Articles tagged “asia pacific”

Businesses in the times of coronavirus are damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Travelzoo’s decision to exit Asia-Pacific when signs of recovery are being spotted in China is a good example of that.

Companies across APAC have embraced business travel as a way to fuel ambitious growth and generate eye-popping revenues. Now, companies are formalizing their corporate travel policies and using software solutions to better manage travel spend and drive efficiencies. With tools like Travelstop gaining market share, next year could be the tipping point for professionalized business travel booking in Asia.

In traditional business logic, the big beat the small. But in Asia-Pacific today, fast companies beat the slow ones. It's an open question whether Travelzoo can rev up its metabolism enough there to thrive.

Some of the bigger destinations on the list are obvious, but there is a lot of movement among smaller, less high-profile cities. In many ways, this movement comes down to what investments a destination makes into infrastructure and experiences.

With 500 million additional new international trips expected over the next decade, it's unlikely that the average traveler in 2029 will look like the traveler of today.

All is not well with Zuji, a pioneer in the online travel space in Asia-Pacific. An ownership that is more adept at aviation than running an OTA may be an issue, but it’s clear the entry of global OTAs flush with marketing wherewithal and expertise is making it difficult for the pioneers to compete.

There's nothing wrong with a company investing and pivoting, as Travelzoo is doing yet again. There is something wrong when a company controlled by a founder doesn't reboot with new leadership.

After a slew of acquisitions in 2014 and 2015, Expedia is focused on investing and executing. A sustained and rationally exuberant approach may work better in various markets in Asia Pacific this time around than previous efforts.

Agoda's new CEO John Brown will be leading the company to increasingly push into Europe and the Americas, beyond its traditional online travel agency turf of Asia Pacific. The early numbers show that parent company Booking Holdings is putting its money where its mouth is.

There is a ton of variation in the behavior of travelers from different countries across the Asia-Pacific region. Travel companies should pay more attention to the specific needs of the travelers they're trying to reach.