Let's hope they do amazing things with Palm

HP”s purchase of  Palm indicates the battle lines in upcoming smart phone mobile are drawn:

Apple has a big early lead with consumers, but is closed. Google is open and committed to subsidizing Android OS and anyone willing to build on it until they win. Blackberry has a huge lead in the corporate world, but is crippled by its inability to move to new paradigms. Now, HP with its vast physical retail distribution, powerful consumer & corporate brand and its recent acquisition of Palm and the Palm OS) is moving into the fray. Oh yeah, Microsoft is also out there somewhere, maybe planning a surprise attack?

This will be a battle to watch. The question is who do you think  is going to win?

Related Articles:

HP to Acquire Palm for $1.2 Billion

By Grabbing Palm, HP Weakens Microsoft’s Hands

HP to buy struggling smartphone maker Palm for $1.2 billion

There’s a cloud over Hawaii Tourism, and its called SB 2187. This bill authorizes the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) to “maintain the confidentiality of competitively sensitive information.” 

Hawaii

The confidentiality extends to how and where they’ll be spending their $88 million tourism promotion budget, and this has led to a public spat between the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) and the Hawaii Tourism Association (HiTA).

The Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) is Hawaii’s official lead agency responsible for overseeing tourism. HTA gets its funding from the transient accommodations tax (TAT) collections that is assessed on hotels. 

The Hawaii Tourism Association (HiTA) is a private membership organization which does not get any public funding and is not affiliated to the HTA.

The justification given by the HTA for wanting closed-doors board meetings and keeping data and strategy under wraps was explained by HTA President and CEO Mike McCartney.

He says that “where and what we do with our tactics don’t necessarily need to be shared with our competitors.” McCartney also adds that having to disclose the dates and times of a media blitz puts Hawaii at a competitive disadvantage.

The main argument, though, seems to center around the HTA’s expansive definition of sensitive information that needs to remain a secret – board meetings, budget allocations and contracts, tourism and research data such as airline passenger surveys and questionnaires, and database records of all the information.

Is all this necessary to keep the competition guessing? And will it really help Hawaii Tourism’s bottomline? Their legislators apparently think so, since SB 2187 has passed the legislature and has been sent to Gov. Linda Lingle for her signature.

But HiTA says the HTA is trying to hide details of how and where the $88m budget is being spent, and they now want the Governor to veto the bill.

End of the day, whether its good or bad for Hawaii will depend on how the HTA conducts itself. If they get complacent in the secrecy and end up in another sordid scandal like the Rex Johnson episode, then Hawaii’s legislature and Governor won’t have anyone to blame but themselves.

Photo – Ken Lund

Travel + Leisure and Luxury Link have launched Vacationist (www.vacationist.com/), an invitation-only, private-sale travel website for luxury travelers.

Travel + Leisure will provide the travel content while Luxury Link takes care of the hosting and logistics. Sales will be limited-time (3 to 7 days) offers - exclusive deals with 25% to 40% off for stays at fine hotels.

Current sales being offered on Vacationist.com include Turtle Island in Fiji, The Surrey in New York City, and The James Hotel in Chicago, with more weekly offerings to come.

You become a Vacationist member either by invitation from a current member, or by default if you’re already a Luxury Link member or Travel + Leisure customer.

For Travel + Leisure, the new venture represents a diversification from its core business of publishing. A timely move, and one that will be closely watched by AmEx Publishing as a template for its other travel publications, given that traditional  magazines don’t exactly have subscribers and advertisers beating down the doors right now.

Vacationist follows in the footsteps of the Gilt Groupe’s Jetsetter, whose well received launch last year turned private sales into a hot travel trend for 2010, and has since been followed by similar other sites and services being launched in the last few months. Not a big surprise that none of them got as big or enthusiastic a reception as Jetsetter.

But Vacationist looks like it has the staying power and reach to make a serious dent in the market for private sales of luxury hotels. As compared to Gilt’s member base, Luxury Link and T+L’s combined member base will likely prove to be a much easier sell for luxury hotel sales.

Meanwhile, Gilt is making further inroads into the travel sector with the launch of Gilt City – which offers city-based, time and quantity limited deals for local businesses. 

Currently, deals are on offer only for New York and include a restaurant, but won’t be long before Gilt City discovers the benefits of listing local deals for hotels. It also looks all set for an expansion to other major cities.

The Office of Travel and Tourism at the US Dept. of Commerce has published its annual Year in Review report for 2009, and the facts and figures are a grim reminder of the spectacular disaster that was 2009.

US Travel Year in Review 2009

The 2009 highlights for US Travel & Tourism:-

- 54.9 million international visitors (down 3.1 million or 5% from 2008)
- $121 billion in international visitor spending  (down $21 billion or 15% from 2008)
- $100 billion less output (domestic+international; down 7.4% from 2008)
- 8.2 million jobs supported (down 400,000 or 4.6% from 2008)

Regionwise, the biggest drop came from Europe, which sent 10% fewer visitors to the United States in 2009. European spending on US travel and tourism-related goods and services dropped to $10.1 billion (20% drop) in 2009.

Within Europe, the biggest drop came from the UK – 3.9 million visitors (down 15%) who spent $5 billion less (down 27%).

Americans traveling abroad also spent less in 2009 – 12% less as compared to 2008.

Subtracting the amount Americans spent abroad on travel & tourism from the amount spent by international visitors in the US, the trade surplus for 2009 comes to $22 billion – a drop of $7 billion over the 2008 surplus.

2009 was the worst year in recent history for the US Travel & Tourism sectors, comparable to the impact of 9/11. The $21 billion drop in 2009 international visitor spending is worse than the $13.3 billion drop in 2001. The 4.6% employment drop is more than that for 2001 and 2002  (1% and 3% ) put together.

How far back the 2008-2009 recession has pushed US Travel can be judged from the fact that the industry actually employed more people in 1999 than in 2009. Total spending on passenger air transportation services (direct and indirect) fell more than 16% to $158.3 billion in 2009, less than was spent in 2000.

The $100 billion drop in demand for US travel & tourism goods and services is by far the single largest contraction the industry has ever experienced.

2009 employment data by sector:-

- Food services/drinking places supported 2.5 million jobs (down 2%; lost 61,000 jobs)
- Passenger air transportation industry supported 758,000 jobs (down nearly 6%; lost 47,000 jobs)
- Traveler accommodations supported 1.6 million jobs (down nearly 6%; lost 100,000 jobs)

For more details, download the full report from the OTTI (pdf file) website.