The WiT Podcast

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 traffic in Riyadh – but underneath all that, the unexpected open-ness, the overwhelming warmth of people, the unbridled pride of Saudis to share and show off their kingdom and the lack of guile in their conversations. This is a story that goes beyond the warmth and hospitality of its people. Something momentous is happening in Saudi and it goes beyond the numbers, the dollars, the targets – this is nation-building, social-transformation, call it what you will, with travel and tourism as its engine.

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 from white hat and gray hat hackers”) and because she has always wanted to meet a real-life hacker, she asked him what he did for a living. Without missing a beat, the man replied, “My company does security upskilling training in penetration testing.” While Siew Hoon may have restrained herself from making the joke we're all thinking of, this encounter did lead to revelation at another conference next door. Stream the episode to find out.

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 Sahib”, would think of the many jargons we in the travel industry have come up with in recent years to describe all the different types of people who travel. In this episode of WiT Stories, Siew Hoon (Founder, WiT) looks at some newer terms, buzzwords and jargon that has popped up in travel, while creating some of her own along the way.

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 product chiefs, Austin Sheppard, Senior Vice President of Booking.com’s Trips Business Unit, and David Liu, Chief Product Officer of Klook, on the trends they are seeing, the products they are building and how they see technology such as AI and Augmented Reality changing the sector. For David, who’d always been into tech, joining Klook in 2016 as VP of Product and UX, a year after it was founded, was a no-brainer. “I didn’t pick a startup, I picked Klook," he says during the episode, emphatically. The founders’ passion and vision in wanting to bring experiences online and connect suppliers and travellers excited him. “I care a lot about customers, and they care about our customers as well.” Meanwhile, Austin, quoting Booking.com’s Q3 2023 financial results, said that they “saw an increase in the percentage of transactions which we count as connected trips, meaning two or more travel components within a trip (though still small number of total transactions). David also shared an experience about buying shoes online, which co-host Laura Houldsworth then extrapolated on, citing her own experience of an AR shoe fitting – which then led to a new idea that David said Klook would develop to ride on the growing trend of “costume dressing” among Asian travellers in destinations such as Japan and South Korea. Have a listen for the reveal at the end.

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) doesn't think this “pain and suffering” message is new to entrepreneurs as well. During Web in Travel Africa last week, she interviewed three travel founders to find out their tales from the edge. One of them said, “If you’re not at one point about to go bankrupt then you can’t say you really had a startup! What’s really difficult is to hire good people, so you have to appear motivated and positive in front of them to keep them on board, while suffering quietly in the back.” Want to find out what the other entrepreneurs had to say? Have a listen. In this episode, Siew Hoon delves into what it means to be a happy entrepreneur, warts and all.

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 tells a deeply human story - of a man at the peak of a monumental industry, navigating arguably the most turbulent years in aviation history. In this episode, Siew Hoon (Founder, WiT) chats with Peter, whom she calls a mentor, about not only the professional trials of Alan Joyce, but the often-ignored emotional element of people in high places. As the saying goes - it's lonely at the top. Siew Hoon also asks the serious question - why are there so few women in aviation, to which Peter responds with some honest albeit harsh truths. The two also talk about life Down Under and yet another book that Peter is currently working on. It's all here in this special whopper of an episode.

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 with ideas and buzzing with passion. The humans gathered in this space all want to make an impact – from startups working on digital identity to AI services for education and businesses, fintech and health care. It’s interesting how no matter where you are, you have humans innovating and using tech to solve similar issues. Besides the event, Siew Hoon also chronicles the sights, sounds, people and unique wildlife that she encounters on her trip there.

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 her mother’s eyes made her highly cognizant of the ageing societies of Asia. According to the Singapore government's 2023 population report, citizens aged 65 and above make up almost one-fifth of Singapore's population, up 11.7% from a decade ago. As much fuss as there is about the Gen Z and Millennials and their current and future spending power, there’s a silent and strong undercurrent going on in the silver generation. So how can technology address the ageing population worldwide? And is the solution, as psychologists suggest, to simply travel inside our own minds? Narrator: Yeoh Siew Hoon

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 away, where you can talk to anybody in the world instantly in real time without paying for long distance … and he spoke of how you could create content like Arnold Schwarzenegger with Loni Anderson's head …” That’s when she decided “that’s the world I want to work in”. Fast forward to now and Adrienne says all the things O’Leary spoke about – it was around 1987 – have come to pass – deep fakes that you can generate with an app, for instance. In this episode of Customer Love, hosts Yeoh Siew Hoon (Founder, WiT) and Laura Houldsworth (Managing Director & Vice President for Asia Pacific, Booking.com) speak with Enggist about her views on AI taking over travel and hospitality and the role of tech in creating better products for customers. For starters, Enggist's advice to developers is “you've got to make your mistakes differently”. As for how she thinks AI will impact travel and how you can cook up “AI and Product Love” into your business to win “Customer Love”, have a listen.

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, with the top travel companies all reporting healthy fourth quarter 2023 and full year 2024 results – from Airbnb, Booking Holdings, Expedia Group, Trip.com Group, Amadeus. Also, why does AI get blamed for everything these days? It's all on this week's WiT Stories. You can read the article version of this podcast here. Narrator: Yeoh Siew Hoon

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 Guerreiro, Regional Director South APAC and Chains, Booking.com, says you have to choose to be either green and growing, or ripe and rotting. The answer is a no brainer, so you simply must listen to this episode, focused on the fast-growing alternative accommodation sector, featuring Nuno and his colleague, Inas Abdella, Director of Product, Booking Home. This episode contains lots of nuggets of insights about the reasons behind the growth, what travellers are looking for as well as what suppliers can do to ride on this new wave of accommodation, and understand what different travellers want. As for their recommendations of their favourite short term rental places, well, have a listen. Stay tuned for more episodes, in which Siew Hoon (Founder, WiT) and Laura Houldsworth ( interview a host of voices from Booking.com, as well as a few surprises from industry friends. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

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 and complicated dance with sustainability. It’s interesting the different paths they have each taken to arrive at this common junction – Danielle through a scholarly path and deep research into highly niche topics such as an ethnography on the Muslim community who cares for elephants used for Hindu processions in Varanasi, and the role social enterprises play in preserving cultural heritage in Cambodia, and Eric who got an early introduction to urban farming during his childhood in rural Ohio, and an odd job stint in “a random lodge in the northeast corner of Costa Rica”, which opened his eyes to the kind of experiences travellers were willing to travel for. Both agree the next wave in sustainability is biodiversity which is positive in the sense in that it will get the industry out of its carbon tunnel vision, says Danielle, into areas that travellers can relate to. As for the books they recommend if you want to dig deeper into this super important topic in travel, and how we can all move from Customer Love to Planet Love, have a listen to the podcast. Stay tuned for more episodes, in which Siew Hoon (Founder, WiT) and Laura Houldsworth ( interview a host of voices from Booking.com, as well as a few surprises from industry friends. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

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 (Managing Director, Asia Pacific, Booking.com), about travel trends to look forward to this year. With a background in financial services, writing, communications and marketing, Laura gets candid about seeking Booking.com thanks to her passion for travel. She also talks about what kind of traveller she is based on Booking.com's research data. The duo then talk about rising trends in Asia Pacific, and what mega-platforms like Booking.com are doing to not only retain customer loyalty in a crowded marketplace, but attract new travellers with exciting new demands. Stay tuned for future episodes, in which Siew Hoon and Laura interview a host of voices from Booking.com, as well as a few surprises from industry friends. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

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 more trepeditious due to shaky socio-economic conditions worldwide. In this episode, Siew Hoon and Arvindh discuss some of those answers - from Expedia's Michael Dykes elaborating on robust demographics in Asia, specifically Gen Z, to Wego's Ross Veitch pointing out “the long-term impact of demographic changes as a result of declining birth rates” which he says is off most people's radar but is going to massively impact economies worldwide. We also go over some less hefty questions, like the most interesting things our featured travel leaders have read or watched this year, and one word they'd use to describe the year that was and the year that will be. Stream the episode to join the discussion.

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 growing up on a farm in rural America taught him self-sufficiency as well as an appreciation for the origin of food. It also made him determined to return to Japan, and Asia, where his heart is and so he made sure he never lost his Japanese language skills while building a new life in the US. In this podcast, Dykes talks about how countries in South-east Asia are more interwoven with each other – a lot of cultural awareness across boundaries, not seen so much in North-east Asia, which then leads to e-commerce in general, including travel, cutting across boundaries as well. Dykes also talks about Expedia's partnerships with Jetstar and Philippine Airlines, and a deal now with general e-commerce players such as G-Mart of South Korea. The company is also also expanding the definition of B2B, and he sees opportunities within Asia-Pacific, both vertically and geographically, for Expedia to “power travel for everybody”. Interviewer: Yeoh Siew Hoon, Founder, WiT For more episodes in this series, look for the WiT Podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts.

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 about the lessons he has collected and curated over the years to help him prepare for the future of travel. With so much new technology at one's disposal, how does an experienced travel pro like Rob pick and choose what works best for the task at hand? We also chat about new trends in Rob's specialty, Destination Marketing, and how data is helping companies like Expedia create more personalised experiences for each customer, which in turn adds value to Expedia's partners and suppliers. Interviewer: Yeoh Siew Hoon, Founder, WiT Stay tuned for more episodes in this series. Subscribe to the WiT Podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts.

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-centric providers sift through the hype without getting distracted by the 'next big thing' that enters the market? In this episode of Expedia Talks, we ask Karen about what drew her to the intersection of travel and technology. We also chat about her first startup and how it got acquired by Expedia all those years ago. Karen also gets candid about her time growing up and the formative years that brought her to Expedia, before answering today's most pressing question - what's a human quality that cannot be codified? Interviewer: Yeoh Siew Hoon, Founder, WiT Stay tuned for more episodes in this series. Subscribe to the WiT Podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts.

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, are no strangers to transformations in the industry either. In this episode of Expedia Talks, we sit down with Greg and Hari to talk about their roles at Expedia and how it has evolved over time, especially with data, AI, and machine learning. We also go back to the early days of Online Travel Agencies and how it changed the way we travel, and why travel professionals need to always be one step ahead of the curve with trends in the market. Greg and Hari also talk about the collective responsibility of travel players, and why it's time to rise to the occasion to meet the challenges and opportunities during this technological turning point. Interviewer: Yeoh Siew Hoon (Founder, WiT) Stay tuned for more episodes in this series. Subscribe to the WiT Podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts.

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 and hospitality scene? On the first episode of Expedia Talks, a special series powered by Expedia Group, we chat with Alfonso Paredes (SVP, Commercial Partnerships, Expedia Group) about finding synergy in a competitive travel market, looking for common goals among collaborators, and how tech is helping build bridges instead of walls in the new tourism and hospitality scene. Interviewer: Arvindh Yuvaraj (Content Lead, WiT) Stay tuned for more episodes in this series. Subscribe to the WiT Podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts.

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 Intelligence in travel and hospitality. We also chat about interesting news and interviews from the last week. Want to know how famous hotel designer Bill Bensley works with animals and mother nature when designing his projects? We've got that covered. We also go over Klook's dive into content creation and social marketing via their Kreators program - an affiliate platform that rewards KOLs and influencers for Klook purchases made via social media platforms. But, why does Klook favour the smaller influencers, those with less than 10k followers, above the social juggernauts? Stream the episode to find out.