Travel Industry Earnings Coverage

SeaWorld has been enthusiastic about its strategy to focus more on rides than animals; the rest of the year should show whether that enthusiasm was warranted.

While Travelport is best known as a middleman for selling airplane tickets, its fastest-growing segment is in commercial payments. While payments competitors like Wex and Worldpay don't have to worry yet, they may have to soon.

We'll definitely be keeping our eye on what develops as far as Marriott's decisions for its reservations and loyalty platforms going forward. But we're still not so convinced they're keeping all 30 of those brands over the long term.

Solomons is correct in pointing out the diverging strategies of the big hotel companies and over the next couple of years we will be able to find out which one was right.

Something not mentioned much during Hyatt's first quarter earnings call that we wish were discussed more? Reaction to the new World of Hyatt loyalty program.

Choice Hotels seems confident that its strategies to push more direct bookings, as well as grow in secondary and tertiary urban markets with upscale brands, is a formula for success. First quarter results seem to agree but it's still early in the year.

Fresh off of its spinoffs and investment from its new major stakeholder, HNA, Hilton seems poised to take the asset-light hotel management model and run with it.

As cruise executives often say, having ships all over the world means some areas boom while others struggle. At the moment, China-Korea tensions are hurting Royal Caribbean's business in Asia, but other regions are strong.

Expedia isn't overlooking its core online travel agency brands such as Expedia.com and Hotels.com, but Trivago and HomeAway are clearly rising stars. Trivago hardly ever saw a TV commercial it didn't like but increased profits in Q1, and HomeAway is in the midst of a multi-year digital-booking transition.

American Airlines CEO Doug Parker is playing the long game. Surprise pay hikes for pilots and flight attendants will cost roughly $350 million in 2018 and 2019. But if airlines truly want to avoid more customer service-related dramas, one way to get there is to adequately compensate your workforce.