This week...UK travel industry at risk?, Expedia and Groupon join forces and TripAdvisor lashes out at Google

Here we are again at the beginning of yet another week which means it’s time for another this week instalment. We have some great picks of what’s new in the travel and technology world and we hope you enjoy them

Travel news

Difficult times for the travel industry- 3rd July- This week Travel Weekly reports that this is the ‘most challenging set of circumstances’ that the travel industry has ever faced. Chris Photi from White Heart Associates accountancy blamed the political unrest in the east, rising fuel prices, unfavourable exchange rates ant the good weather in the UK as collaborative reasons as to why the industry is struggling. There was a positive note from the article claiming that the industry is ‘resilient’ and that there will always be a demand in the UK for holidays.

Expedia partners with Groupon- 6th June- Groupon and Expedia have announce a new partnership which will focus on giving out vouchers for flights, hotels, packaged holidays and spa breaks worldwide. The new venture is called ‘Groupon Getaways’.

Jetsetter offers personalised service- 6th June- The members only travel site Jetsetter has released a new service from which users can receive personalised travel advice from around 200 travel writers. The service gives you 3 hours of advice with a detailed itinerary, hotel recommendations and local tips. The service comes at a price though at $200 for the 3 hour consultation. There is a $100 refund if you book with Jetsetter as a result of the service. This is a great for customers (with disposable income) looking for a bespoke long term holiday.

Technology news:

Google drops support for old browsers- 3rd June- If your still using IE6, IE7, Safari 3 or Firefox 3.5 then it’s probably time that you upgraded. Google have announced that on the 1st August it will drop all support for these browsers in an attempt to encourage users to upgrade. Google will drop all apps such as calender, talk and docs from these browser. This only effects a small number in UK, as the majority are on the upgraded browsers but this will effect over a third of Chinese internet users who are on IE6.

TripAdvisor speaks out against Google- 6th June- TripAdvisor CEO Steve Kaufer has lashed out on Twitter calling them ‘slimy’ as a result of an article which pointed out that the Google Places app had used reviews from Yelp without credit. Google has now apologised for the issue, blaming it on technical issues. TripAdvisor and Google have had previous issues due to TripAdvisor wanting the TripAdvisor reviews added to Google Places. The dispute is ongoing with Google assuring that TripAdvisor is included in Places.

That's all from us this week, we hope you enjoyed our top picks! Remember if you’re after more then you can follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook for more up to date information. Have a great week!