Travel is the new fashion, it seems, judging by the number of websites jumping into the space lately. Today Groupon became the latest site to strike out into the discounted travel space with Groupon Getaways (a partnership with Expedia).

After Gilt and Hautelook demonstrated near immediate success with the daily fashion sale model, it seemed a new company following the exact same model appeared every week faster than you could say 70% off. Gilt was the first of those sites to bring travel deals into the mix with their Jetsetter website; but today there’s the American Express backed Vacationist and Exclusively.in (a Gilt style site targeted towards Indian fashion and design), who recently expanded to include Asian focused travel deals.

Unlike fashion, there’s no Vente Privee (who American Express also recently partnered with) – that is an established behemoth who’s been making money off the model for a while. That’s the good news, now the critical look.

While startups like Airbnb are having success as an un-hotel travel coordinator for the value conscious, we do have to wonder if discount travel will eventually run into some of the same issues of discount fashion: luxury fashion sales bounced back, brands got smarter about manufacturing which means less inventory to discount in the first place and a focus on full priced sales. Make no mistake, while Gilt and others continue to do brisk business in discounted apparel, the leading US flash retailer is looking for growth in retail at regular price.

According to Pegasus, a hotel reservation system provider used by 90,000 hotels around the world, hotels in the US and around the world are seeing growth in spite of regional crises.

“March global bookings and revenue reached the second highest growth pace over the last twelve month period, increasing by +10.8% and +15.5%, respectively, over prior year.” {the Pegasus View March 2011}

While we have no doubt that Groupon’s massive audience will buy into the travel deals, and those seeking travel deals will buy into Groupon’s regular offerings, we wonder how long it will be before the same discounted dates are bouncing around on the various sites. What’s wrong with that? Limited inventory plus three different options for filling it means that the discounts may get to be less attractive over time.

The one advantage Groupon may have though is their international reach. Groupon Getwaways is starting in the US, then Canada with an international rollout after that. Unlike fashion, in addition to there not being a clear behemoth there aren’t any sites outside the US who’ve successfully developed travel flash sales.

Jeff Huber, Google’s SVP of Commerce and Local, posted on the Google blog “weâ€re moving to close this acquisition as soon as possible, and then weâ€ll start the important work of bringing our teams and products together,” so it seems that the DOJ’s conditions will be agreed to by the search giant.

The key conditions agreed to in the settlement are that Google:

• Continue to license ITAâ€s QPX software to airfare websites on commercially reasonable terms
• Continue to fund research and development of that product at least at similar levels to what ITA has invested in recent years
• Further develop and offer ITAâ€s next generation InstaSearch product to travel websites
• Implement firewall restrictions within the company that prevent unauthorized use of competitively sensitive information and data gathered from ITAâ€s customers
• Not enter into agreements with airlines that would inappropriately restrict the airlines†right to share seat and booking class information with Googleâ€s competitors

for the next 5 years. {TechCrunch}

In other words Microsoft, Expedia, Kayak et. al would have until 2016 to build or fund their own airfare search software. Until then, the terms of the settlement means that Google wouldn’t be able to price competitors out of the software, stop developing it to hobble the software for companies currently dependent on it, share data from ITA within other departments at Google or cut deals with airline customers that would force them to choose ITA over another airfare search provider.

Kayak Software, a Travel Company Owned by Sequoia and Accel, Files for IPO

“Kayak Software Corp., the Norwalk, Connecticut-based provider of online travel information, filed for an initial public offering worth as much as $50 million.”

Expedia Buys Mobiata, Maker of Popular iPhone Travel Apps {TechFlash}

“Ann Arbor-based Mobiata, a maker of mobile travel applications such as FlightTrack, FareCompare and HotelPal, has been sold to Expedia in a deal of undisclosed size. The acquisition will bolster Expedia’s mobile offerings at a time when more travelers are using smartphones and other portable devices to check flight times, fares and other information.”

Air France-KLM Raises Profit Forecast, Plots Asian Routes as Demand Booms {Bloomberg}

“Air France-KLM Group, Europeâ€s biggest airline, raised its full-year earnings target and plans to add more than a dozen new routes to tap surging demand for flights to Asia, Africa and the Middle East…The carrier will add four or five new Asian destinations by 2014, mainly in China, plus a similar number in Africa and the Middle East…”

Commercial Jets to Fly in Skies Reserved for Military {CNN}

“Aviation authorities are gearing up for a busy holiday travel season by clearing skies normally reserved for military aircraft in an effort to make room for more unfettered commercial travel.”