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  • AirAsia.com, Agoda announce strategic partnership

    AirAsia.com, Agoda announce strategic partnership

    AirAsia.com, Asean’s fastest-growing travel and lifestyle e-commerce platform, and Agoda, the world’s leading digital travel platform, have announced a strategic partnership to spur travel activity in Southeast Asia and strengthen AirAsia’s super app offering.

    The partnership between the two major online travel service providers in the region harnesses the synergistic strengths of both digital platforms, it said in a statement here, today.

    Through the sharing of flight and hotel inventories, travelers will gain access to a more extensive multi-product selection, enjoy greater convenience and benefit from superior value.

    Initiatives from the collaboration include travel bundles, membership privileges, as well as joint product marketing. Customers of AirAsia.com can now enjoy more variety with over 600,000 Agoda properties, combined with AirAsia’s great value fares by booking through SNAP — offering flight and hotel packages with the best price guaranteed.

    The partnership with Agoda is part of AirAsia group-wide strategy to revitalize travel in anticipation of the reopening of borders in Southeast Asia in the near future, AirAsia Group group chief executive officer (CEO) Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said today.

    “We are taking the opportunity during this downtime to work innovatively with strategic partners like Agoda, so that we can better serve our guests’ travel and lifestyle needs. There are more strategic ventures in development, which we look forward to announcing when the time is right.”

    Agoda CEO John Brown said: “The public’s appetite for travel is still strong, and we believe that our collaboration with AirAsia will help take the hassle out of travel by helping travelers easily find great value deals as they venture out again.”

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  • Agoda axes staff as Covid-19 virus outbreak decimates bookings

    Agoda axes staff as Covid-19 virus outbreak decimates bookings

    Asian online travel agency and metasearch engine Agoda has shed 1500 staff in a major downsizing brought on by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

    The cuts equate to more than a third of the company’s regional payroll believed to be 4000.

    The move is a “last resort”, according to CEO John Brown, who has personally pledged to waive his own salary for the rest of the year while the travel industry plummets globally. Another senior staff has also faced 20-per-cent cuts in salaries.

    “Before getting to this decision we took aggressive measures and every opportunity to reduce costs across the business,” said Brown. “Staff reductions will always be the last resort, but we have had to make this very difficult decision. The truth is that while we are seeing some signs of recovery in our core markets in Asia-Pacific, the impact of Covid-19 on the travel industry is deeper and will be more prolonged than we could have envisaged.”

    The announcement was made during a virtual town hall with employees this week and formalized in an email to all staff.

    According to Brown, most staff cuts are in the firm’s customer experience group, as well as in product, IT, finance, partner services, marketing, and the Rocketmiles program. The CEO said this will be the first and last cut in staff.

  • Agoda’s top Chinese New Year 2019 travel rankings

    Agoda’s top Chinese New Year 2019 travel rankings

    Bangkok, Tokyo, and Taipei are the top three most popular destinations for Asia-Pacific travellers over the Lunar New Year period in 2019, according to booking data from Agoda. This year, Osaka, slips from the third spot in 2018 to sixth, while Taiwan scoops three of the top ten destinations, with Taipei in third, and Kaohsiung and Taichung in fifth and seventh respectively. Overall, Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand will benefit the most from travellers celebrating the Lunar New Year.

    Travels during the Spring Festival tend to be reserved for family bonding and indulging in food and leisure activities that the whole family can enjoy. It is thus not surprising that most travellers in the region have chosen gourmet and retail paradise in Bangkok, Tokyo, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore among their top ten destinations.

    The Lunar New Year is celebrated in many cities across Asia, but Chinese travellers enjoy the longest holiday. With a week to spare, Chinese tourists are spending the new year in cities such as Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Bangkok.

    This year, HongKongers chose to change things up, travelling to Japan, Thailand, and Taiwan over the previously favoured Korea. In fact, Korea dropped out of the top three destinations altogether to settle at the fifth spot. Staycations have also risen in popularity, and Hong Kong has made its way into the top ten this year as well.

    Singaporeans prefer to travel to neighbouring countries for their relatively short Lunar New Year public holidays. For the first time, staycations have emerged as a popular choice for those who prefer staying behind to celebrate the festival.

    Taiwanese are travelling within the region for Chinese New Year, with Kaohsiung rising up to clinch the top position. For the first time in three years, Kyoto has slipped out of the top ten rankings.

    Malaysians continue to favour travelling within the region to celebrate Lunar New Year. In 2019, domestic destinations take up eight out of the top ten destinations. Thailand remains the only overseas destination in the top ten list for Malaysian travellers over the period.

    Indonesians are venturing further afield this year to celebrate the Lunar New Year, with Kuala Lumpur and Tokyo taking up two out of three of its top travel destinations. Japan is rising in popularity, as the region adds Sapporo – with its winter wonderland – into Indonesia’s top ten destinations.

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  • More travellers are going solo, either for business or leisure

    More travellers are going solo, either for business or leisure

    With longer working hours, constant digital contact and increasing obligations, it’s no wonder more people are treating themselves to solo trips to (temporarily) get away from it all! According to a survey by Agoda, one of the world’s fastest-growing online travel agents (OTA), travellers are choosing to go solo to take respite from the stresses of modern living.

    Agoda’s ‘Solo Travel Trends 2018’ survey, conducted by YouGov, found that relaxation and time to unwind is the number one motivator for solo leisure travel globally (61%), which compares to 48% when traveling with friends. Solo travellers surveyed also ranked getting away from routine (52%) and exploring new cultures (45%) as top motivators.

    Age gap between Asian and Western solo travellers

    Interestingly, Asian solo travellers are more likely to be younger – Millennials (41%) and Generation Zers (38%) – while in the West, solo travel is more prevalent among Baby Boomers (39%) and Generation Xers (24%).

    Western solo travellers are more likely to indulge in solo travel for longer periods, more often taking trips for 4-7 nights (34%). In addition, Western solo travellers are twice as likely to go on trips of 14 nights or more (20% versus 10%). The Millennial and Generation Z Asian solo traveller tend to take shorter 1-3 night solo trips (46%).

    Trend towards more screen time

    Unsurprisingly, solo leisure travellers spend more time in front of their laptops and phones than any other traveller type –  two hours a day (119 minutes), which compares to 15% more time than when travellers are with friends (100 minutes) and 26% more time than if they are with family (86 minutes).

    Asian solo travellers are the most digitally connected and are more than two times as likely to spend four or more hours a day in front of their screens than their Western peers (31% versus 12%).

    Cosmopolitan destinations dominate the charts

    Whether for business, leisure or ‘bleisure’ (a combination of business and leisure travel), independent solo travellers are all heading to cosmopolitan cities around the world. According to Agoda’s booking data, Bangkok (Thailand) is the top destination for Asian solo travellers this year, while London (United Kingdom) is number one for Western solo travellers. Both cities have a lot of attractions to keep any solo traveller busy, from shopping and nightlife to culture and dining.

    Tokyo (Japan) is a popular choice for both Asian and Western travellers, hitting the top three for both groups. With various food, culture and accommodation options, from capsule hotels to homes and luxury 5-star retreats, the city has a lot on offer for every kind of solo traveller.

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  • Vietnam imposes tax duty on foreign room-booking sites

    Vietnam imposes tax duty on foreign room-booking sites

    Firms such as Agoda and Expedia will have to pay a 10 percent duty. The Ministry of Finance has told foreign accommodation booking services to pay taxes if they wish to continue operating in Vietnam.

    A document recently released by the ministry asked booking sites like Agoda, Traveloka and Expedia to pay a combined 10 percent of their total revenue made in Vietnam.

    Vietnamese accommodation providers that have signed contracts with these foreign sites are obliged to fulfill these tax duties on behalf of them.

    The ministry said that the move aims to prevent tax losses from foreign-based companies that are gaining from online business transactions.

    Vietnamese accommodation booking site Vntrip had previously held a press conference and sent a document to the ministry accusing Singapore-based travel agency Agoda and some other sites of tax evasion.

    Vntrip said that the acts of these foreign companies had resulted in huge losses to the state revenue and created unwholesome competition.

    This is not the first time the Vietnamese government has imposed taxes on international businesses operating in the country. Last September, the popular ride-sharing service Uber was officially ordered to pay taxes after two years of providing transport services in Vietnam.

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  • Google shopping fest debuts in Singapore

    Google shopping fest debuts in Singapore

    Google is expanding its Great Online Shopping Festival from India to Singapore, from today through Wednesday.

    The online event, loosely modelled on the famous US Cyber Monday, allows global apparel brands such as adidas and Uniqlo and travel retailers like Agoda, Hotels.com and Airbnb to make the most of Singapore’s high penetration of broadband internet.

    Just like Cyber Monday or Singles Day in China, the Google project encourages companies to offer discounts for products and services ahead of the retail-friendly Chinese New Year, later in the month.

    Google launched Cyber Monday in India in 2012, teaming up with well known fashion brands. It has grown year by year and the US based company “would love to do this everywhere” according to Singapore country manager Joanna Flint, who denied there are concrete plans for that just yet.

    The deals went live today, February 2, although previews of the promotions have been online for several days.

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