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Jumeirah Group’s marketing chief would like to see more of a balance between gut and science in the hospitality industry. Yeoh Siew Hoon catches up with the youthful marketer who sees changes ahead in the way hotels are sold, marketed and distributed.

Two dark years lie ahead for airlines and out of that will emerge a different industry, says CAPA's Peter Harbison. Yeoh Siew Hoon reports.

In the second part of the excerpt from his speech at IT&CMA Hans Lerch, former Kuoni Travel boss, talks about how to get the best of your people and how they will be your best line of defence against the tough times ahead.

Hans Lerch, Kuoni Travel's former CEO, talks about about the financial mess the world is in and its impact on travel in a speech he made at IT&CMA in Bangkok. Part 2 in next issue of The Cafe.

In a week of financial turmoil, Luke Clark struggles for clarity and finds a few truths.

Thinking he is heading out of the news loop, Luke Clark instead has an unusual view of a world economy teetering on the brink.

Michel Geday, a hospitality consultant, shares a story of how an encounter opened his eyes to what needs to be done for the disabled in the hotel business.

Transit Cafe asks hospitality consultant Michel Geday for his take on what's in store for the hotel sector in Asia, following the financial meltdown.

Public relations has to get real too in today's age of fragmented media and new media consumption habits. Yeoh Siew Hoon shares the six reality rules of PR legend Al Golin.

Want success? You have to bust your butt to make it happen, says film maker Spike Lee.

So the Games is over. If there life after? Yeoh Siew Hoon muses over the aftermath of an event that had everyone watching and talking.

Yeoh Siew Hoon catches up with Jetstar Asia's boss Chong Phit Lian to find out how she's coping at a time of extreme turbulence in the airline industry.

The founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, believes big companies should be supporting their “fans”, not censoring them.

Visa International, the worldwide partner for the Beijing 2008 Olympics, has been busy in the run-up to the Games.

Yeoh Siew Hoon catches up with Robert Bailey, the new president & CEO of Abacus, to learn more about the man, his style and his thoughts.

What a difference a year makes, says JLL Hotels Asia's boss. From sunshine just 12 months ago, dark clouds have appeared over the hotel horizon.

Yeoh Siew Hoon discovers the Singapore Grand Prix is anything but the pits.

The Café has 10 good reasons to defy the doomsters. So don't just sit there, do something.

Last week the Transit Café brought you Forbes magazine’s list of the 25 most influential women in travel, which was heavily US-driven. Settle back and read the Café’s list of Asia's most influential women in travel.

WIT-Web In Travel 2008 is organising “The Start-Up Pitch” which will give entrepreneurs a chance to have their business ideas evaluated by investors.

The low cost airlines claim they are not being affected by the oil crisis. Do they have their heads, like their aircraft, in the clouds? Ian Jarrett looks beyond the rhetoric

Two industry leaders combine forces for WIT 2008.

In this second part of an interview with Yeoh Siew Hoon, Gordon Locke, Vice President, Airline Strategy, Sabre Airline Solutions/Sabre Travel Network, predicts a future where there will be only three types of airlines. In the meantime, we have to learn to live with the hybrid model.

Yeoh Siew Hoon catches up with Gordon Locke, Vice President, Airline Strategy, Sabre Airline Solutions/Sabre Travel Network

The Transit Café sits down with Martin Symes, CEO of Bezurk, now Wego, to find out the reasons behind the name change and what’s ahead for the travel search engine.

A Sabre study shows that hybrid airlines are edging out traditional Low Cost Carriers, which are themselves transforming.

For world affairs, Barack Obama and China's leaders may share very similar destinies. And, as Luke Clark argues, as they both face fire, their essential arguments are in fact very similar. It's just a shame we're hearing it articulated better from one party than the other.

According to a new report, the long-suffering travel agent is far from expired - if US$110 billion in sales and a healthy 41% of the US market share of to be believed. An indepth new report sheds new light on an evolving industry.

Yeoh Siew Hoon shares some key takeaways from the Amadeus Horizons 2008 conference that was held in Bangkok last month. About 330 airline delegates from 116 airline companies showed up at the two-day conference.

Richard Hartman is back as CEO of M&C Hotels in London. Three days into his new job, he talks to Yeoh Siew Hoon about why he wasn’t yet ready to die; how he feels about the “hottest seat” in the business, what he brings to the M&C table; and the state of the global hotel industry.

Who has the world's most exciting market, China or India? And who would dare try to choose one future power house over the other? Ram Badrinathan, Analyst Asia Pacific for PhoCusWright Inc weighs in with this blog entry.

What was the thinking behind interTouch’s acquisition of MagiNet? Will it lead to indigestion as the two companies integrate? Charles Reed, CEO, and the man behind the deal, tells Yeoh Siew Hoon the full story.

Yeoh Siew Hoon finds out from bloggers just why they do it, what sets them apart - and argues that in B2B, they like journalists need to shift from delivering information, to boosting knowledge.

Accor AP chief believes Asia will not be totally spared from the threat of economic slowdown. Yeoh Siew Hoon reports.

The collective joy and surge in national pride is almost palpable as Singapore wins the bid to host the 2010 Summer Youth Olympic Games. Yeoh Siew Hoon reports on a sports city in the making.

A Bloggers Summit will be held at ITB Berlin for the first time.

Finally, AirAsia's made it to Singapore and the airline celebrated the only way it knew how – with a lot of red, noise and partying. Yeoh Siew Hoon was there.

Both events to be held together at Singapore's Suntec City in October 2008.

Online travel blog The Boot this week interviewed Bezurk on its recent dance with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Read snippets here.

How do Singapore hotels fare when it comes to service at the front-line? In a recent service audit conducted by IFH® Asia Pacific for the Association of Rooms Division Executives – Best Front Office Award and Best Concierge Award competition, Singapore hotels demonstrated their flair for “First Impressions”. Lucas Peng, Managing Director, IFH® Asia Pacific, prepared this report.

Toss away the Gaulloise, pack away la pipe, France is showing smokers the way to the door. Ian Jarrett applauds the move.

In Singapore, a new hotel brand has quietly made its Asian debut while in Macau, a new hotel-casino has got people asking, is it one too many? Yeoh Siew Hoon catches up on the news around the region.

Yeoh Siew Hoon tunes into the discussions at WIT-Web In Travel and reports on what experts have in their sights for the new year.

A trip to Bali, fresh from a resounding victory - it what every leader looks forward to most. But as Ian Jarrett reports, for Australia's new PM this is not your typical Bali honeymoon.

One would have thought boring speakers and long-winded speeches would be the downer for any conference delegate but a new survey actually blames it all on our bottoms.

Richard Ireland, Singapore-based CEO of Terrapinn, believes a rethink is needed by MICE players. What business are you in and who are your competitors? Is it Facebook or Shanghai? This is an extract from a speech he gave at a SAECOS lunch in Singapore recently.

Suites with girls provided, and a promise to buy SIA if he should ever be allowed to fly to Singapore – Tony Fernandes was his usual irreverent self at the CAPA awards. But the man means business behind the jesting. Yeoh Siew Hoon speaks to the winner of the Airline of the Year.

Day trading and run-for-cover speculators. The more global our markets become, the more volatile, argues the New York Times. The problem? Too many New World traders copying the American high-risk trading model. Luke Clark takes a look.

If you’re in online travel and focused on Down Under, chances are you've heard of Tim Hughes and are you subscribe to his blog, BOOT – Business of Online Travel. Hughes juggles blogging with his fulltime job at HotelClub.com in Sydney. Here, SHY sticks the BOOT into Hughes.

Returning from the World Economic Forum, Luke Clark reflects on the business world's China Syndrome

Biggest travel market in the world. Fastest growing aviation market in the world. Friendly people. Warm service. Best hotels. All these accolades amount to nothing if the region's powers cannot resolve the Myanmar question.

Luke Clark is amazed by the lack of information in the summer news from England.

First a sandman painted pictures. Then an astronaut spoke. In the end, “chefs” performed stunts. In between though were plenty of words travel agents must heed. The Cafe was there at the Abacaus conference.

What is Nokia all about? Well, it’s a little bit sisu, it’s about the fourth screen and it’s about keeping it human. Yeoh Siew Hoon shares the Nokia story.

There was a time when France shut down in August when the entire nation went for their holidays. But times are changing across Europe and short break, long haul might be a new opportunity for Asia. Yeoh Siew Hoon looks at the trends.

Guess which airline has been reported as having attempted to "sanitise" a Wikipedia article about it...

If you want to change history, or just give a rival a bad name, you can no longer hope to escape detection. Ian Jarrett reports.

Wired and PhoCusWright, two tech brands team up for a hot date in Singapore this November 29.

When the movie stars came out to pose in Singapore, Yeoh Siew Hoon was there to keep a lid on the excitement.

What do Asians get up to in Second Life? And what context will Asia have in the building of global virtual worlds and the dawn of a new language? Yeoh Siew Hoon explores.

So the Rainforest World Music Festival is 10 years old. Where does it go from here? Yeoh Siew Hoon shares her wishlist.

Yeoh Siew Hoon is left less than enraptured by the new Seven Wonders of the World.

Australia's Traveltech, held in Sydney on August 28th, has confirmed its speaker list for this year's event.

While the UK’s No 1 airport awaits the completion of Terminal 5, passengers can only hope the sticking plaster holds. Ian Jarrett sees a grim summer ahead.

Hot news today, vacant space tomorrow? Yeoh Siew Hoon looks at the prospects for three community based sites, once the toast of the newsmakers, now predicted to face an uncertain future.

Andy Cosslett, global chief executive of InterContinental Hotels, speaks to Yeoh Siew Hoon, a day after news broke of Patrick Imbardelli’s shock resignation.

InterContinental Hotels' boss for Asia Pacific, Patrick Imbardelli, has quit with immediate effect after it was found he had lied on his CV.

Trying to plan his own attendance, Ian Jarrett now has his doubts.

Yeoh Siew Hoon finds out from co-founder of Tune Hotels, Dennis Melka, what is it that makes the no-frills hotel brand unique. And it’s more than the price.

No one is more aware of how the current debate on climate change could affect longhaul travel patterns than Tourism Australia’s Richard Beere. He shares his views with Yeoh Siew Hoon.

Goodbye China, hello climate change - Yeoh Siew Hoon delves into today's hot button issue at the Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels’ Investment Conference in Singapore.

Diana Ee Tan of Raffles Hotels & Resorts is on top of the world. Find out why.

Accor Asia Pacific chief Michael Issenberg and marketing boss Ray Stone will move to Singapore by year end. Yeoh Siew Hoon reports.

Diana Ee Tan of Raffles Hotels & Resorts is on top of the world. Found out why.

For the first time in a long, long while, RevPar among Shanghai's hotels is sliding. Is invincible Shanghai showing vulnerability? Yeoh Siew Hoon reports.

This is the full speech given by KP Ho, chairman of Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts, at the China Hotel Investment Summit in Shanghai last week. His challenge: What will this third phase of world tourism, the Asian wave, give the world?

An international gaming giant is urging problem gamblers and their families in Macau to join programmes which voluntarily exclude them from entering casinos. Jennifer Welker reports.

Reed Exhibitions tried with Asian Travel Market. It failed. Now Messe Berlin is launching ITB Asia in 2008. Will it succeed? Yeoh Siew Hoon reports.

Following on from last week’s story on whether rumours of a Troogle could be true, Timothy O’Neil-Dunne, managing partner of T2 Impact, offers his perspective.

Yeoh Siew Hoon speculates on the ongoing rumours that Google may yet enter the travel industry.

The time is ripe in Asia for an event that will focus the spotlight on not only wildlife film making, but on the critical issue of wildlife conservation in the region, says the organiser of a wildlife filmaking even in Singapore this month.

Low cost airlines are in longhaul travel already - what impact will their continued growth have on travel? Addison Schonland and Timothy O’Neil-Dunne of T2Impact Ltd investigate.

Following the announcement by Australia that it will place a ban on incandescent lighting, Yeoh Siew Hoon wonders which hotel group will be the first to start the movement.

Courtesy of CNN, renowned anchor, correspondent and aviation geek Richard Quest describes his maiden journey onboard the world's biggest commercial airplane.

Give me more than a private pool villa. That’s what Michael Sagild, who is building the Anantara brand, believes future resort customers will say. He tells Yeoh Siew Hoon why.

In the last Rant N Rave, a travel trade writer blasted the Singapore Tourism Board for refusing to host certain journalists to this year’s ATF 2007 in Singapore. The issue became a hot topic at ATF.

As South-east Asia’s travel industry hits Singapore for its once-a-decade chance at hosting ATF, one of the pillars of Singapore’s nightlife ‘revolution’ closes its doors.

This is Ian Jarrett’s blog. Or maybe it’s just his random thoughts. Or even something he jotted on the back of a postage stamp. He’s so confused he’s been taken off in the Blogmobile for counselling.

A sure-fire hot button issue for 2007 in tourism is the environment. Luke Clark looks at ways that Asia's travel industry should jump the gun on ecological news coverage - before the gun's fired its way.

The best of the news-makers, as we saw them, in 2006.

Yeoh Siew Hoon talks to RCI’s John Paul Nichols about the growing leisure real estate market in Asia.

A bizarre coup in Fiji, a new global television service in France. Everybody wants a piece of the action these days. Even News Sense can’t make sense of it.

Yeoh Siew Hoon shares what went behind the scenes to create the “A Conference With Attitude”.

Australia has the best overall country brand, followed by the US and Italy.

Even for a company that prides itself on green values, the reality of carbon usage can be disturbing, as Darrell Wade, CEO of Intrepid Travel, writes.

Keeping it real is what Bill Black does with his boutique hotel in Siem Reap – a story that proves that doing good makes good business sense.

Jennifer Welker reports as a low-cost revolution lands in Hong Kong.