Sean O'Neill

By itself, the coronavirus scare needn't be like kryptonite to Samsonite, which has high gross margins. But the long-term double whammy of supply shocks (due to factory closings) and demand shocks (due to travelers pulling back on spending) may reduce the company's ability to pay interest on its heavy debts.

Expedia in December promoted Ariane Gorin to become boss of Expedia Business Services. Gorin had led a team that had recently won major enterprise accounts, like Marriott's exclusive redistribution deal. Opportunity abounds for the company to expand its business-to-business partnerships.

This is a highly unusual action. It's unclear why the U.S. government would believe a company would compromise the sensitive personal data of U.S. citizens just because it's based in China.

An upside for cities like Berlin that tighten short-term rental supply through regulation is that they're less prone to price and occupancy shocks when something like the trade fair ITB Berlin cancels at the last minute.

Yonder, Airside, GogoBus, and TPConnects announced investments this week, showing that startup funding continued despite the recent global coronavirus crisis.

Coronavirus has caused turmoil in the global financial markets, which has devalued several key currencies and made foreign trips costlier. But devaluation may also make potential acquisition targets cheaper for Despegar, the region's largest online travel agency.

Software may be eating the world, but in hotel tech it's still munching on the appetizers. Hotels have only begun to automate operational forecasts, such as how much revenue restaurants on a property may bring in or how much group business a hotel might steal from a crosstown rival.

Richard Anderson deserves kudos for having helped to revitalize Amtrak in his three years as CEO. The former Delta Air Lines top boss put the U.S. railway operator on track to its first-ever operating profit while also improving its safety record.

Amadeus, the world's largest provider of ticket distribution and operational software for airlines, is a bellwether for the sector. It had a weak February, but it expects a rebound later this year. The outlook for airlines, however, is less optimistic.

Startups that got funding this week included Xband, which runs model villages in China, Lanes & Planes, a travel management company, Oaky, a specialist in hospitality upselling, Revl, an automated souvenir video service, and Viselio, a visa application simplifier.