WIT Warriors hailed

WIT Conference

“These individuals have all played a significant role in the development of online travel in APAC, to grow the market from almost zero from WIT started in 2005, to now a quarter of the total travel market in APAC,” said Yeoh Siew Hoon, founder, WIT. 

Singapore’s home-grown powerhouse conference Web in Travel (WIT), where the best in travel and technology minds from around the world meet, ended on a high note with the recognition of the top influencers in online travel in Asia Pacific. 

Ten online travel leaders and companies were inducted into the WIT Warriors Circle. 

They were Rob Rosenstein, CEO & Co-founder, Agoda; Fritz Demopoulos, Co-founder, Qunar; Deep Kalra & Keyur Joshi, Co-founders, MakeMyTrip; Kathleen Tan, CEO, AirAsia Expedia; Melissa Yang, Co-founder  & CTO, Qunar; Morris Sim, CEO & Co-founder, Circos Brand Karma; Adrian Currie, Senior Vice President-Corporate Development, Priceline Group; Ross Veitch, CEO & Co-founder, Wego; Kei Shibata, CEO, Venture Republic Japan; and Martin Symes, Vice President-Marketing, Abacus International.

An honorary award was given to Ram Badrinathan, CEO & Co-founder, GlobalTHEN, who in his previous role with PhoCusWright, forged the first partnership with WIT in 2005. 

“These individuals have all played a significant role in the development of online travel in APAC, to grow the market from almost zero from WIT started in 2005, to now a quarter of the total travel market in APAC,” said Yeoh Siew Hoon, founder, WIT. 

“They, together with WIT, have grown up with the industry and helped shape the community that has formed around our platform.

“We will introduce new warriors into the circle each year and by so doing, expand the circle of influence. In discussions at this year’s WIT, it is clear that influence is the new currency – whether you are an employee, brand or consumer, if you can influence, you raise your game.”

According to PhoCusWright’s Asia Pacific Online Travel Overview Seventh Edition, one quarter of the total APAC travel market was booked online in 2013, up from one fifth in 2012, and this growth rate is expected to continue through 2016, when nearly one third of APAC travel will be booked online. APAC total travel bookings reached $322.6 billion in 2013.  

The record attendance at WIT 2014, with close to 550 delegates registered, is indicative of the growth and potential of the online travel segment. “We also saw the highest percentage of first-time delegates coming from outside Asia, and this shows the growing interest foreign companies have in our region,” said Siew Hoon.

With high adoption of smartphones across Asia Pacific, and local device manufacturers such as Xiaomi, driving even higher local adoption with its affordable prices, consumers are expected to make the great migration from offline to online at an accelerated pace.

The WIT Conference discussed the impact of this behaviour change on every supplier – from airlines to hotels to tourism boards – and channels of distribution – from social networks to meta-search to Online Travel Agencies.

“Mobile is underpinning everything, from the way travellers search, plan, book, review, share, and experience and this is influencing product and marketing strategies at all points of the travel value chain,” said Siew Hoon.

The sharing economy also got the thumbs-up from investors when Spacebase, a P2P marketplace connecting unique venues with event organisers, was judged WIT Start-Up of the Year out of four finalists contending for the annual prize. 

Social enterprise, LocalAlike, a Thailand-based community tourism platform, won the People’s Choice for its idea of giving a percentage of revenues to communities which deliver those tourism experiences. 

For more information about WIT, please visit webintravel.com.