Feature 1: The TSA is threatening to ground Texas because the Lone Star State is about to pass legislation (HB 1937) that bans the TSA from “touching your junk.”

TSA Advanced imaging technology

The TSA sent a letter to Texas legislators explaining what would happen if the state passes the law. This may have been the right thing to do under the circumstances, but it’s never a good idea to pick a states’ rights fight in Texas when you’re a federal agency.

To make matters worse, this issue is no longer just about the TSA vs. Texas. The “United States for Travel Freedom Caucus,” with state legislators from nine states, is now gearing up to “stop TSA abuses.”

This is yet another example of the TSA finding itself trying to get out of a bad situation.

United States for Travel Freedom Caucus plans to stop TSA abuses- Hawaii Reporter
Blogger Bob: There is more to security than simply going through a checkpoint – Elliott.org
Think twice before frowning in the security line - Fast Company

Feature 2: The American Airlines vs. GDS fight over American’s Direct Connect took a few steps forward with interesting new developments.

First up, American was more than happy to let the cat out of the bag about the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) antitrust probe into global distribution systems practices.

Then Travelport filed its own response to American’s earlier antitrust lawsuit. The response is a motion to dismiss, alleging that American is just using the lawsuit as a bargaining chip.

American Airlines cooperating with DOJ’s antitrust GDS probe - AA.com
Travelport’s motion to dismiss filing – Travelport.com
U.S. probe into GDSs could last months - Travel Weekly
American wants to know what Sabre has planned - dallasnews.com

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

Ashton Kutcher knows his start-ups - NYT
Ashton Kutcher invests in Airbnb, joins team - Airbnb Blog

ViajaNet secures $19 million – ViajaNet (pr)
Hipmunk CEO: Entrepreneurs think it’s getting wacky, too – peHUB
How Hipmunk gained traction as the go-to flight-search site – Entrepreneur.com

Google testing flight search results in UK - SEOgadget
Social search goes global – Google Social Web

gtrot launches as the evolved social travel site – gtrot.com
Visa launches travel-themed marketing campaign with Facebook app – Visa.com

Foursquare: Is your business worth bragging about? Wilhelmus.ca
One week on Foursquare: Where people go and what they do – WSJ

Jet Tracker database: Where private jet owners go - WSJ
Social flights brings private jet travel to the masses – Mashable

Kayak hires first-ever CFO ahead of pending IPO – AllThingsD
Spirit Airlines Inc. (NASDAQ: SAVE) completes IPO, opens 5.4 percent down – WSJ

Disney cuts taxes by selling tickets to itself - OrlandoSentinel
Brandjacking costs hotels $2.2 billion per year - MarkMonitor via HNN

Grounded British test plane highlights ash data gaps - Reuters
IATA slams Europe’s response to Grimsvotn – IATA.org
Ash flight rules to be overhauled - Telegraph

Photo – TSA.gov

Related posts:
TravelTechnology Weekly #25 – May 20, 2011
TravelTechnology Weekly #24 – May 13, 2011
TravelTechnology Weekly #23 – May 6, 2011

Mother’s Day is just a week away, so there’s been a recent surge of hotel deals hitting the market for the big weekend. The common denominator of 2011 Mother’s Day packages seems to be one three-letter word: spa. Day spas and destination hotels will feature discounts on spa packages, as well as treatments designed specifically for the holiday.

Boca Raton, Florida: Boca Raton Resort & Club is giving moms a 25 percent discount on all spa services at Spa Palazzo, as well as 25 percent off golf greens fees and tennis fees. Room packages start at $219 per night at the resort, $249 at the club.

New York City: The Affinia Dumont, a “wellness-themed” hotel in Midtown, will offer a $250 nightly rate over Mother’s Day weekend in a package that includes a 30-minute express service from Oasis Day Spa, an eco-friendly reusable water bottle and a room customized to guest preferences. (Upgrades for longer spa treatments are available.)

Horseshoe Bay, Texas: The Horseshoe Bay Resort in Texas Hill Country has a special package for mothers-to-be that includes 20 percent off all spa services. It also focuses on mother/daughter activities over the holiday weekend, including a golf clinic, bingo and a ping-pong tournament.

Marco Island, Florida: Marco Island Marriott Beach Resort will feature a “Spa Ritual” package designed for moms at its Balinese-style spa. The deal, starting at $519, includes two nights lodging, breakfast each day in Tropiks restaurant, daily spa membership and choice of one spa treatment per guest. This package is available through September 30, 2011.

Maui, Hawaii: The Grand Wailea Resort on Maui’s south coast will offer a Mother’s Day Champagne Brunch on Sunday, May 8, along with numerous “Mom & Me” activities, such as lei-making demonstrations, beach yoga, a botanical tour and hula lessons. Spa Grande has a special Ohe Bamboo Massage in honor of the day.

Whistler, British Columbia, Canada: Scandinave Spa Whistler, best known for its outdoor eucalyptus steam baths, is offering Mother’s Days deals starting at $169, which includes an hour-long massage, access to the baths and a snack from the “health bistro.”

For more spa packages and gift ideas in your area, check out this Mother’s Day gift guide.

Photo: Courtesy of Boca Raton Resort & Club

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Updated Old School at Boca Raton Resort

In the first week of February, around 150,000 fans will invade Dallas, TX for Super Bowl XLV and are expected to spend at least $150-200 million.

Cowboys Stadium

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, because business travel and group meetings account for over 83% of hotel stays in the Dallas area, and the city plans to milk the Super Bowl to boost its meetings and convention business.

They’ve been spending some seriously big money ($14 billion) on developments, some of which are still ongoing.

A lot of this money has been targeted to impress the 3500 members of the media and thousands of corporate decision makers and meeting planners attending the Super Bowl that the new Dallas is very much different from the dated Big D.

The biggest improvement is, of course, the new $1.2 billion Cowboys Stadium in Arlington with its retractable roof and giant screen, which gets a big boost from the Super Bowl right out of the gate.

Another big improvement is the city owned $500 million, 1000 room Omni Convention Center hotel, connected to the Dallas Convention Center via a skybridge. It won’t open until early 2012, but meeting planners in town for Super Bowl event planning have been getting a good close look at it all year long.

Omni Dallas Hotel

Ed Netzhammer, Regional VP and General Manager of the Omni Dallas Hotel, says that “Since the Omni Dallas Hotel began taking reservations last September, the team has already booked over 132,000 room nights.”

To add to the buzz, the other large convention hotels in Dallas have been spending hundreds of millions more on makeovers. The 1,840 room Sheraton Dallas has spent $91 million, out of which $7 million was for upgrades to the conference center and the 70 meeting rooms. The upgrades include large interactive touch screens which provide assistance, flight status and directions.

The 1,120 room Hyatt Regency Dallas has spent $63 million in the last year and a half, out of which $20 million was spent on convention facilities. The 1,608 room Hilton Anatole, which is the official NFL headquarters  during Super Bowl week, has spent $100 million on a multi-year renovation.

The Dallas CVB isn’t sitting idle either. They’re paying $30,000 for three short films – Dallas by DART, Arts District, and Western experience in Dallas - to showcase all the recent improvements and upgrades to the city.

It’s early days yet, but it looks like all the investment and hard work, not to mention the successful bid for the Super Bowl in the first place, has already begun to pay off. Earlier this year, Dallas hosted 3000 members of the Professional Convention Management Association for the first time since 1992.

A PCMA convention inevitably leads to a jump in a city’s convention and meetings business, so Dallas now has 14 large conventions scheduled for 2011, followed by 18 in 2012 and probably a lot more after that once the new Convention Center hotel opens.

Photo credits: Cowboys Stadium – Mahanga; Hotel – Omni Hotels & Resorts

A weird twist in an incident on the Texas Mexico border now threatens to put the entire American market out of Mexico’s reach after the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety called on all Americans to cancel Mexico travel plans.

On Sept 30, 2010, David and Tiffany Hartley were ordinary American tourists jet-skiing on the Mexican side of Falcon Lake along the Rio Grande. They came under gunfire from Mexicans in three boats. His wife Tiffany escaped, but David’s body is still missing.

The Texas-Mexico border runs right through the lake, with Nueva Ciudad Guerrero, Tamaulipas on the Mexican side. To make matters worse, the lead Mexican investigator – Rolando Armando Flores Villegas, was murdered on Oct 12 and his head was found stuffed in a suitcase sent to the Mexican military.

The case has received a lot of publicity, with Texas Gov. Rick Perry weighing in. Even Sec. of State Clinton has assured that the US is doing everything possible to bring a quick resolution to the matter.

Tourism to Falcon Lake is just about dead, which is to be expected given the swat teams and helicopters shown in the news patrolling the US side. It might even be understandable as an excess of caution if the Lone Star state warned Texans to be careful when they step across anywhere along the 1200 mile border the state shares with Mexico.

But Steve McCraw, Director of the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security, has called on all Americans to cancel travel plans to Mexico, period. He says “Nobody should be going in to Mexico at this point in time.”

Even the US Dept. of State only has alerts (not warnings) which advise Americans about the dangers in specific border areas prone to violence and crime.

Also, the call not to travel to Mexico is not the official position of the state. There is no written statement or warning to this effect anywhere on the Texas Homeland Security site, the Dept. of Public Safety site, or any other Texas state website. It was apparently an oral statement made on tv.

But as Texas Homeland Security Director and Director of the Texas Dept. of Public Safety, McCraw’s recommendations carry a lot of weight, and all of Mexico has been marked with David Hartley’s bloodstains.

It’ll be more difficult now to convince travelers about the difference between visiting tourist destinations like Cancun and Acapulco, as opposed to the dangers of cross-border travel in Texas.