Media and PR

Chinese New Year is big business for the travel industry. The country's travelers are expected to take more than three billion trips during this year's festivities.

A lot of public companies are actively wondering how they will counter an onslaught if they become a target of the new administration in Washington. It's therefore a fairly gutsy act when companies ranging from Expedia to Celebrity Cruises stick their proverbial necks out.

One of the dirty "secrets" of digital advertising is that companies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft purchase ads on their own platforms, essentially competing with other buyers for the top placements. The news should give any marketer spending top dollar to try and earn high-ranking search results cause for concern.

Between their digital advertising tools and deep knowledge of consumers, there's virtually no tech company on earth (other than Google) that can match Facebook and Instagram. The launch of Instagram's new "Stories" feature should make advertising competitor Snapchat very afraid.

Wearable technology offers plenty of upsides for travel brands. But it also involves lots of complex, behind-the-scenes moving pieces to make it run smoothly. Assuming they can pull off the logistics, Carnival's Ocean Medallion program seems like a good move both for passengers and the company's bottom line.

In mid-2015 Kayak opted to go dark on U.S. TV and to put more investment into broadcast advertising in Europe. Companies have to make such hard choices sometimes. Kayak's Hafner claims, however, "the sky didn't fall" in the U.S., although one could surmise that Google Flights is "knock-knock-knockin' on heaven's door."

Given how much time we all spend at airports, it's a sector of the travel industry that's ripe for technology innovation and disruption.

2016 has officially overstayed its welcome, so we're just going to run out the clock bingeing these travel shows. Bring on the escapist reality TV and rigorous schadenfreude, just as soon as we make it through airport security.

Love it or hate it, the online travel industry would arguably not exist without the promotional firepower generated by paid digital advertising. As more online consumers choose to avoid this advertising using ad blocking tools, it's raising some difficult questions about how travel companies should proceed.

Location-based marketing is the future of the travel industry. The companies (like Google, Apple and Baidu) that control access to location data via map applications will hold a huge competitive advantage over competitors.