Monday’s Top Travel News
A few things I found of interest early this morning (Hawaii time):
1. Expedia continues industry consolidation. Today they are believed to be have purchased Farecast for $75M. Farecast tries to predict future airfares. Expedia also disclosed that it spent over $750K last year on government lobbying efforts. Expedia is flexing its muscle while reducing your choices in vendors.
2. Virgin Blue down. Hawaiian’s partner we’ve previously discussed, Virgin Blue’s stock is down to A$0.87, following higher fuel costs, soft demand, and inability to reinvent its brand through premium services. Qantas was dragged down to A$3.62 by the news on its competitor. More news that speaks to our post on why you might now want to consider travel insurance.
3. Virtual Tourist. Popular travel forum Virtual Tourist announced its 1 millionth member. So of you haven’t checked it out, we suggest that you do.
4. Lonely Planet scandal. One of their authors claimed yesterday that he fabricated and stole parts of his book, never visited the country he was writing about (Columbia), and accepted gifts in exchange for reviews. Lonely Planet is owned by BBC. I plan to post on a lack of integrity which pervades travel writing.
5. Delta/Northwest. It appears that the Delta/Northwest merger will be announced by tomorrow. When this happens, it will mark the beginning of the airline industry consolidation that we have been discussing. This will likely impact Hawaiian Airlines, which is a highly likely takeover target.
