For reasons passing understanding, national newspaper USA Today has launched its own iPhone travel app. The USA Today AutoPilot boasts TripIt integration, real-time flight stats, and various city-specific directories.

Ignore for a minute that most of this app's TripIt and weather features are already offered natively by, um, the TripIt iPhone app. Ignore also that there are great city-specific guides for tourists and that if you're turning to USA Today you might not be getting the most nuanced suggestions. The bigger question is: why? Who at USA Today woke up and thought "you know what we need to solidify our brand? An iPhone travel app."

As it turns out, USA Today actually provided reporters with an answer to that question:]]> Omri 2009-10-16T09:18:38-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/4/4/124058/6799

You know how whenever you stay in a big chain hotel, you get a copy of USA Today delivered to your door every day? Well, it turns out that hotel distribution is a huge part of USA Today's circulation, and the slowdown in business and leisure travel is really taking a toll on the Gannett behemoth's bottom line. The Wall Street Journal points out that the newspaper has seen a 7% decrease in the number of copies distributed through hotel chains such as Marriott, which is seen contributing to a 35% dip in ad revenue in the first quarter. In a statistic that I found quite surprising, the Journal notes that the 1.3 million daily copies of USA Today distributed at hotels last year accounted for more than half the paper's average weekday circulation. ]]> Victor Ozols 2009-04-04T12:40:58-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/8/27/19837/1344

If you've watched VH-1, E!, or MTV in the last few years, you'll notice the media has taken a liking to compiling arbitrary lists. But we understand their handiness: The lists can provide a synopsis of more than just "Hollywood's Hottest Bods." USA Today recently published a compilation of the top 25 travel milestones of the past 25 years. The creation of the online booking industry--Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia and the others--topped the list.

The rest of the top 10 listed handy new gadgets, a few travel trends, and the creation of new standards and regulatory agencies. These included:

2. TSA airport security
   
3. Airline e-tickets
   
4. Roll-aboard luggage
   
5. Smoke-free flights
   
6. Boutique hotel chains
   
7. Airports as malls
   
8. Indian casinos
   
9. GPS car-navigation systems
   
10. Self-service ticketing kiosks
    

While we complain about the hiccups in service and jumps in prices, it's safe to say we've come a long way in our ability to travel around this Earth of ours. And when our flights do get delayed 10 hours, at least we can drag our roll-aboard luggage through duty free shops to kill time.

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· Top 25 Travel Events [USA Today]

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