While the travel industry has been weighed down by discounting and deal-hunting, the largest venture capital investment in travel in the U.S. last year went to XOJET, a private-jet service, according to a new report. Documenting the top 10 venture capital investments in the U.S. in 2009, a PriceWaterhouseCoopers and National Venture Capital Association report identifies XOJet as tied for the fifth largest venture-capital recipient in 2009 at $100 million -- and the only travel company in the top 10. Twitter was the fourth largest VC investment of 2009, edging out the investment in XOJET by $200 [i.e. two hundred dollars] at $100,000,200. The top VC investment -- some $286 million -- went to solar energy equipment manufacturer Solyndra.... Read More

Most popular travel websites in the US for the week ending January 23 2010. Data includes Top Ten travel search terms and the Top Ten Agency, Airline and Destination/Accommodation sites.... Read More

Company-employee disputes are not like they used to be - if the latest spat between British Airways and a union representing cabin crews are anything to go by. The long-running face-off between BA and Unite has gone from being ugly to downright vitriolic as Twitter accounts are launched to spread their message through social media. Unite has already created a video for YouTube outlining its position against the company, but the use of Twitter marks an new approach and is aimed at building support from the flying public.... Read More

The World Health Organization denied Jan. 26 that undue influence by pharmaceutical companies led to the UN health agency's declaration last year that the swine flu was a pandemic, Reuters reports. The Council of Europe, a human rights organization with 47 member countries, conducted an emergency hearing into the issue after widespread accusations that the WHO was pushed into the pandemic declaration for H1N1 by drug companies anxious to win vaccine contracts. The Council's lead health expert, Wolfgang Wodarg, charged a couple of weeks ago that major drug firms orchestrated a "campaign of panic" to elicit the pandemic finding. Wodarg characterized the WHO decision as "one of the greatest medicine scandals of the century."... Read More

European budget supermarket chain Aldi has scrapped its online travel service almost a year after it launched the product amid great fanfare in the sector and with a promise of cheap holidays. Aldi Travel UK was unveiled in January 2009 as a result of a deal with On Holiday Group to run the servicing and package holidays offered on the site. The site currently says it is "reviewing" its travel service but customers that have already booked trips are not affected by its closure.... Read More

Tour operator First Choice has taken the offbeat step of laying open its lack of a social media strategy and saying it will now have one thanks to a tie-in with a specialist agency. The TUI-owned operator has appointed Brighton, UK-based NixonMcInnes to develop and run its social media "as the company looks to increase customer engagement and brand consideration". To some extent First Choice has mirrored sister brand Thomson until now, throwing videos into a YouTube channel and having internal buzz monitoring systems in place to track mentions, comments, posts et al on the web.... Read More

Amadeus introduced a tool which it hopes will help travel agencies, both online and offline, better merchandise airline fares. The intent of Amadeus Master Pricer Agent Fare Families is to enable travel agencies to group airline fares with similar restrictions -- nonrefundable or fully flexible fares, for instance -- into categories or "fare families" for merchandising purposes. Agencies would be able to establish up to six categories of fares from different airlines. The not-so-subliminal message from Amadeus is that if airlines can get involved with fare families, then travel agencies can get into the act, as well.... Read More

TRX, a provider of travel-transaction processing and data services, and American Express agreed to amend and extend certain aspects of a service agreement through the end of 2014. The TRX press release notes that the renewed agreement means American Express Business Travel will use the TRX CORREX automated quality control and electronic ticketing platform through 2014, and adds that, "The new contract provides direct growth opportunities for TRX in the South American, Asia-Pacific, and previously untapped European markets." All of that indeed may turn out to be true. However, a TRX filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission paints a portrait of the renegotiated agreement that has potentially darker hues.... Read More

Priceline made available a new, free iPhone app, Hotel Negotiator Version 2.0, which uses the iPhone 3G's electronic compass functionality. With Hotel Radar, the name Priceline gives to the main enhancement in Version 2.0, users can point the iPhone in a particular direction and the app displays area hotels, including published room rate, star level and distance. Not a bad mobile option if you are wandering city streets looking for a place to stay or to have a drink -- or if you've already had a drink and are trying to find your hotel again.... Read More

Most popular travel websites in the UK for the week ending January 23 2010. Data includes Top Ten travel search terms and the Top Ten Agency, Airline and Destination/Accommodation sites.... Read More

News Corp-owned Wall Street Journal is to launch its own "online travel agency" this week - joining the ranks of almost every other leading traditional newspaper brand on the web. WSJTravel.com, according to the pre-launch amble, will feature deals related to content appearing on the main online travel editorial channel on WSJ.com. Launching on January 28, WSJ says it will have around 50 planned trips on the system for users to purchase.... Read More

This week will probably see the launch of Apple’s Tablet – the iSlate (I had backed iTablet as the name but apparently there were copyright issues). So iSlate it is. The unveiling of the product will give a big boost to the eReader category and resulting adoption. Lazard Freres analyst Colin Sebastian has done an excellent research piece on the Tablet/Slate/eReader Market in his regular subscriber bulletin.... Read More

Mobile trip itinerary assistant TripChill wants users to Tweet their way through their travels by using a new tool to notify selected friends of milestones along a journey. The simplest execution of the service allows a member to update their Twitter account from within their mobile TripChill application, similar to other Twitter connections with a range of travel managements systems. The more advanced - and interesting - functionality lets users create databases of Twitter friends so that they can be sent a private direct message at different points along a trip.... Read More

There’s lots of discussions going round, especially in the consulting circus about the future validity of OTAs. Will they (we) be around in ten or even five years from now, and what will we look like? Metasearch websites, Google, Bing Travel and other new intermediaries are slowly paralyzing our industry.... Read More

What you missed on Tnooz this week, Sunday 17 to Saturday 23 January 2010. Read on to see the most commented articles, the most controversial topic, and every other article this week...... Read More