User review giant TripAdvisor will have a few worries on its mind if Google follows through on its threat to pull out of China following a row over cyber attacks on government protestors. Tnooz has learned the TripAdvisor-DaoDao business in China currently gets around a third of all its search engine traffic just from Google. Google has threatened to reverse its previous decision to block sites and information banned by the Chinese government, a move which effectively could lead Google.cn being blocked at the touch of a button.... Read More

Most popular travel websites in the UK for the week ending January 16 2010. Data includes Top Ten travel search terms and the Top Ten Agency, Airline and Destination/Accommodation sites.... Read More

The airlines of late have toughened up their ticketing policies in a number of areas. These policies are designed frequently to make sure that revenue collected stays that way. With yield management more of a dark science, revenue management can be just as important. But now it is time to talk about ADM – airline-issued Agent Debit Memos.... Read More

Travelport is refusing to comment rather than denying outright reports claiming it will this week announce its widely rumoured stock market floatation (IPO). A Travelport official gave the inevitable response this morning - "we never comment on market rumour or speculation" - following reports in two UK newspapers that the travel tech firm will finally unveil plans for its listing on the London Stock Exchange. The other two major GDSs in the travel, tourism and hospitality sector, Amadeus and Sabre, are also considering IPOs in 2010.... Read More

What you missed on Tnooz this week, Sunday 10 to Saturday 16 January 2010. Read on to see the most commented articles, the most controversial topic, and every other article this week...... Read More

ARC, the airline-owned entity which settles with travel agents on air sales, informed travel agencies that it mistakenly debited or credited their bank accounts on Jan. 14 or 15 -- about a week earlier than the scheduled date, Jan. 20. ARC informed agencies several hours later that Bank of America reversed the erroneous credits and debits, and the reversals would hit agents' banks accounts Jan. 15 or perhaps the next business day. ARC said it would make good on any necessary reimbursements for overdrafts or other adjustments.... Read More

A TripAdvisor deal to place its facilitated-hotel-search offering, TripAdvisor Check Rates, as well as deals from sister Expedia Inc. company BookingBuddy on Yahoo Travel expands TripAdvisor's advertising network, but can't be welcome news for Travelocity or Shermans Travel.. Travelocity powers air, car, hotels and cruises on Yahoo Travel, but has seen its stature on Yahoo Travel diminish over the years. At one point, Yahoo Travel displaced Travelocity as its default for travel search and gave priority instead to Yahoo's metasearch unit, FareChase, until Yahoo shuttered FareChase, as a non-core business, early last year.... Read More

UK ecommerce and marketing service EConsultancy joined the likes of tech uberblogger Robert Scoble recently by unfollowing enmasse around 19,000 followers of its Twitter account. The company says the move is primarily to clean up its Twitter feed (how can it realistically follow 19,000 people, it says), avoid the overwhelming number of spam DMs and a whole host of other reasons, listed here. Its existing strategy to reciprocate those that followed its tweets with a follow back has been an experiment worth making but one it has chosen to end, editor-in-chief Chris Lake says.... Read More

On the one hand there are a plethora of travel content websites, which obviously allow users to print information, while on the other there are pre-printed brochures on the shelves of offline travel agencies. The area in the middle is where the debate lies as many (probably quite rightly) believe some travel consumers still want to flick through a brochure of some kind as well browse the web. Maligned by the so-called progressives as an Old School travel industry technique for getting product into the hands of prospective buyers, holiday brochures have remained a strong feature of agency retailing.... Read More

TheHotelGuru was languishing in the widening pit of hotel content sites on the web until WorldReviewer came along with a plan to reinvigorate it as part of a wider reorganisation of its hotel strategy. WorldReviewer has taken an undisclosed 50% stake in the company and plans to relaunch the brand in February with a focus on providing exclusive editorial content and consumer-focused lists. James Dunford-Wood, co-founder of WorldReviewer, says relaunching TheHotelGuru on the WR platform will be the start of a series of projects to boost the site and provide a hotel system for WorldReviewer.... Read More

Kayak Private Sale, the travel metasearch company's upcoming offering of exclusive hotel, flight and vacation package deals to registered users, is an interesting product name for a company considering an initial public offering, but I digress. A departure from Kayak's core metasearch business,Private Sale has raised some eyebrows in Australia and the U.S. Fellow Tnooz node Tim Hughes, writing for his personal blog, The BOOT - The Business of Online Travel, pointed out that getting into the exclusive deals' business makes Kayak "a zero percenter no more" in terms of an operational-costs' advantage. And former Kayaker Drew Patterson notes that offering exclusive deals is not part of Kayak's traditional DNA.... Read More

Tim Russell, UK & Ireland managing director of travel technology and GDS supplier Amadeus, says his company is most similar to Microsoft than the arguably more glamorous Apple or Google. Tnooz thought it would be interesting to found out how the boss of a travel tech firm with two major competitors would compare his company to that trio of IT giants, Google, Microsoft and Apple. After much stroking of the chin, Russell went for the stalwart of software and dominating presence on desktop operating systems.... Read More

Well regarded content site Travellr says it will retain its core and free Q&A service as it heads toward an official launch after securing funding from a major travel insurance firm. World Nomads Group bought into the business in September 2009, a mere six months after co-founders Ian Cumming and Scott Woodhouse threw open the service from an internet cafe in the South-East Asian backpackers retreat of Laos. Cumming says the next 12 months will mostly be taken up with working out a wider revenue model for the site as well as increase its distribution.... Read More

I am now a convert to the concept of Ancillary Revenue and it’s a bit like giving into my secret most desires. I want to say NO! but the economic case is compelling. So I have surrendered to the inevitable and accept the concept both as a user and as a commentator.... Read More

Let me take you down under. All the way down under to the online travel market in New Zealand. With a population of only 4.23 million (123rd in the world), NZ punches above its weight in a number of arenas (sports, arts and movies being just a few). Also in online travel. PhoCusWright tell us in their latest Asia-Pacific report that the combined ANZ online travel market is US$6.2billion (2008).... Read More