There seems to be no slowing down in the desire for travel companies to launch (or reboot) applications for a population that’s increasingly tuned into mobile devices. Here’s a look a three new free travel apps—beyond the new JetBlue app we wrote about a few weeks ago—that recently have hit the market.

AFAR
The media company with the gorgeous glossy travel magazine that launched in late 2009 recently released an iPhone app with a focus around Highlights. These bits of travel inspiration include a photo, title, description and location of a recommended travel experience. The app launched with 4,000 Highlights, with more being added daily. There’s also a contest running through the end of March for users to upload their highlights for a chance to win a trip to India. AFAR says that a version for Android phones will be released soon. Now how about some wildlife photos to inspire me to go on an adventurous safari in Africa?

TravelZoo
One of the earliest travel deal sites on the Internet, TravelZoo has launched a mobile website and added an Android app to join its existing iPhone app offering (introduced in August 2011). Mobile users can quickly access TravelZoo’s traditional Top 20 weekly deals listing, Local Deals, Entertainment Deals, Travel Deals and Last Minute discounts, which is not a category found on the company’s main website. The Android app features local deals based on users’ detected location. According to Tnooz, 17.5 percent of traffic to TravelZoo.com was already coming from mobile devices.

Travelocity
Last-minute deals for travel bookings on mobile devices—especially for hotel rooms—are gaining in popularity. Travelocity already went after this market last year when it enhanced its iPhone app for same-day hotel deals and some local information. The company has now launched an iPad app that offers additional discounts for flights, hotels and rental cars at rates through the app that are better than what’s available on the Travelocity website. In addition, app users get daily mobile-only deals. They also can access their Travelocity accounts through the app, which can auto-fill in purchase information to speed the close of the transaction.

Photo: AFAR

Related posts:
JetBlue Debuts iPhone App, New Web and Mobile Sites
Travelocity Upgrades iPhone App Based on Same-Day Hotel Bookings
There’s an App for What?

RThe importance and growing clout of Twitter as a gateway for the travel industry to tap consumers can no longer be denied.

Twitter Travel Apps

This has in turn unleashed a flurry of twitter applications and websites intent on helping travel marketeers and travelers connect and find what they’re looking for - on and via Twitter.

Of course, it’s early days yet, but just as iPhone travel apps like FlightTracker have made it into the list of top 35 iPhone apps this year, it’s a good bet that some of these twitter travel apps and sites too are headed for the big time.

Here’s an updated list of these twitter travel apps and sites:

TwtTRIP (@twtTRIP) - A travel organizer tool that helps you to share your travel plans, meet people and plan your next adventure on Twitter and other social media sites.

Trazzler Buzz (@Trazzler) – Tells you which destinations and regions are trending hot on Twitter, so you know where to go.

Schmap Geotweets (@schmap) – Add maps to your tweets, and share local restaurants, bars and travel adventures with your followers.

Twihotels (@TwiHotels) – Tweets your hotel requirements on Twitter, and connects you with destination hotels and/or twitter users who are in a position to offer unbiased and first-person hotel reviews.

ArrivedOK (@arrivedok) -  Instantly notify your friends and family when you arrive at airports worldwide. Their mobile twitter add-on application lets you tweet from your cell phone – free of charge – even from abroad, avoiding charges for SMS, voice or data transfer.

Twaller (@mytwaller) – Real-time travel related tweets ( #travel ) pulled in from Twitter, sorted by locations and categories.

Wanderlisting (@Wanderlisting) – Filters Twitter to provide you with up-to-the-minute news, deals, tips and tales from the world’s leading travel experts, bloggers and explorers and presents them to you in one convenient location.

Related Posts:

Twitter’s Travel Search: the Start of Something Big by Dennis Schaal