After a two-and-a-half year hiatus away from the industry, Wee Hee Ling, the new CEO of MISA Travel, Singapore, knows she has her work cut out for her but as always, the petite, soft-spoken executive is up for the challenge.

Wee Hee Ling: Believes online travel is the future.

Taking over from Kenny Chew, who retired after the acquisition of the agency by ZANA Capital, Wee returns to run an online travel business, and she knows the learning curve will be steep.

Her entire career in travel has been spent in the traditional travel agency environment, and in group tours. She built Commonwealth Tours into a leading contender in the packaged tour market, doing particularly well with cruises.

“It’s exciting to be back but, at the same time, I feel a little nervous because the current job is very different from the last 27 years of my career. Now I am jumping into online. I want to learn new things and this is the future.”

She’s nervous because she knows this is the land of the giants. “We are like the last of the Mohicans �" a small local play �" and we have to look at how we can carve a niche. We don’t have millions to spend like the Expedia and the Ctrip but we will look at carving a space for ourselves.”

She inherits a fairly solid online business �" airfares.com.sg, set up by MISA Travel, is a good example of a hybrid business set up by a traditional travel agency which went online and found a way to keep its customers loyal with customer service and uniquely local offerings.

Its relationships with airlines allowed it to offer competitive and special air fares to suit local market needs �" for example, it offers good labour fares for the migrant worker population in Singapore.

Full story