Asia monthly tips

The words “shirtless” and “official meeting” may not appear in the same sentence often, but trust AirAsia parent Capital A CEO Tony Fernandes to do things differently.

Just a few weeks ago, tourism was said to be the olive branch that was going to improve relations between Israel and the rest of the Middle East. Saturday’s surprise Hamas attack on the country has a confirmed death toll of more than 1,000 so far, completely halting its tourism sector, and further delaying any hopes of stability in the area.

Saudi Arabia is working on its own major commercial cruise line brand designed for those with “Arabian preferences.” AROYA Cruises sets sail next year with a single ship, formerly known as World Dream, the last remaining ship of the struggling Dream Cruises company.

Middle East-based online travel marketplace Wego has acquired corporate travel platform Travelstop as part of its expansion into business travel and expense management.

Six casino companies have agreed to invest a total of $15 billion in Macau over ten years, with more than 90 percent of the money pledged to non-gaming activities.

Jongyoon Kim, the CEO of South Korea-based superapp Yanolja, sees Tesla as the metaphor for its company highlighting how the electronic vehicle company has been rethinking the entire value chain.

Silkhaus, a United Arab Emirates-based platform for short-term rentals, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $7.75 million in a seed funding round.

Malaysia’s Capital A will not be merging its airlines, but will instead move all the carriers under one existing structure, similar to how British Airways, Iberia Airline, and Aer Lingus operate under the International Airlines Group umbrella, said CEO Tony Fernandes on Monday.

Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines have agreed to consolidate Air India and Vistara by March 2024.

Registering a record performance for the first six months of the financial year, Dubai state carrier Emirates Airline on Thursday reported a net profit of $1.08 billion for the first half of the financial year, compared to a loss of $1.6 billion for the same period last year.

A job opening for a hotel wanting an “organic chef” or someone who can handle “procurement and environmental, social, and corporate governance,” underlines the importance of sustainability as a value proposition helping them with talent acquisition and retention.

The situation on the ground in China isn’t ideal as the country readies to remove its travel restrictions this weekend.

India-headquartered travel tech firm RateGain Travel Technologies is acquiring Adara, a Silicon Valley-based firm in travel martech and predictive consumer intelligence. The cost: a mere $16.1 million, according to RateGain’s filing on the Indian stock market, which puts Adara, long troubled with management and competition issues for the last few years, out of its misery.

An end to China’s travel curbs this month is expected to revive demand in the global luxury retail market, which has been starved of mainland visitors for three years, but many consumers now see more reasons to do their high-end shopping locally.

Chinese airlines will be the early winners of the country’s international reopening, analysts say, having kept most widebody planes and staff ready while foreign carriers struggle with capacity constraints after previous border openings.

Three years of COVID-19 forced Becky Zhang’s specialty food business in Macau to near collapse. Founded by her grandmother more than fifty years ago, her store selling pastries and dried beef only survived thanks to residents who bought small quantities to help keep them afloat.

Indian online travel agency EaseMyTrip announced this week that it has acquired a 55 percent stake in hotel booking marketplace cheQin, owned by Gleego Innovations, for around $370,000.

Indian carrier Vistara reported its first-ever net profit for the quarter ending December 2022, according to statement from the airline on Monday.  

Fly91, a new Indian airline named after the country’s telephone code, is aiming to take advantage of India’s rising middle class by focusing its services on second and third-tier cities.

India is projected to surpass a rapidly aging China as the world’s most populous country this year, a development that Skift founder and CEO Rafat Ali and Senior Research Analyst Seth Borko said would have enormous implications for the travel industry during the Skift Megatrends event in New York City on January 10.

The Tatas will let go of Indian full-service carrier Vistara as they look to merge the airline with the more “internationally-recognized” Air India, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said on Monday.