Skift Originals

This is a big year for HomeAway: It is retooling its business model, and will attempt to get its mobile products in order. Good thing it has experts to lean on.

We'd love to be wrong, but Roomer will face stiff challenges scaling this business and convincing buyers that they have nothing to fear in purchasing hotel reservations from other travelers.

JetBlue is intent on increasing its fee revenue, but if it ultimately decides to offer free Wi-Fi on its flights on an ongoing basis, that would certainly be a development that other airlines will have to pay attention to.

Lonely Planet has built a dedicated, engaged audience around the world by mixing big brand initiatives and projects tailed at specific audiences.

This sale is a headscratcher, but BBC was keen on finding a buyer and looks like Kelley is the most price-elastic buyer it could find. Remains to be seen how the travel market and LP's shrinking-but-loyal userbase responds to this sale.

Professionally created guides will always have a place in the traveler's toolkit, but they aren't going to be limited to paper any more and the next generation of guidebook brands will need to make the business work sooner rather than later.

For all its problems, Jetsetter is a market leader in hotel flash sales, and an acquisition at a bargain-rate sale price could help TripAdvisor inject some life into SniqueAway.

The rise of one tourism economy must mean the fall of another, and in this case, Asia is going to keep on glowing through 2013, while the previous stalwarts in Europe struggle just to stay in the game.

Our fave, besides the flight information: the available outlets at the gate. Metadata would become king in this scenario.