Opinion, BusinessWeek: Recession treats Priceline, Expedia differently
A worldwide drop in travel spending is splitting the fortunes of two major online travel companies, with Expedia reporting a $3 billion write-down and weak revenue Thursday as its smaller rival Priceline.com benefits from a surge in bargain-hunting. Online travel company Expedia Inc. reported a loss of $2.76 billion, or $9.60 per share, in its fourth quarter, which ended Dec. 31. It wrote down the value of its goodwill and other intangible assets after a sharp drop in the company’s stock price. Priceline, on the other hand, beat Wall Street’s expectations, reporting that earnings for the quarter ended Dec. 31 were 1 percent higher than a year earlier, at $33.3 million, or 73 cents per share.

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Travel + Leisure presents the travel trends for 2009 according to its editors. Which are they?

1. Prague, Czech Republic
Prague is probably first among all other cities in the whole ex-soviet block. The city today is hot spot for culture, gourmet, fine service and amazing people.

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It seems that some people can’t get enough celebration. Especially when they have the sky bar open.

A group of tourists traveling to Cuba apparently had fun last week onboard. The accident happened a week before Cuba celebrating its 50 years of Castro regime. Did these tourists had the time of their life enjoying cheap rum and cigars? I bet they did.

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Travel + Leisure recently published a list of the strangest jobs you may get if you want a decent career in the sector.

Some of the most offbeat jobs include Falconers who are working hard in Italy to keep pigeons from freckling monuments with their droppings Engineers who help protect guests from falling coconuts. Read the rest of this entry »

Time.com shares the results from a recent survey based on the topic of the most obnoxious tourist. Evaluation criteria vary from being adaptive, speaking foreign languages and willing to spend to being critical and rude to local people.

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