Five trends from travel startups that will redefine the tourism industry

Asians are getting wealthier, and the Asian tourism sector is one of the fastest growing in the world. At the same time, they’re also getting more Internet saavy, and while infrastructure in developing countries are lacking, that has not stopped them from accessing the Internet in droves through their mobile phones.

These two trends present tantalizing opportunities for startups who want to reach out to a new generation of young Asian travelers with increasingly sophisticated tastes. And indeed, many startups in Singapore and Asia are starting to do so.

Here, we survey some of the interesting travel startups in Singapore, and tease out some trends that may very well represent the future of Asia’s booming tourism industry.

Photo: The Golden Stupa in Laos. Asia is becoming a popular tourism destination as well as a source of affluent tourists. By Rolling Okie
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How to outsource everything to the cloud (except yourself)

Remember the blurry old days when software was sold in boxes? If you were born in early 80’s, you might even have had the joy of installing software from floppy disks. Gladly, those times are past us.

Setting up a website, building a customer database, sending out newsletters and many other impractical tasks have become affordable for everyone, at a fraction of the costs 20 years ago, thanks to a plethora of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) businesses.

Here you’ll find a brief overview of web-based services that you can start using today to help bootstrap your company. Read more