Feature 1: The board of directors of Expedia, Inc. have preliminarily approved a plan to spin off the TripAdvisor Media Group.

The plan will create two publicly traded companies, with Expedia stockholders getting a distribution of TripAdvisor stock or a reclassification of Expedia stock.

TripAdvisor gets to keep its 18 travel media and advertising brands. Analyst estimates put the value of a publicly traded TripAdvisor Media Group at around $4 billion.

Expedia, Inc. will keep the company’s travel transaction brands including Expedia.com, Hotels.com, eLong, Hotwire and Egencia, among others. Expedia chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi said that it was a matter of size and revenue diversification, and TripAdvisor had grown to a point where it was ready to stand on its own as a media company.

Wall Street seems to like the idea; Expedia shares jumped 13 percent in after-hours trading. TripAdvisor has consistently outperformed Expedia as a whole, with a 38 percent revenue growth in 2010 as opposed to 13 percent for Expedia. TripAdvisor, along with its 18 brands, provided 35 percent of Expedia’s 2010 operating income.

Expedia, Inc. announces plan to separate into two companies – ExpediaInc.com
Expedia plans to split travel company into two entities – WSJ
Expedia’s stock value threatened by social network for travelers - Seeking Alpha
American Airlines and Expedia reach distribution agreement – ExpediaInc.com

Feature 2: Marketing Communications company JWT Intelligence has published a report on how technology is “Rebooting Travel” with survey data that shows that the new post-recession, tech-enabled travelers are different and they’re reshaping the sector.

The report focuses on how the smartphone is replacing guidebooks among Gen X travelers (34-46) and the Millennials (18-33). Seventy-seven percent of Millennials and 56 percent of Gen Xers say that having a smartphone while on vacation makes them feel secure knowing they can instantly get information about their surroundings.

The report also shows how travel social currency (sharing and bragging about travel escapades) has moved into real-time. On the flip-side, it has a section on de-teching as a trend for 2011, where vacationers are choosing to get off the grid and spend quality time with loved ones and enjoy real-world experiences.

Rebooting Travel – JWT Intelligence (download full report – pdf)

Here’s the rest of the week’s travel news:

Google poised to win key antitrust approval for ITA Software merger - NY Post
Google plans to build a new state of the art “green” office space - Mountain View Online

Dennis Crowley: Don’t think of Foursquare as a game - The Guardian
LivingSocial Chief races to escape shadow of Groupon - NYT

Kayak acquires Checkfelix, Austrian travel search engine - Argophilia
Egencia acquires Travelforce, Australian travel management company – Egencia.com.au

Startup introduces online travel concierge for popular destinations – TravelSort.com
Loyalty travel startup raises $2.7 million – UsingMiles.com
Leading Hotels of the World rolls out ‘home benefits’ for loyal guests - USAToday

Flirtomatic’s iPhone app introduces location-based time-travel flirting - VentureBeat
Fotopedia bets big on virtual vacations - GigaOM

Why Marriott wants digital renderings of everything - Technology Review
World’s best hotels share a common thread - WATG.com

Florida Bill to help online-travel companies squeaks through another stop – Orlando Sentinel
UK online hotel price-fixing probe continues – Stamford Advocate

Consumer Luggage Report 2011 - Suitcase.com
Airline performance improves for third consecutive year – Wichita.edu

Photo credits: TA logo – TripAdvisor; Rebooting Travel – JWT Intelligence