Tourists don't know where they've been, travellers don't know where they're going." Of course, he said this, way before social media turned travel into a mass team sport. One wonders what the scribe, who by the way has just published a new book "Burma Sa...

This final episode of "Customer Love" fittingly covers tours and activities – the things travellers do in-destination. It's the most exciting part of travel and it's coming online at great speed, thanks to companies such as Booking.com which started building out their "connected trip" in 2019 and Klook which has been building up the sector in Asia Pacific for the past nine years . We speak to two...

It's news to no one that the words 'pain' and 'suffering' have negative connotations, for obvious reasons. However, many modern thinkers believe that these experiences are often intertwined with success and happiness.  Of course, for those of us in Asia, these teachings and sayings aren't new. In fact, they're ingrained in many cultures and religious beliefs in the region.  Siew Hoon (Founder, WiT...

Aviation veteran and consultant Peter Harbison has many accolades - founder of CAPA, aviation lawyer and commentator, and of course, author. His new book, 'Alan Joyce and Qantas: The Trials and Transformation of an Australian Icon' contains all the ingredients of a corporate thriller, filled with constant shocks to the system and boardroom drama.  But despite all the corporate chaos, Peter's book...

On this episode of WiT Stories, Siew Hoon (Founder, WiT) chimes in from beautiful Cape Town, South Africa - the home and host of this year's WiT Africa.  The WiT community has gathered at Innovation City, where we are holding our first WiT Africa on 14-15 March. A heritage building that now houses Cape Town's most vibrant and diverse community of startups, investors and corporates, it's brimming w...

Travelling is a highly physical activity – those long walks to the gates and immigration, those long queues – not easy when you are not fully mobile. Especially for the elderly - the requests for assistance pre-flight, the waits at check-in for assistance, the arrival process – and the inevitable conclusion that one day it will happen to all of us. For Siew Hoon (Founder, WiT), seeing life through...

As a student, Adrienne Enggist, Senior Director of Product, Customer Experience and Platforms for Booking.com, had an epiphany, not a hallucination, when she listened to Timothy O'Leary, the late American psychologist and author known for his strong advocacy of psychedelic drugs. He wasn't talking about acid but of the future, she said. ""He asked us to imagine a future that's less than 20 years a...

Taylor Swift has arrived in Singapore for the highly anticipated Eras Tour, which she'll perform for six nights over two weeks. Let's face it, pop stars are good for business. More than 300,000 tickets have been sold for the concerts in Singapore, with a large number of fans travelling in from Southeast Asia and the rest of the world. All round, it's been a good news week for travel and tourism, w...

Imagine. Fifteen years ago, there was no alternative accommodation category on Booking.com. Today, there are 7.2m short term rental listings and in its Q3 2023 earnings, this sector grew the fastest, 24% year over year, making it about 33% of all bookings. And if you want to be part of this "New Wave of Customer Love" , Nuno Guerr eiro, Regional Director South APAC and Chains, Booking.com, says yo...

There's certainly a lot of practices travel suppliers have to put in place to fulfil and deliver on its responsibility to build a more sustainable industry, and everyone, from the grassroots to giants, must do their part. Danielle D'Silva, Head of Sustainability, Booking.com and Eric Ricaurte, CEO of Greenview, are certainly trying to do their part in their centrestage roles in travel's delicate a...

What does 'customer love' mean in 2024? For the first time since 2019, travel companies are unanchoring themselves to the events of the last 3 years and embracing the freedom, opportunities, and challenges that come with this new travel landscape. In the pilot episode of our new series, Customer Love, Yeoh Siew Hoon (Founder, WiT) speaks to her co-host for all upcoming episodes, Laura Houldsworth...

Top Of The WiT is a grab of the trendiest news in travel, tech and Asia - all condensed into a nugget-sized podcast.  For the last couple of weeks, we've featured our year-end series, Goodbye 2023, Hello 2024 on the WiT website, showcasing global travel leaders nutshelling 2023 while anticipating 2024. Many were positive about the last 12 months and are looking forward to 2024, while a few are mor...

What happens when as an eight-year-old, you are moved from Okinawa to Indiana, two more contrasting places you couldn't imagine? Well, for half-Japanese-half-American Michael Dykes, it was definitely "jarring", but it taught him some valuable life lessons which have stood him in good stead in both his career and life. The Vice President, Market Management of Asia-Pacific for Expedia Group said gro...

After 15 years at Google's marketing and advertising division, Rob Torres recently returned to his former home at Expedia Group as Senior Vice President of Media Solutions. Like many key figures in travel and hospitality, Rob has seen the industry shift and evolve over time, with technology driving most of the change in the last couple of decades.  In this episode of Expedia Talks, we ask Rob abou...

Technology has come a long way in the last 20 years and Expedia has always evolved its tech platforms to stay on the forefront of change. Now, travel and hospitality are at an inflection point driven by decentralised tech like Generative AI. As the Senior Vice President of Product & Technology at Expedia Group, how does Karen Bolda and her team stay on top of all these trends? And how do tech-cent...

As a company, Expedia Group is no stranger to change - the company has been through many shifts in the travel and hospitality industry, from technological booms to slumps in the global economy, to the current AI revolution amidst a worldwide recovery phase. Similarly, two travel veterans, Greg Schulze, SVP of Strategic Travel Partners and Hari Nair, SVP and General Manager, Lodging Marketplace, ar...

Expedia Group rolled out a few partnerships recently – SoFi, Mastercard, and WalmartPlusTravel.com. By enabling giant retailers like these, do they risk losing business on the B2C side of things? Why would consumers continue to use Expedia's brands if they have other channels they can book on and have the same experience? And lastly, what does it take to form lasting partnerships in today's travel...

Top Of The WiT is a grab of the trendiest news in travel, tech and Asia - all condensed into a nugget-sized podcast.  In this episode, we're gearing up for WiT's annual flagship event, WiT Singapore. Themed 'The Human Revolution, this year's event gathers the brightest minds and most influential voices in the Asia Pacific travel scene to discuss and debate the rapidly growing role of Artificial In...