News

I am completely stumped with what ABTA, the UK official travel body that represents the interests of a large proportion of the UK travel industry is up to. Seems they want to regulate airline websites in a way I don't understand at all. Now I admit I don't understand what they are doing. Last week when I wrote about it I got back-channel comments saying it was perfectly obvious what they were doing and I shouldn't be writing about if it I was confused.... Read More

The New York Attorney General's Office says it is investigating and subpoenaed 22 online retailers -- including Priceline, Expedia, Hotwire, Travelocity and Orbitz -- for links to discount clubs which allegedly deceptively collect unauthorized fees from consumers. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says the investigation found that retailers were linking to discount programs offered by Webloyalty, Affinion/Trilegiant and Vertrue, all of which allegedly buried in fine print the fact that consumers were authorizing the transfer of their credit or debit account information from the retailer to the discount club. The discount club then took "small and recurring charges" from the unwitting consumers, the attorney general's office says. Incidentally, Trilegiant formerly was part of Cendant. All of the online travel agencies subpoenaed say they are cooperating with the Attorney General's investigation, but apparently are adopting varying approaches to the issue.... Read More

Today's long awaited and widely speculated announcement from Apple to launch its new tablet-style iPad product has set the tech world's tongues wagging furiously. It will probably be also causing a few furrowed brows in the higher echelons of Google and Microsoft, given how irritatingly successful Apple appears to be at marketing almost everything it produces. Indeed, Amazon and those behind its Kindle product are probably shifting extremely nervously in the seats.... Read More

United Airlines and AirTran Airways released their fourth quarter 2009 financial results and there were a few tech items immersed in all of the news. United, which narrowed its loss to $240 million for the quarter, revealed that increases in fees for first and second bags, ticketing and reservations changes accounted for a 0.4 percentage point uptick in PRASM (passenger revenue per available seat mile) in the fourth quarter. However, overall PRASM declined 5.2% in the quarter. United recently named Thomas O'Toole as its chief marketing officer. Part of O'Toole's responsibilities will be to further develop the airline's mechandising strategy, which includes bag fees and Economy Plus seating.... Read More

TripAdvisor launched its flight metasearch engine almost a year ago to the day in the US, triggering much chattering in the industry as to whether it could successfully integrate it into its existing product. A UK version was finally launched in October 2009 in what was a frenetic period for US-based engines with Travelzoo's Fly.com also unveiling its version for the Brits almost simultaneously. Officials refuse to give away any hard data around the product, only to say they are "very happy" with progress so far and add that 2010 will be "strong" overall for TripAdvisor Flights.... Read More

Fresh from launching a service to allow users to get detailed search results based on their physical location instead of just nearest airport, Travelfusion has also integrated a mapping device. The UK-based consumer-facing and B2B metasearch engine now allows users to select any location on a Google map for the From and To fields of a trip. The map automatically works out the postcodes/zipcodes and then returns results based on the point-to-point parameters.... Read More

From RFID and climate control to HDTV and the ultimate, ever-changing room with a view, what are the best pieces of technology every hotel room should have?... Read More

South East Asian travel content site TravelFish has unveiled its new iPhone app for the Angkor region of Cambodia and launched a thinly veiled attack on bigger travel publishers. The app features guides, recommendations, tours and images for the historic Khymer temple site near Siem Reap and is available from the iTunes appstore. But with a plethora of iPhone travel content apps launching in the store almost on a daily basis, TravelFish managing director Stuart McDonald says publishers need to think carefully about the pros and cons of investing in products.... Read More

Earth.org is beginning a push to hit mainstream audiences as it looks to capture the eyeballs of travellers seeking out new travel-related content. The fledgling site reckons it will "create a reliable travel guide written by you and like-minded travelers from all over the world". On the one hand Earth.org works on the same principle as the well-established WikiTravel system where users add content about destinations and attractions and the wider community edits, enhances or removes.... Read More

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