Raini Hamdi

Over 100 travel agencies have ceased operations in Singapore in the first six months of the year. But a closer look shows the trade is not dying; it is renewing.

After kissing TUI goodbye, Intrepid Group has a new adventure -- to be a company with $1 billion in revenue. With experiential travel being the buzzword, and having incorporated lessons from TUI into the company, it may achieve the goal sooner than five years.

Thomas Cook India’s acquisition of Kuoni’s network of destination management companies is a story of how an Indian company becomes a global player overnight. There are also deep wounds about how a global company like Kuoni could end up being broken, literally, to pieces.

Switzerland Tourism is employing “precision marketing” as the number of Chinese individual travelers rose last year while overall arrivals dropped. Tactics aim to be as precise as a Swiss watch; other destinations it competes with for longhaul Chinese travelers, including the U.S., Canada and New Zealand, should take note.

Will Accor-Banyan Tree be the model for Asian hotel groups to grow globally without losing their independence and brand value? The devil may be in the execution. Hoteliers are watching how this works out and many believe it could be tough-going.

Making history as the world’s first low-cost carrier alliance is one thing. Will history judge the U-FLY alliance, comprising five LCCs in North Asia, as a game-changer that’s able to get fiercely independent players to work together?

These are crucial times for citizenM as it expands rapidly outside its European base into North America and Asia. It has to stay vigilant about differentiating the brand, now 10 years old, and ensure it is still cutting-edge.

This is a pivotal moment for cruise tourism growth in Southeast Asia, but sustainability has to be in the forefront of development efforts.

With little budget and even less originality in marketing, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations may be better off focusing on facilitating tourism growth through infrastructure and other improvements, which it is adept at, than launching another Visit ASEAN Year.

Signs of HomeAway becoming more aggressive about Asia expansion are evident but there is much to do. Putting in place a new leadership team is just the beginning.