2013 › April

There are a number of OTAs making headway in the booming tourism markets of Asia, but their growth and travelers’ independence continues to be limited by structural and political infrastructure.

It's been a long path from checkin to discovery for Foursquare to realize that it doesn't just have the power to broadcast location but to lead less share-y users to find something interesting. Now they just need to find the right balance between the two.

Frontier has been piling up losses and parent-company Republic Airways has been looking to shed Frontier.

Easing visa policies is the first step to take towards attracting more visitors and growing the economy, and e-visas work especially well for smaller countries like Azerbaijan that lack a global network of embassies.

There's still time for Blackstone to accept a buyout bid before SeaWorld hits the public markets. Private-equity backed IPOs are currently in vogue so that has given Blackstone more confidence.

Geopolitics play a large role in mapping worldwide, but this relatively small case is an example of the factors including safety, pride, and accuracy that are involved in such instances.

Interesting conundrum in this social media age: do you value the social accounts separately in an M&A/sale valuation? Are accounts and its followers separate, and that means can be decoupled and sold?

Virgin America doesn't have the network at this point to truly be a big winner for business travelers. It remains to be seen whether it will run out of time before it gets there.

Jetsetter's hotel relationships and expertise should help TripAdvisor on a variety of fronts. It remains to be seen whether TripAdvisor will eventually fold SniqueAway into the more successful Jetsetter, or go with a multi-brand strategy.