From the front lines of online and mobile travel, Orbitz Worldwide still thinks it can be a winner as an insurgent, although there hasn't been any major evidence of a surge.
The iPad is an ideal device for travelers to use when they want to sit back on the couch, or take an elliptical through its paces, and muse about where they'd like to travel to. Priceline's new Explore feature in its updated iPad app isn't going to kick the stock up to $1,500 per share, but it is a nice touch to round out its offerings.
Priceline's Jeffery Boyd is going out -- from the CEO post, at least -- at the top, and the guy with a banker's demeanor will come to be viewed as a rock star of online and mobile travel. We don't know about groupies, but there certainly are a ton of imitators.
One of Expedia's answers to Booking.com is the Expedia Traveler Preference Program, giving consumers the choice to prepay for a hotel (merchant model) or pay at the hotel (an agency model like Booking.com's). Booking.com's sole use of the agency model gives it a speed advantage as the merchant model is more complicated when signing on and retaining hotels.
For the last decade destinations have fought hard for airtime on reality shows, but we may be seeing a new metric for tourism success: the Bourdain Bump.
You have to wonder whether Priceline relished breaking the $1,000 per share barrier or eclipsed the mark fearfully. With such records come very great expectations.