India and China spearheading growth in global online travel

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Sleeping giant, slumbering dragon, next big thing – clichés to describe mobile travel but also the enormous opportunities for the travel industry when it comes to Asia-Pacific.

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Hotel prices – Australia-New Zealand – July to September 2011

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Data trends on cheapest hotel rates as well as median rate for three months of three, four and five star hotels across some of the major cities in Australia-New Zealand from July to September.

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RatesToGo to change hotel business model

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RatesToGo will begin to take merchant-model hotel bookings as one of several steps parent company Orbitz Worldwide is taking to improve its hotel business in Asia-Pacific.

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Google on social, new travel business models and mobile

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We managed to grab some time recently with Ali Yilmaz, travel head for South East Asia at Google.

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Why Singapore is no longer the sleepy backwater of online travel

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Online travel agencies have not been particularly active in Singapore despite the market being a solid adopter of the internet.

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Expedia on mobile, Asia-Pacific expansion, Google Places, American Airlines

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Expedia, which operates Expedia-branded points of sale in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and India, plans to launch five to eight new country sites in Asia-Pacific in 2011.

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Part Two of Two: The Asian online travel zeitgeist

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In Part One of my WebinTravel reflections, I shared ten things I overheard about the plans and strategies of various travel companies.

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Part One of Two: The Asian online travel zeitgeist

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Over the course of the WebinTravel conference in Singapore last week I collected a series of tweets, notes and comments.

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Asia-Pacific online travel by numbers

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Some fascinating data and detail into the growth of online travel in the Asia-Pacific region from Joe Nguyen, vice president in South East Asia at Comscore.

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Travelzoo Asia-Pacific deal a family affair

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Travelzoo, a pubicly traded company controlled by founder and Chairman Ralph Bartel, has agreed to sell Travelzoo’s Asia-Pacific division, including Travelzoo Hong Kong, Travelzoo Japan, Travelzoo China, Travelzoo Taiwan and Travelzoo Australia, for $3.6 million to companies controlled by — Ralph Bartel.

You’ll notice I used Bartel’s first name, Ralph, twice in the preceding sentence. That’s because I don’t want to get you confused with Holger Bartel, Travelzoo’s CEO, who’s Ralph’s brother.

You may see where I am going with this.

Apart from the coziness of the pending transaction (which could still be upended by a rival bid, but I am not holding my breath), the deal actually could be a clever move by Travelzoo — not to mention Ralph Bartel — and fuel Travelzoo’s expansion in Europe and Asia-Pacific.

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