"We're at the beginning of the AI movement, but we are looking at that quite seriously. At the end of the day, travel for me is still a very in-person experience that delights. It's about getting a bum in a seat, traveling to a country, or standing in front of an amazing monument. Nothing can take away that no matter what kind of technology you implement. Nothing can take away from that wonder and excitement. In our space, it's really about saying these tools exist, but how can we use them in a responsible way without taking away that concept of delight and wonder?" - Ameer Jumabhoy
"Today, if you look at tourism trends, they've changed tremendously since the pandemic. You don’t necessarily have to go to Europe to shop for luxury brands. Instead, we'll bring the brands to you. The nature of tourism, of retail is consistently changing and the sands are moving really fast. And I think it's just a question of being able to scale in a way that you can take advantage of different levels of reopening and comebacks. It was definitely not easy, but we spent the time thinking a lot about innovation. That's where we came up with the idea of the miles upsize as an example." - Ameer Jumabhoy
"When you think about tax-free shopping, people only think about the refund operators. The message for us is we are not a refund operator. We are sitting over and above the refund infrastructure. So, let them do what they do. We do what we do, which is to give back more and drive those extra sales and benefits for the ecosystem. And I guess it's been a hard message to get across because there's been little innovation in this industry. So whenever I can, I'm always banging that drum to say no, we're not the refund operator. I'm in a totally different business model to them." - Ameer Jumabhoy
In this episode, Jeremy Au speaks on revolutionizing the tourist value-added tax refund industry, pandemic hard choices, and personal resilience with family.
Keywords: Ameer Jumabhoy, Revolutionizing Tourist Value-Added Tax Refund Industry, Pandemic Hard Choices, Personal Resilience, Singapore, Founder Story
