GOING PLACES

Yihao Shi, co-founder and managing director of HoteLux, on emerging travel trends, maintaining a work-life balance and avoiding perfectionism.

- Joel Chua

WHERE OTHERS SEE blight, Yihao Shi sees opportunity. He chose one of the hospitality and travel industries’ most trying times to launch HoteLux, a membership-based luxury hotel reservation app for discerning travellers in the know. His foresight seems to have paid off. HoteLux witnessed an exponential year-on-year growth of 400 per cent since its launch last year. The app’s appeal to a younger, digital-savvy user demographic is testament in its recent unveiling of a Japanese version – a timely move signalling Shi’s lofty aspirations to tap into one of the largest markets in the global travel and tourism sector.