I am lying on the beach in Nikoi Island, a private island retreat, off Bintan, Indonesia, this island in the Riau Archipelago was developed by former Australian banker Andrew Dixon and his partners into a back-to-nature resort for stressed out urbanites looking to reconnect with nature.

Yesterday, I went by boat to his newest development, Cempedak Island, which will be another back-to-nature and high end retreat for adults only, no one under 16 allowed. What’s unique about Cempedak is it’s built of all bamboo.

Project manager Piers and his crew of 120 have been hard at work for the last three years building this resort which from what I saw will be jaw-dropping gorgeous and a huge success. It’s what the world needs now �" a lovely back story, beautifully hand-made, local to the core, respectful of nature (it’s built around nature, not over it) and simplicity.

It’s taking longer to build than expected �" carting 30,000 pieces of bamboo across the ocean from Java and Sumatra to the island is no easy feat �" but it should open by March 2017, all things being equal. It showed me what is possible when one man dares to reimagine.

At WIT last week, we celebrated 12 years, the end of a cycle, and the lessons and insights shared were amazing. Here’s what I learnt.

Melissa Yang, Tujia, being interviewed by Fritz Demopoulos, two entrepreneurs who have made their mark in China: “China is leading the way in innovation in mobile and user experience.”

1. Reimagine yourselves

Online travel is moving into a new era. A new distribution system has emerged out of chat apps. The way people pay in China through WeChat is transformative. Melissa Yang, co-founder of Tujia, said China was leading the way in mobile innovation and user experience. In the last 12 years, Asia looked to the US and Europe to see how travel evolved. With mobile the game-changer, Asia �" with some key markets leading �" is forging its own way ahead, thus entering uncharted territory. If you’ve been running your business for a while now, it’s time to relook at yourself. “This is the way I am” is no longer good enough, we heard from Kathleen Urquhart, head of talent for Skyscanner in Asia. “Perspective brings innovation”, so it’s important to get perspective on yourself through other people’s eyes. Are you the right person to be leading the business for the next 12 years?

Blanca Menchaca and Clement Wong, co-founders of BeMyGuest who complement and trust each other

2. Find the opposite of you

Surround yourself with people who may be like you in values but different in skill sets. Find someone who can take your business places you can’t go. Michael Cameron, co-founder of Rome2rio, could code but didn’t know how to bring the product to market. In came veteran Rod Cuthbert, who had built Viator, who knew how to sell the story and product and find a market. Clement Wong, founder of BeMyGuest, was too optimistic and starry-eyed with the notion of being a startup; in came Blanca Menchaca who brought reality into the business and both found a common path that’s now paying dividends. Bill Black, veteran hotelier, brought in techie marketer Morris Sim to reimagine SilverNeedle Hospitality, which is owned by a techie, Anand Nadathur �" the next era of hospitality is about how technology is disrupting spaces and wrapping the cloud around them.

Jenny Wu: “Our biggest competitor is ourselves.”

3. Disrupt yourself

As big as Ctrip is, it is constantly disrupting itself. You could argue the bigger you are, the more critical the need to disrupt from within. Jenny Wu, chief strategy officer, when asked who Ctrip’s biggest competitor is, said, “Ourselves”. Its latest investment �" Travelling Bestone, a huge player with 5,000 offline stores in second and third tier cities, that’s innovating in mobile. It looked at this company for two years before making the investment. “We liked what they were doing in offline to online,” said Wu. The next frontier in Asia �" bringing the offline business, which is still the bulk of the travel market, online. This is what giants like Priceline and Expedia need to fix as well if they want to grow the market in Asia.

AccorHotels is turning itself inside out. Chairman and CEO for Asia Pacific, Michael Issenberg, described “disruption” as “a digital layer over under-utilised assets”. Well, hotels have a lot of under-utilised assets and have not been very good at the digital layer. The next 12 years will be about hotel brands fixing that.

Low cost Japanese airline PEACH sees itself as a “lifestyle concept creation” (LCC) company, going beyond flying people places. Through former Dentsu executive Yoshihiro Morii, its new commercial head, it’s bringing in concepts from advertising and food retail to disrupt aviation.

4. Collaborate with those who can help expand your reach

Consolidation is here, and there will be more. You’re going to need all the partners you can get. During WIT came the news that MakeMyTrip was merging with Goibibo. Following Ctrip’s US$180m investment in MakeMyTrip earlier this year, it wasn’t too surprising �" take out the competition that’s destroying margins “so that now everyone can focus on product and customers”, said Ctrip’s Jenny Wu. Consolidation is both good and bad news �" it’s good because it means opportunities for more mergers and acquisitions for startups but it’s bad for innovation because it becomes a game of scale and power. Analysts believe the Indian market will get tougher for the second and third players but it could also spark more investor interest in the market. In the race for consolidation, what is clear is that mid-size players will find it hard to survive, small players have to specialise.

Two global leaders from Expedia, Greg Schulze (left) and Cyril Ranque, speaking about the group 20 years on and what it could do better

5. Work with those you fear

Google remains the one people fear. But as Cyril Ranque, president, Lodging Partner Services for Expedia Group, said, “We have to find a way to work with them.” How he isn’t sure yet but it’s something everyone has to figure out. Twenty years on, the group is reimagining itself beyond a distribution play into a marketing and partnership platform for its industry partners. It knows that to grow the market, it needs to enable the rest of the industry with its technology and scale. Other disruptors are coming into travel. Tmon, the daily deals site in South Korea, has emerged as the third largest OTA in that highly competitive but fast growing market. Mobile was the game-changer, Tmon’s mobile-first strategy opened the door. Tmon’s Ryan Lee (formerly Softbank), making his first appearance at a travel conference, says the next thing it’s trying to crack is cross-selling �" packages is huge business in North Asia. Naver, the dominant search engine in South Korea, is also making its entry into travel. In an industry where the lines are dissolving, everyone, especially those you fear, becomes a potential partner.

Steve Hafner of KAYAK making his first appearance at WIT: Meta search will get hyper-competitive

6. Prepare yourselves

If you thought the last 12 years was crazy, prepare yourself for a wilder ride. As they say, slowly, slowly and then suddenly … we are reaching that “suddenly” point. Technology has become mainstream. Travellers have gone mobile. Progressive web apps have arrived. Artificial intelligence and machine learning will get better to enable businesses to get better at serving customers. IBM Watson is working with online travel players to test its technology to see if technology can help human travel agents get better at customer service. If you still think you can avoid or deny the tech wave any longer, you will end up roadkill for sure in this next wave.

Asia has become THE market of growth. Just as it will get more exciting, it will also become super competitive. By making his first appearance at WIT, Steve Hafner, founder of KAYAK, underscored his company’s commitment to put more resources into the region. Meta-search will get hyper-competitive, so find new models (like travel.jp is doing with content and bloggers) or new markets (like Wego has with the Middle East). Keep adapting to remain relevant.

From left, Chris Ong, Aya Aso and Loh Lik Peng, hoteliers who are building their own dreams

7. Focus on your dream and build it, piece by piece

When asked how he deals with uncertainty and all the noise out there, Hugo Burge, CEO of Momondo Group, said, “Keep your eye on the horizon and take small steps.”

Chris Ong (Georgetown Heritage & Hotels, Penang), Aya Aso (Agora Hospitalities, Japan) and Loh Lik Peng (Unlisted Collection, Singapore), are examples of entrepreneurs who are doing just that and are building their collection, one hotel/restaurant at a time. Each came from outside hospitality, found their calling in buying or taking over old buildings and converting them into unique experiences.

As a sixth generation Peranakan, Ong believes buildings “call” to him and it’s his destiny to save them. Aya wants visitors to experience “authentic and diverse” Japan. Lik Peng wants to create lifestyle experiences by linking food and local experiences, with hospitality, and giving young local chefs a chance to focus on what they love. They haven’t cracked it yet, they are still on their journey, learning things along the way, but clearly loving it.

8. Remove yourselves

Or rather egos. Expedia’s Cyril Ranque said a tipping point for the group was “when we decided to lock away our egos in the closet”. Leaders need to know when they can become a liability to their own business and get out of the way, to allow fresh perspectives. We also need to let in young talent to reimagine travel for the next 12 years. Technology has opened the doors to allow really smart people to enter our industry. I’ve seen that in the last 12 years �" the pioneers of online travel in Asia were largely those who came from outside travel. Fritz Demopoulos and Douglas Khoo, two of the co-founders of Qunar, came from media and tech. Deep Kalra of MakeMyTrip and Stuart Crighton of Cleartrip did not come out of travel. Tony Fernandes who built AirAsia and changed flying forever came from music, as did his right-hand in commercial, Kathleen Tan, who pioneered low cost airline branding and marketing. Rob Rosenstein, who built Agoda, came from tech, as did Morris Sim, who was a pioneer in social media reputation management for hotels in Asia. We need to let in the next generation of disruptors.

Sugi Widjaja:“I hope young people embrace failures as part of life.”

9. Give back and mentor

A lot of speakers were asked at WIT “love or money”, and all chose “love”. I think we need both. If you do what you love, money will come, then you use that money to spread more love. Sugi Widjaja, equity investment analyst at Capital Group, spends his time building investment hypotheses for his billion-dollar fun. He is watching new tech areas like Augmented Reality (Pokemon Go is a phenomenon not just because of the game but for the potential of its IP), Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence.

Even as he ensures his investments are profitable, the Medan-born analyst also believes in giving back by mentoring young people. At 20, he was faced with uncertainty about his future given the Asia financial crisis and the unstable political situation in Indonesia. While he managed to get a job post college, he lost his job 13 months after college due to the dot.com bubble. He also lost his savings in the same bubble and learnt that he was “speculating, not investing”. “I learnt how to get back on my feet every single time and I hope that young people embrace failures as part of life to make one stronger. I worry that Asian cultures look down upon failures and it makes our younger generation less risk-taking.”

Here’s to the next 12 years.

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