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www.travelweekly-asia.com | 3 Published by NORTHSTAR TRAVEL MEDIA SINGAPORE PTE LTD SINGAPORE 91 Bencoolen Street, #05-08 Sunshine Plaza, Singapore 189652 • tEL: +65-6801-0450 FAX: +65-6801-0469 BEIJING room 024, Building 8, Qijiayuan Diplomatic Compound, no.9 Jianguomenwai street, Chaoyang District 100600, China • tEL: +8610-8532 3611 | FAX: +8610-8532 5293 SHANGHAI room 2553, the Headquarters Building, no.168 Central XiZhang road, shanghai 200001, China • tEL: +8621-5179 8360 | FAX: +8621-5179 8360 Travel Weekly Asia is published on a monthly basis by Northstar Travel Media Singapore Pte Ltd. Located at 91 Bencoolen street, #05-08 sunshine Plaza, singapore 189652. All rights reserved. Volume 7 Issue 3 Please address all subscription mail to the above address, Fax +852 3020 5794, or email travelweeklyasia@asia-ad.net. 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NORTHSTAR TRAVEL GROUP (ASIA) GrOUP PUBLIsHEr Irene Chua tel: (65) 6801 0451 | ichua@travelweekly.com EDITORIAL EDItOrIAL DIrECtOr Yeoh Siew Hoon tel: (65) 6801 0450 | syeoh@ntmllc.com EDItOr-In-CHIEF Esther Faith Lew tel: (65) 6801 0457 | esther.lew@ntmllc.com EDItOr-At-LArGE Ian Jarrett tel: (618) 9433 6455 | ian.jarrett@travelweekly.com WrItEr Danielle Yong | danielle.yong@ntmllc.com WrItEr Corinne Wan tel: (603) 2201 1979 | corinne.wan@travelweekly.com HOnG KOnG COrrEsPOnDEnt Catharine Nicol | cn@monsterpix.hk tHAILAnD COrrEsPOnDEnt Alisha Anne Somanas | anne.somanas@ntmllc.com Art DIrECtOr Lim Bee Bee tel: (65) 9750 8405 | bb.bbcreative@gmail.com GrAPHIC DEsIGnEr Suki Chong | suki.bbcreative@gmail.com SALES & MARKETING rEGIOnAL sALEs DIrECtOr Ng Whey Whey tel: (65) 6801 0460 | whey.ng@ntmllc.com rEGIOnAL sALEs DIrECtOr Derek Ho tel: (65) 6801 0459 | derek.ho@ntmllc.com MArKEtInG EXECUtIVE Alvin Tan tel: (65) 6801 0458 | alvin.tan@ntmllc.com AD trAFFIC AnD PrODUCtIOn COOrDInAtOr Rena Koh tel: (65) 6801 0455 | rena.koh@ntmllc.com IT & DIGITAL It & DIGItAL OPErAtIOns Raymond Sim tel: (65) 6801 0456 | raymond.sim@ntmllc.com CHINA OFFICE GrOUP PUBLIsHEr (China) Rebecca Zhang tel: (8621) 5179 8363 | rebecca.zhang@ntmllc.com BUsInEss DEVELOPMEnt DIrECtOr Shawn Li tel: (8610) 8532 4021 | shawn.li@travelweekly.com BUsInEss DEVELOPMEnt DIrECtOr Roger Wang tel: (8621) 5179 8360 | roger.wang@travelweekly.com EDItOrIAL DIrECtOr Susan Li tel: (8610) 8532 3611 | susan.li@travelweekly.com MEDIA REPRESENTATIVES HONG KONG/MACAU ZAM International - Manna Ma tel: (852) 9650 0518 | manna.ma@zamintl.com.hk KOREA Young Media Inc - Keon Chang tel: (822) 2273 4833 | ymedia@chol.com INDIA MHI Communications - Smriti Khanna tel: (9198) 1040 7483 | skhanna@mhi.com.hk AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT AUDIEnCE DEVELOPMEnt DIrECtOr - AsIA Patti Mo | patti.mo@travelweekly.com DAtABAsE & FULFILLMEnt MAnAGEr Zoe Chu | zoe.chu@travelweekly.com FINANCE AsIA FInAnCE MAnAGEr Julia Tham | julia.tham@ntmllc.com NORTHSTAR TRAVEL GROUP CHAIrMAn AnD CHIEF EXECUtIVE OFFICEr Thomas L. Kemp CHIEF FInAnCIAL OFFICEr Lisa Cohen PrEsIDEnt, trAVEL GrOUP Robert G. Sullivan EXECUtIVE VICE PrEsIDEnt, DIGItAL MEDIA Thomas Cintorino EXECUtIVE VICE PrEsIDEnt, GrOUP PUBLIsHEr David Blansfield sEnIOr VICE PrEsIDEnt, PrEsIDEnt, EDItOrIAL DIrECtOr Lori Cioffi sEnIOr VICE PrEsIDEnt, EDItOrIAL DIrECtOr Arnie Weissmann sEnIOr VICE PrEsIDEnt, HUMAn rEsOUrCEs Janine L. Bavoso VICE PrEsIDEnt, MArKEtInG sOLUtIOns Michelle Rosenberg VICE PrEsIDEnt, PrODUCt DEVELOPMEnt AnD PrODUCtIOn Roberta Muller VICE PrEsIDEnt, COntEnt LICEnsInG Sheila Rice VICE PrEsIDEnt, It InFrAstrUCtUrE AnD OPErAtIOns Rich Mastropietro VICE PrEsIDEnt, DAtABAsE PrODUCts Elizabeth Koesser TRAVEL WEEKLY EVENTS PrEsIDEnt, trAVEL GrOUP Robert G. Sulllivan sEnIOr VICE PrEsIDEnt, EVEnts, trAVEL GrOUP Alicia Evanko-Lewis Siew Hoon is a traveller who loves to write and a writer who loves to travel. She's combined her two loves into a career in travel journalism that has seen her launch several travel industry titles and conferences, including WIT. She loves the change and discovery that comes with travel and the business. I woke up this morning and thought I smelt a whiff of smoke in the air and my heart sank. Are we to go through another spell of haze – that euphemistic term to describe the noxious smoke that comes from burning of forests and plantations in Indonesia and that has visited us for the last 20 years? Yes, 20 years. Two decades. How can that be acceptable? I walked through a mall in Singapore yesterday and looked at empty stores. It was lunchtime. Usually it'd be packed even if it's just lookers, not buyers. There weren't even people looking. In one corner was a well-known online retail brand, Rebonz, whose shop looked as desolate as a polar bear wondering where the snow has disappeared to. Online retailers are needing a physical presence to remind the world they exist but realise what a painful existence it is to be a brick and mortar business. They are forking out thousands of dollars for physical space because the virtual world has also become too cluttered and competitive. Only the food outlets were busy. Pasar Bella, an upmarket version of a Singapore hawker food court which offers Western and variations of Asian fusion cuisine, was packed. I reflected on how ironic it is that we're now seeing Western adaptations of an Asian phenomenon taking root in Asia. Call it an adaptation or an innovation, but at least it is offering something different in a very crowded and jaded marketplace. If you walk through shopping malls all over the world, you find everyone offering the same stuff – there's not much reason to buy, especially when you've got an uncertain economy on your hands. And let's face it. The global economic outlook is uncertain. The US going through its comedy of tragic proportions with the race of who will be the next President; Europe struggling with a refugee and humanitarian crisis that will change it forevermore; Australia post-mining boom; the slowdown of China –that's the big one that's hitting all of us in Asia – from Hong Kong to Singapore, and let's not even talk about Macau; the Malaysian currency is in the bucket. There are pockets of growth of course – that's the beauty of a diverse world – and in business, you pull the levers that still work. And you think of how to do things differently. Slowdowns are respites. They allow us to breathe and take stock. It's to us what oases are for camels. Fix problems, like the haze. There's now time to do it. Bring the will to bear on it. now's the time to ask questions of ourselves. If I were to launch the business I have today, what would it look like? If I were to close my business today, would anyone shed a tear? What can I do to change that? Give yourself the luxury of a blank canvas and start imagining. Go for purposeless walks. The greatest writers were walkers. Wordsworth's words came from tramping in the Lake District. Charles Dickens was known to rack up 20 miles, often at night. You can smell London in his words. Henry David thoreau, author and naturalist, said, "As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives." tHEsE BOOts ArE MADE FOr tHInKInG TALKING POINT

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