Part Three: Storytelling Through Numbers

Breakfast may always be ready, but is the bed & breakfast industry ready to leapfrog into the Technology Age with a high-tech, social media-driven company that eliminated its much-beloved print directories? Well, we're about to find out.

In case you missed it, there's a war a-brewing for control of our photographic lives-a war being waged between Facebook and Twitter. Once half-jokingly dubbed "a photo sharing site with some chat attached" by noted VC Fred Wilson, Facebook stands as the reigning photographic champion, having gobbled up mobile photo champion Instagram in this year's purported billion-dollar acquisition. Standing as the David to Facebook/Instagram's Goliath would appear to be none other than Twitter, who is rumored to be close to launching photo features of its own.

Are hotels losing sight of what it takes to make guests comfortable?

Since more than 90% of travel planning is done online, having a compelling online presence is essential for tourism brands. When it comes to identifying priorities for where to advertise, options include pay-per-click, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, e-mails, banner ads and branded content. With limited marketing funds, how do you get the most from your media spend?

According to AAA, some 43.6 million Americans will travel this 2012 Thanksgiving season with an average roundtrip distance of some 588 miles. Of those travelers, only 3.14 million are expected to take to the air-a slight decline over 2011. Any way you cut it, it's a lot of time in transit-and a lot of time to kill with the ones you love.

When it comes to websites - no matter the platform or device - looks count. It shouldn't be forgotten amidst all the wiz bang apps and devices and that the way a web page appears on a computer, tablet or phone remains crucial. In fact, the recent experience of Alitalia, the Italian flag carrier, demonstrates the potential of testing web pages on an ongoing basis to see what works.

The region's continued cry for more airlift calls for an innovative approach

Everyone agrees that social media is important and on the rise. But I still come across so many skeptics on a weekly basis when it comes to getting support for social media providing a strong return on investment. Maybe some of these impressive stats will help convince those naysayers.

We've all known about the "power of mobile" for quite some time now. Smartphones already have a big impact on the travel industry, and with the steady increase of mobile adoption, they will continue to heavily influence the way consumers make travel plans.