Sarah Enelow-Snyder

This week in tourism, cruise lines were busy. Celebrity Cruises is building a new luxury ship to sail the already expensive Galapagos, and Royal Caribbean is prioritizing new tech. We're more excited about facial recognition streamlining the boarding process than we are about virtual reality dining.

This week in hospitality, Airbnb is acquiring the an accessible travel business while struggling with the challenges of becoming a one-stop travel shop.

This week in aviation, we focused on tech in the cabin. In-flight entertainment systems somehow persist in the age of personal tablets. Meanwhile, United finally commits to speeding up Wi-Fi.

This week in digital news, we initially thought Google's earbuds with real-time translation would be big, but not so much. Travel companies like Expedia and JetBlue may extend credit to travelers, who would pay for trips in installments -- could be risky for both lender and borrower.

When it comes to environmental impact, major cruise lines have a hard time sleeping at night. The smaller ones only occasionally wake up in a cold sweat.

This week in aviation, British Airways had our attention. The airline mulled risky loyalty changes for 2018, tried to balance cost-effectiveness with premium service, and changed its relationship with Sabre.

This week in digital news, it's earnings season and the online travel agencies did not deliver. At least Expedia, Priceline, TripAdvisor, and Trivago are all in good company.

This week in hospitality, the big news came from the White House: restrictions on travel to Cuba are here. It looks like American hotel companies will suffer less than their European and Caribbean counterparts.

This week in tourism, we did a feature on Myanmar, specifically how travel companies are divided on how to cope and respond to the military's genocidal policies. Compared to cruise line earnings, it's a pretty dark story, but one that demands our attention.

Discrimination has long caused travel anxiety for demographics underserved by the travel industry. Historically, travelers looked to their respective tribes for intel, but the burgeoning friend economy may be reshaping that concept.