Dennis Schaal

Hotwire has fallen on tough times, but don't count it out. Expedia has been putting a lot of offline advertising money into Hotwire, and as it pledged, is focusing on mobile.

It's old news that the hotel establishment has embraced TripAdvisor. Haters can keep on hating. But the TripAdvisor-Cornell partnership makes even more marginal those who would dismiss the power of user reviews and TripAdvisor itself.

The top 10 U.S. travel advertisers in paid search in 2012 also filled out the top 10 in 2013, although their positions changed somewhat. This shows how difficult it is for travel startups and other companies that were not early adopters to break through and get their messages out to consumers.

Give TripAdvisor credit for emphasizing experience over price in its much-anticipated new ad campaign. The "New York" and "Rome" spots drive home a point about the value of TripAdvisor, but the ads may fall short of creating something memorable.

Just because corporations have negotiated fares with their preferred airlines doesn't mean these corporations don't have to be vigilant about carriers lowering their fares. A lack of vigilance about these price drops means businesses are wasting money, and leaving themselves open to charges of wastefulness to foes in the corporation.

Travelers on the go seem to be a natural fit for mobile, but making mobile adoption more difficult is the stubborn fact that it can be a lot harder to book a hotel and compare prices elsewhere than it is to buy a piece of furniture on eBay. That travel industry is making strides, but other industries are more advanced.

When it comes to making the lines for visas more efficient in Brazil, it is indeed a small world after all, as the State Department contracted with Disney for advice on speeding the process.

eMarketer paints a picture of the travel industry largely solving mobile booking issues by 2017, with one third of travel sales in the U.S. taking place on smartphones or tablets. Presumably most of it will be on tablets, though.

In its website redesign, Virgin America is going for simplicity and responsive design regardless whether a traveler is on a smartphone, tablet, or desktop. The idea is to ease the pain of booking by making it visual and easy.

Restaurants are part of a newly defined travel industry, and TripAdvisor's acquisition of lafourchette brings that point home.