Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam: Could Southeast Asia be introducing a Schengen-style visa system?

The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) is set to organise the PATA Destination Marketing Forum 2024 (PDMF 2024) at Dusit Thani Hua Hin in Cha-Am, Phetchaburi Province, Thailand, from November 12-14, 2024. The event is co-hosted by the Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB),  Phetchaburi City and the Designated Areas for Sustainable Tourism Administration (DASTA), with the support of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT)

Wego, the largest online travel marketplace in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), is thrilled to announce its continued partnership with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) for the fourth consecutive year, showcasing the unparalleled beauty and charm of Thailand as a premier travel destination. Building upon the success of their previous collaborations, Wego and the Tourism Authority of Thailand are once again teaming up to promote Thailand’s diverse attractions, rich culture, and breathtaking landscapes to travelers worldwide. Through this strategic partnership, Wego aims to inspire travelers to explore the wonders of Thailand and experience its unique blend of tradition and modernity.

Inbound tour operators and travel providers based in Dubai, or international tour operators and other sellers offering Dubai products, may find that the worst is not yet over as the weather clears up in Dubai. TMU Management, the data-driven insurance intermediary specialising in travel, has today issued a warning to the travel trade they are very likely to see increases in rates when applying for Package Travel Regulation compliant insurance. Sami Doyle, CEO & Co-Founder of TMU Management, comments: “Who’d have thought that flooding could be an operational risk in the middle of a desert? Whilst this may technically be the worst rain in 75 years in the UAE, underwriters are unlikely to forget about that anytime soon. At this early stage it would be hard to say how much of an increase to expect, but for sure it won’t be going down when you mention Dubai. And it could easily go up enough to make sellers think twice when pricing future sales. Certainly we’d advise to expect a noticeable increase.”

When it comes to personalisation in the sale of travel products there’s personalisation, and then there’s ‘hyper-personalisation’ – knowing and catering to the traveller’s specific likes and whims, from what temperature they like their hotel room to what seat they prefer on a plane. As hyper-personalisation goes beyond the standard strategies used for personalisation, it involves a whole new style of segmentation that relies on harnessing unseen-before amounts of data. Much of it in real-time. With recent advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning, travel companies may finally be in a position to offer this kind of service to travellers. We spoke with some travel technology experts to find out whether this is likely to happen any time soon and what the industry needs to do to prepare. So what’s the benefit for travel brands that manage to achieve this? Martin Eade from travel search and booking technology provider Vibe believes there’s a lot riding on this. “This is the holy grail of personalisation and the first company to get this right will have a real first mover advantage. After all, why would customers switch from a hotel or airline that can anticipate their needs before they even know them themselves?”. Perhaps you are wondering though what kind of technology is needed to make this work? Rubén Sánchez, CEO from leading hotel revenue management platform BEONx explains that the more travel companies are able to improve their knowledge of their guests through data analysis, the easier it will be to design hyper-personalized experiences that are adapted to the specific needs of each guest. “The aim is to create strategies that make each guest feel special and unique, instead of feeling like a faceless member of a generic market segment. But before companies can achieve hyper-personalisation, they need to shift their focus from the product to the client, developing a customer-centric strategy. Harnessing data will help them to understand exactly who their clients are, how they behave, and what they expect when they come to stay at a hotel, or travel on a specific airline.”

Capital A has announced an agreement for the divestment of its airline business and the acquisition of AirAsia X, forming a unified AirAsia Group.

Looking to establish itself as the number 1 online travel agency in Southeast Asia, Air Asia Move, previously known as AirAsia superapp, announced the launch of its ASEAN Explorer Pass on Thursday.

My most shameful moment as a traveler occurred in Thailand.

The European Commission has introduced a new visa “cascade” regime for Indian nationals applying for Schengen visas in India. This regime looks to offer longer-term, multi-entry Schengen visas, based on the applicant’s travel history.

There’s so much more to Chiang Mai, Thailand’s Rose of the North, than first meets the eye.

India is becoming a convenient hub for travel between Southeast Asia and the Middle East, IndiGo Chairman V Sumantran said during his address at a college in Chennai. He also cited the example of several airlines carrying passengers from places such as Bangkok to Jeddah or Dubai by connecting through Indian cities.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand on Thursday hosted a group of more than 8,000 incentive visitors from India. The delegation is part of the authority’s goal of receiving at least 1.7 million Indian visitors this year, it said in a statement. 

Airbnb turned heads in 2021 when it announced chairman and CEO Brian Chesky had been awarded a $120 million pay package the previous year that potentially included earning 12 million restricted stock units over the following decade.