All-Woman Speaker Cast for New WIT Event

Singapore (Singapore) – February 3, 2012 – WIT will launch a new event called WITX: Women In Travel which will feature an all-woman speaker cast. To be held April 27 at Dusit Thani Hotel, Bangkok, the one-day conference will feature women leaders of different generations, cultures and backgrounds who will address issues and trends, share ideas and insights and unearth opportunities in the Asia Pacific travel space.

The conference themed, “The X Factor: Celebrating The Power of Women”, will also focus on women as major consumers of travel.

“There are a few reasons why we are doing this event,” said Yeoh Siew Hoon, founder and editor of WIT. “One is to celebrate the achievements of women in our industry across all sectors, two, to forge a sisterhood of mentoring and inspiration and three, to focus on the important growing market of women.

“I’m also always asked at industry conferences I organize or attend, why are there so few women speakers? Well, guess I want to put paid to that question as well.

“Of course, the event is open to all sexes because we believe everyone will be inspired by our cast of speakers and what they have to say.”

Confirmed to speak at the event are:

• Jennie Chua (picture above), one of Asia’s top hoteliers who rose through the ranks from general manager of the iconic Raffles Hotel to run Raffles International as CEO and is now Chief Corporate Officer of CapitaLand Limited, Singapore. Read about her here

• Zhang Xiuzhi, CEO and co-founder, Spring Airlines, one of Asia’s top flyers in aviation. Since 2004, Zhang has spearheaded the development of Spring, China’s only low cost airline, into one of the country’s fastest growing carriers. it is expected to report a higher net income in 2011 than the 460 million yuan (US$72.6 million) net profit it earned in 2010. Spring operates a fleet of 27 Airbus A320s and plans to expand to 50-60 aircraft by 2015.

• Melissa Yang, co-founder and CTO at Tujia Inc, a high end vacation rental website in China. Armed with a technology background, Yang’s worked with Expedia, was principal group program manager at Microsoft and CTO and VP of engineering for Escapia in the US which was acquired by HomeAway in 2010.

Other speakers include:
• Aya Aso, CEO, Agora Hospitalities, Japan
• Carmen Roberts, BBC Fast Track
• Clare Chiu, Director of Business Development, Warwick International Hotels
• Chananya Phataraprasit, Chairman, Asian Oasis Group, Thailand
• Diana Banks, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Raffles Hotels & Resorts, Singapore
• Elizabeth Rich, CEO, Agenda Pty Ltd, Australia
• Emilie Couton, Director of Hotel Solutions Asia Pacific
• Jeannette Ho, VP Revenue Management and Distribution at Fairmont Raffles Hotels International
• Rebecca Kwan, Group General Manager, Lan Kwai Fong Hotel, Hong Kong
• Uttara Sarkar Crees, Gyalthang Eco Travel, Zhongdian, China

“Our aim is to bring together a wide cross-section of women across different segments of the travel industry,” said Siew Hoon. “The programme will be crafted to bring out the different personalities and their individual, unique perspectives on the industry as well as share insights into the women market.”

The event is targeted at travel industry and business professionals who want to be inspired by a varied generation of women travel leaders in different fields and learn about the potential and opportunities of the female market in the digital age of travel.

A WITX Retreat, on April 28-29, is also being planned to a destination nearby.

Tickets to the event will go on sale shortly. If you are interested in attending or sponsoring, please contact gerry@webintravel.com