Traveling

Online travel portal Expedia began doing business in India almost two years ago, and is now scaling up operations there. By forming partnerships with local suppliers, Expedia hopes to jump to fourth place in the market in less than a year. Here's how it plans to go about it.

The hotel industry has emerged from its recessionary doldrums and it's getting harder to score a cheap room. But even with occupancy rates rising, if you're willing to book your stay blind on priceline.com or Hotwire, good deals can be had.

As fuel prices rise, United Continental Holdings says it is scrapping plans to add flights this year and also plans to drop unprofitable routes.

In a somewhat surprising report, The U.N. Environment Programme says one of the most promising green industries -- at least when it comes to creating economic growth, reducing poverty, fueling job creation and addressing major environmental challenges -- turns out to be tourism.

Nearly 60 million foreigners visited the U.S. in 2010. Where did they go? The most popular destinations included New York, Orlando, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago. The Big Apple is particularly appealing, drawing a record 48.7 million big-spending foreign travelers.

The storms last month not only inconvenienced travelers; they also cut into Delta Air Lines's profit, the company warned Wednesday. Delta has lowered its profit guidance by $45 million as a result.

Thousands of stuck holiday travelers are just the beginning: Airlines' new policy of pre-emptively canceling flights to avoid snowstorms is lowering their losses, but will likely leave many more passengers without a flight home in the future.

Hilton's ego may have taken a bruising blow from its settlement with Starwood, but its finances likely won't, analysts say. As part of the deal, Hilton has agreed to take itself out of the boutique-hotel-style market to settle allegations that it stole trade secrets from Starwood.

American Airlines has pulled its flights off of Orbitz after a dispute about how the travel site accesses the flight data. The move may make it harder for travelers to comparison shop, critics say. But Orbitz expects no loss of sales as a result.

Southwest Airlines is flying high: It's proven consistently profitable, and it serves more passengers than any other U.S. carrier. But as the airline expands its service, CEO Gary Kelly says volatile jet-fuel prices are his biggest concern going into 2011.