So who owns a review? Product reviews are known to work on travel websites but when a consumer adds a review who owns it?

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I am completely stumped with what ABTA, the UK official travel body that represents the interests of a large proportion of the UK travel industry is up to.

Seems they want to regulate airline websites in a way I don't understand at all.

Now I admit I don't understand what they are doing. Last week when I wrote about it I got back-channel comments saying it was perfectly obvious what they were doing and I shouldn't be writing about if it I was confused.

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Read the headline again... That's right, the UK's official body which represents the interests of travel organisations and consumers has a rather interesting idea.

But first, some background: two key distribution models are emerging in consumer-facing online travel.

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I am a logical fellow, at heart just a code developer, hence when I look at what is happening I tend to analyse from what is possible, regardless of probability.

Code developers have to handle the one in 1,000 chance that a particular section of code will run hence we have to consider everything. That is just how it is.

But our logical minds don't work quite so well when it comes to business.

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Recently we have seen a spate of travel startups describing themselves as a GDS - Global Distribution System.

I am intrigued by TourAbout, a social GDS. Then there is Kumutu, an adventure and activity tour GDS.

So are they really a GDS? And what is a GDS anyway?

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Eighteen entrepreneurs pitched a diverse range of new travel companies at this year's Get Funded Show taking place during World Travel Market (London).

Entries ranged from mobile startups through to trip planning, holiday home rental and new airlines.

And the winner is....

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Follow TravelBlogCamp 2009 as it happens and take part using CoverItLive.

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When considering an online travel startup you tend to think about three approaches.

Taking on the incumbent, creating a whole new category that you can dominate, and assuming that the market must be massive so if you only capture 1% you're doing ok.

Hence a great deal of an entrepreneur's time is taken by active consideration of building or bypassing barriers to entry.

So, take TripAdvisor's primary barrier to entry...

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There is some confusion about extra services (which are mainly non mandatory to the end customer) that are now available on many forms of mainstream travel products such as flights.

The problem is these agents are looking at all these ancillary products through the wrong lens. Yes of course it is about the money but it is also about centralising bookings.

No wonder agents are upset - but they put the issue down to airline incompetence rather than well considered strategy. The agents are complaining about the wrong point!

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We can have a long debate about the merits of Twitter. It has its advocates as well its opponents.

The reason I like Twitter is because the travel industry is so fragmented that it is a great mechanism to keep up with the zeitgeist.

No other tool, website, conference or trade association is as effective at joining together so many people from all corners of the fragmented travel industry.

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In a short blog post Dopplr has this morning confirmed that their rumoured sale to Nokia has completed successfully.

So it's about the data. Interconnected data.

One of the challenges with Dopplr is that it relies heavily on the network effect. The network, collectively, becomes more useful the more people join. This is true of most social networks.

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Bing… incoming press release from HotelsCombined, a Sydney based hotel reservation company.

They have launched a new scheme to guarantee 100% up-time to their affiliate partners.

Is this for real or just a wacky plan that has been dreamt up in a marketing meeting in order to achieve a quick PR buzz boost?

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