Senior Director of Product - Customer Experience & Platforms
Booking.com

Adrienne Enggist

As Senior Director of Product at Booking.com, Adrienne Enggist leads the product strategy for a diverse, cross-functional selection of teams charged with making Booking.com the easiest way for travelers to build, manage and experience their trips.

Adrienne joined Booking.com in 2010 as one of the company’s first dedicated product owners and has been an integral figure in growing and developing the consumer product department. Over the years she has helped launch and build teams for a number of consumer-facing product initiatives including email marketing, the Genius loyalty program, Guest Reviews, and the AI Trip Planner.

Adrienne has worked in the airline and online travel industries since 1998, holding a variety of different roles with Icelandair, XL.com, the Avion Group and the Holiday Extras Group. Prior to her career in e-commerce and digital travel, she was a professional chef. Adrienne is originally from the United States and currently lives in Amsterdam with her family.

Co-CEO
Travelholic

Andrew Park

Andrew Park is the Co-CEO of Travelholic, Korea’s leading travel channel on social media reaching over four million travelers. Under his leadership, Travelholic has also grown into a successful travel MCN. Before joining Travelholic in 2023 and spearheading its turnaround, Andrew has built multiple travel ventures, including a high-end destination management company (DMC) in Korea and an award-winning travel planning app that was later acquired.

A native of Seoul, Andrew combines his deep entrepreneurial experience with a global perspective, having earned his MBA from the Wharton School and a BA from Yonsei University. Fueled by a passion for connecting people through travel, he continues to shape and influence the industry by championing innovative travel content, technology, and experiences.

Founder & CEO, SAVVY Collective, Inc. / Co-founder & CEO, PerkUP /
Co-founder, WiT Japan & North Asia

Aya Aso

Started her career in the hospitality industry in Los Angeles and later returned to Japan, she has engaged in marketing at Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay Hotel. Left the hotel industry once, joined Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, PricewaterhouseCoopers BPO and Chuo Aoyama Audit Corporation as an accounting auditor and business process consultant.

Established Agora Hospitalities after leaving corporate career in 2007. Founded the company with a vision to establish, under “A Collection of Beautiful Japan”, a portfolio of boutique hotels and traditional ryokans representing the soul of Japan. Under her tenure (2007-2017), the collection comprised 13 properties.

She founded her second hotel management company, SAVVY Collective, Inc. (2017- ), to provide hospitality business solutions with a Luxury & Lifestyle concepts.

Prior to AGORA, she was a Senior Vice President of Business Development for ISHIN Hotels Group (2003-2007) and an Executive Director of Operations at Space Design Inc. developed and operated 14 serviced apartments in Tokyo.

Graduated from the University of Southern California (USA) with a Bachelor of Music from Thornton School of Music, Piano Performance. She also holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from University of Wales (UK).

CEO
MG Travel Group

Brett Henry

Brett Henry is a travel tech industry leader and a seed stage, angel investor. He brings a strong travel, travel tech, and VC/start-up executive network combined with 20 years of B2B travel technology industry experience across disciplines including product marketing, business development, strategy, planning and sales.

He thrives on leading dynamic and diverse teams driving customer focused, innovative, growth opportunities.

He is a speaker at travel technology events globally including Digital Travel Summit, Aviation Summit, Webintravel, EyeforTravel, China Travel Distribution Summit, and ITB-Asia.

Head of Strategic Partnership APAC
GetYourGuide

Chris Lee

As Head of Strategic Partnerships at GetYourGuide APAC, Chris Lee leads the regional brand partnership strategy, driving business growth through strong collaborations across the travel ecosystem, including airlines, hotel chains, and digital platforms. With 17 years of experience in building and scaling teams, Chris specializes in developing strategic partnerships, optimizing market penetration, and leveraging technology to accelerate business performance.

Prior to joining GetYourGuide, Chris led key strategic initiatives at Booking.com, Amadeus GDS, Vrbo, and Amazon-backed LivingSocial, playing a pivotal role in scaling businesses. Throughout his career, he has built and nurtured impactful relationships across the travel, e-commerce, and digital media industries, driving innovation, market expansion, and revenue growth.

Chris holds a master’s degree from UCLA Anderson Business School. Currently based in Singapore, he enjoys traveling, golf, and cooking for his family.

Research Manager
Phocuswright

Coney Dongre

Ms. Dongre joined Phocuswright in 2014. Coney supports various syndicated, special and custom projects and helps the team in data collation and management. She is adept in travel market sizing and travel trends’ analysis. She is the author or co-author of Phocuswright’s annual reports for different regions, with a focus on the APAC travel market. Coney is a frequent speaker at Phocuswright’s conferences and other strategic company partner events.

Prior to joining Phocuswright, Coney worked as an IT consultant with Infosys Limited, where she used her analytical skills to understand the requirements for projects and lay a foundation for project development. Coney is an engineering graduate from Bhopal University and holds an M.B.A. (marketing) from Symbiosis University. Apart from work, Coney enjoys gardening and bird-watching.

Chief Customer Experience Officer
Klook

David Liu

David Liu has a strong background in product management, with experience at several well-known companies. David began their career at Tencent as an Associate Product Director, where they worked from 2007 until 2013. David then joined JobsDB as a Senior Product Manager for a brief period. In 2013, they moved to Yahoo, where they served as an Ecommerce Product Manager until 2016. Currently, Liu holds the position of Chief Product Officer at Klook Travel, which they have held since January 2018.

David Liu attended The Chinese University of Hong Kong, but there is no information available regarding the degree obtained or the field of study.

President & CEO
JTB Corp

Eijiro Yamakita

The JTB Group traces its roots back to 1912 when “Japan Tourist Bureau” was formed to attract international travelers to Japan and assist with their travel needs. While our activities and clientele have expanded greatly since then, the JTB Group remains aligned around a core purpose: bringing people, places and possibilities together.

Over an 18-year career at JTB, Eijiro Yamakita was involved in the development of the company’s global strategy and then moved to Europe, where he was appointed to be a top management at the forefront of the company’s global business. Prior to becoming a Managing Executive Officer, he served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kuoni Travel Investment Ltd and the European Head of JTB Group for 3 years. After he returned to Japan, he is the President and CEO of JTB Corp since then.

Chief Strategy Officer
DidaTravel

Eric Zuang

CEO & Founder
WAmazing

Fumiko Kato

Fumiko Kato founded WAmazing Inc. and assumed the post of CEO in July 2016 with the goal of helping international travelers to Japan.

The company subsequently released WAmazing – a smartphone app for overseas tourists. Together with a free SIM card (available at major airports in Japan), the app offers ready-to-use internet access and virtual travel agency services. These allow tourists to book hotel rooms and help them pay for activities – indispensable offerings for visitors staying in Japan.

Fumiko graduated from the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies at Keio University, Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC), and joined Recruit Co., Ltd. in 1998.

She was mainly involved in project development of new online businesses, including the launch of Jalan Net and Hot Pepper Gourmet, and then transferred to the Jalan Research Center. While working at the research center, she launched “Snow Magic 19” – a project that used big data to analyze tourism trends with the aim of rejuvenating winter sports tourism in Japan, followed up by various “Magic ☆☆☆” applications.

Associate Vice President, North Asia
Agoda

Hiroto Ooka

• Started carrier in Toppan Printing in 1994 to plan and promote the Internet business, which was still extremely new in Japan.
• He was stationed on the west coast of the United States from 1999 to 2002 and graduated from the University of Rochester MBA in 2004.
• After returning to Japan, he contributed to business growth as the head of the management department of the company’s digital content business company.
• Moved to Rakuten Group in 2007 and led PMI (Post Merger Integration) of domestic and overseas acquisition companies as C-level officer. He became an Executive Officer of Rakuten Group in 2011.
• He launched the Rakuten Mobile (MVNO) business in 2014 which became No. 1 market share in 2017.
• After that, he oversaw the sales and marketing departments as Managing Executive Officer of Rakuten Mobile, Inc. He joined Agoda, a Booking Holdings company in March 2020. He is currently in charge of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan as the Associate Vice President and head of the North Asian region.
• His lifework is to improve the life of consumers by utilizing the technology/IoT and to reform existing industries with tech advancements and aiding the digital transformation of Japanese industries

CEO & Co-founder
Section L

Howard Ho

Howard is co-founder & ceo of Section L, an apartment-hotel management company with 9 properties across Tokyo and many more in the pipeline.  Section L’s vision is to build and manage hotels without strangers, where guests can easily connect with and enhance each other’s journeys through intuitive, in-house social networking app and a community-centric service team.  Prior to Section L, Howard worked for Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts as an asset manager as well as a founding team member of the JEN by Shangri-La brand, with over 5,000 rooms across Asia Pacific.  His other experiences include guest service with Four Seasons Hotels, hotel development advisory with Horwath HTL, and founding a short-term rentals platform in Japan.

Howard is originally from Taipei, Taiwan and is a graduate of Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration.

CEO
Tripla

Kazuhisa Takahashi

My key strength are logical thinking, strategy development, sales and negotiation, offline and online marketing and execution power. I always challenged new industry when I have changed my career. I was a material engineer when I took over my family business. After getting an MBA in the US, I challenged as a consultant in an automobile industry. Then, I enhanced my sales and marketing skills in FMCG industry by working with Philip Morris. I stretched my EC and IT skills through my career with Amazon.co.jp. Now, I am challenging to stretch a start up company as co-founder CEO in travel and AI industry.

Co-founder & CEO, Venture Republic – TRAVEL.jp & Trip101 / Co-founder, WiT Japan & North Asia

Kei Shibata

TravelTech entrepreneur based in Singapore and Tokyo with 20 years of experience who led his company to an IPO, a buyout and two exits.

One of the original investors & advocates of Travel Massive.

Kei co-founded Venture Republic Group (VRG) in 2001 and has been serving as a CEO since foundation. Company runs a group of online travel services worldwide including TRAVEL jp, Japan’s largest online travel metasearch/media, Trip101, Singapore based global online travel media and Allstay, mobile accommodation search app in Korea.

In 2008, he led the company to an IPO and to LBO by the management in 2012. Kei also led to acquire Flocations, a Singapore based travel startup, have it grown to one of the fastest growing online travel media in the world under Trip101 brand that attracts the users from 200 countries.

Harvard MBA. Keio University BA.

Cross country & alpine skier/snowboarder. Love jazz, coffee and working from vacation homes.

Representative Director, CEO & Founder
Patience Capital Group

Ken Chan Chien Wei

Ken was GIC Japan’s Country Head, where he looked after Real Estate, Integrated Strategies and Value Add investments. Over his 19 year career with GIC, Ken led the Japan team, building up a core portfolio of real estate assets across office, residential, retail, logistics and hospitality sectors, in addition to assisting GIC with its other investments in equities, private equities and infrastructure. Ken’s vast network in Japan and Asia also helped GIC establish a strong brand name and build up investments in various financial assets across different industries. Ken also sits on the board of directors for Christel Vie Ensemble, is co-chairperson for LIVES Tokyo, and the former ULI Japan Vice Chairman. Ken graduated Order of Troy receiving a BSc in Business from University of Southern California.

Ken was elected as an outside director at the general meeting of shareholders at Keihan Holdings Co.,Ltd.

Regional Manager Japan & South Korea
Booking.com

Luiz Rodrigues

As Regional Manager of North Asia at Booking.com, Luiz Henrique Rodrigues de Paula
oversees Japan and South Korea, managing business growth, operations and strategy, based in
the Tokyo office.

Luiz joined Booking.com in June 2022 to lead the growth strategy for the region, after 8.5 years
in leadership roles at Groupon, including Director of Sales Strategy for APAC and General
Manager in Japan. An entrepreneur at heart, he also founded two startups, including Centro
Educacional Horizonte, which served thousands of students in Brazil.

Luiz is an avid traveller with a passion for exploring the diverse cultures and cuisines of
Asia-Pacific. He enjoys the vibrant energy of cities like Tokyo and Bangkok, as well as the
serenity of hidden onsen towns and mountain trails in places like Kamikochi. This balance of
urban excitement and natural tranquillity fuels his love for uncovering unique regional
experiences.

Luiz holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economy from and a MBA in Business Administration and
Business Intelligence from FIA Business School, both in Brazil.

Founder & CEO
Kammui

Max Mackee

Max is a Japanese-British lawyer & entrepreneur based in Tokyo. Inspired by backcountry snowboarding and Japan’s relationship with nature, he launched Kammui in 2023. Kammui’s mission is to connect travellers with unique nature-based experiences and empower local guides and communities.

Vice President, Market Management, Asia Pacific
Expedia Group

Michael Dykes

Michael is leading the team who manage Expedia Group’s lodging inventory across Asia Pacific. In this role, he works with lodging supply partners to maximize their success and potential on the Expedia Group platform and stay ahead of digital innovation.  He also works with peers across Expedia Group to create great traveller experiences and be an advocate for the APAC region.

Michael joined Expedia Group in 2015 as Representative Director. In his seven-year tenure with the company, he has built a unique B2B knowledge that can benefit all supply partners as they charter the complexities of the travel ecosystem. Prior to joining Expedia Group, Michael worked at Microsoft where his last role was Director of Corporate Accounts.

Michael holds a degree in Applied Mathematics from M.I.T. He was born in Okinawa (Japan) and raised in the U.S. from the age of 7.

Myunghoon Chung

Myunghoon Chung is the CEO of GC Company, Korea’s leading online travel and leisure platform that operates Good Choice, Hotel Time and Mangoplate services.

Prior to joining GC Company, Myunghoon worked in investment banking and private equity, most recently as head of Korea for CVC Capital Partners, a global private equity firm. At CVC Capital Partners, Myunghoon led the firm’s acquisition and portfolio management of GC Company.

Prior to that, Myunghoon worked for The Carlyle Group and Standard Chartered Private Equity, where he led and managed investments in technology, media, telecom, business services and industrial companies in Korea. Prior to that, he worked for Credit Suisse in London and ABN AMRO in Singapore.

Myunghoon received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Seoul National University, M.S. in International Economics from Johns Hopkins University, and MBA from INSEAD.

Head of Strategy and Business Development, Travel & Mobility Business
Rakuten Group, Inc.

Naohisa Minagawa

Naohisa has served as the Head of Strategy & Business Development for the Travel & Mobility Business at Rakuten group since July 2021. In December 2024, he expanded his responsibilities to include serving as the Head of the Mobility Business.

Naohisa began his career at Accenture and joined Rakuten in 2012. He worked in the Rakuten Ichiba e-commerce business, where he managed the Business Development Department and the Marketing & Web Design Department. In 2021, he transitioned to Rakuten Travel after being responsible for the acquisition of a Silicon Valley startup and post-merger integration operations at Rakuten’s U.S. office. His expertise in strategy, business development and management has played a key role in driving new business initiatives and the rapid growth of every business he has been involved in.

Naohisa earned a Master’s degree from the University of Tokyo.

Vice President, Business Core Division
MyRealTrip

Nayoung Lee

Director, Global Business Development
TIDESQUARE

Sunny Chang

Sunny is the Director of Global Business Development at Tidesquare, South Korea’s leading technology-focused travel agency. She is responsible for spearheading business development and strategic partnerships across the travel vertical with the focus of enhancing Tidesquare’s presence on the global stage.

Sunny has over a decade experience in travel and hospitality with a Masters in International Trade and Economic Development from Yonsei University and a Bachelor of Science in International Hospitality Management from the Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne. She has lived in six countries and considers herself a third culture kid. Currently located in Toronto and Tidesquare’s first North America employee, she is looking to connect with other like minded individuals passionate about travel, technology and hospitality.

Board Member CSO Managing Director
Goldwin Inc.

Takero Kaneda

Takero Kaneda is a board member CSO of Goldwin Inc., one of the leading sport/outdoor apparel companies in Japan, where he is responsible for the corporate mid-long term strategies with new business developments. Takero started his career as a member of Mitsui &Co., Ltd., a leading trading firm in Japan, and after Mitsui, he joined the start-up, Golf Digest Online, Inc., as COO and successfully made an IPO in 2004.

Vice President, Corporate Development
Agoda

Timothy Hughes

Timothy Hughes is the Vice President Corporate Development of Agoda (Booking Holdings Company). Timothy is a “retired” blogger and pundit. Previously he was the editor and publisher of one of the top online travel industry blogs (the BOOT: the Business Of Online Travel) and a writer at Phocuswire.

Tim is a former lawyer and venture capitalist. As a venture capitalist and consultant he helped a number of start-ups (inside and outside travel) secure funding, set up online media companies, managed investments in public companies and held regular client briefing sessions for a brokerage house. As lawyer he represented technology, new media, Internet, telecommunications and broadcasting clients in Australia, Europe and Hong Kong.

He first joined the online travel industry in 1999 and has worked for top tier online travel companies in Europe, the Americas and Asia. Tim has a Bachelor of Commerce and Hons Law Degree from the Australian National University.

Partner, Strategic Impact
EY Strategy and Consulting Co., Ltd.

Tomotaka Hirabayashi

Tomotaka leads Data Driven Re-Design Strategy Team, a part of Strategic Impact, which offers solutions to social issues.

Before joining EY, he worked for a government financial institution and a global consulting firm.

He spearheads initiatives for solving various social issues, focusing on formulation of data-driven strategies.

In recent years, along with supporting policymaking for tourism, he has been playing a leading role in offering data utilization platform services in cooperation with local governments and tourism-related operators throughout Japan. Now he is recognized as one of the leading experts in ecosystem and platform businesses.

Committee Member of the Japan Tourism Agency (Promotion of tourism DX)
Committee Member of the Japan Tourism Agency (Functional enhancement for JNTO certified Foreign Tourist Information Centers)
Evaluator for Sustainable Countryside Stay Models Creation Support Program

President
JR STB Koiwai Development

Toshio Omiyama

Managing Director & President – Japan
Delta Air Lines, Inc.

Victor Osumi

Victor Osumi is Managing Director and President – Japan for Delta Airlines. Victor is responsible for managing Delta’s entity in Japan and developing the business strategy to build Delta’s presence as an industry leader in the Japan market.

Victor joined Delta in July 2019 from Marriott International, where he served as Area Vice President, Japan and Guam, responsible for the operations of 43 Marriott-branded hotels and over 30 new hotels under development.

Victor graduated from Florida Institute of Technology with a BS in Aviation Management Flight Technology and then joined the United States Ari Force.

Throughout his career, he has assumed leadership roles with major global hotel companies, including Hyatt, InterContinental Hotels Group (IG), Marriott International, and Prince Hotels. Victor holds an FAA Certified Commercial Pilot and Flight Instructor’s license (CFII).

Founder
WiT

Yeoh Siew Hoon

Siew Hoon is a travel trade journalist, author, entrepreneur and podcaster who established WiT in 2005 to address the evolving landscape of travel technology and customer behaviour.

Over the years, WiT has grown into a prominent events and media platform in the Asia Pacific region, expanding its coverage to include markets such as Japan, South Korea, and the Middle East. Recognised as “Tourism Entrepreneur of the Year” by the Singapore Tourism Board, Siew Hoon’s efforts led to the acquisition of WiT by Northstar Travel Group in 2014.

Siew Hoon is happiest when platforming the future movers and shakers of the industry, lending a voice to those who are out to change, disrupt, and build back better. She thrives on launching unique, people-centric events by blending global insights with local knowledge, while exploring new markets and staying informed about industry developments.

Siew Hoon’s published titles include “Around Asia In One Hour: Tales of Condoms, Chillies & Curries,” and children’s books such as “Adventures of Habibie The Turtle” and “The Story of Baitong and Boon.” Siew Hoon also hosts the “A Life In Travel” podcast.

CEO
TableCheck

Yu Taniguchi

Yu Taniguchi was born in Kanagawa, Japan, in June 1984, and spent approximately 10 years of his childhood in Singapore. Before founding his own company, he gained experience in sales, legal, and corporate planning at a global integrated payment management platform provider. In March 2011, he founded VESPER Inc. (now TableCheck Inc.) and assumed the role of CEO. Under his leadership, TableCheck has driven global expansion as a Japan-born tech company, offering a platform that connects restaurants and guests worldwide.