Amadeus IT Group S.A. said it would sell the European website Opodo to AXA Private Equity and Permira Funds, pending approval by the Amadeus board. Opodo is a pan-European website founded by nine European airlines. It launched in 2001, first in Germany, then in the U.K. and ultimately expanded into nine European markets.

The World Religious Travel Association filed a voluntary petition for relief under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Colorado on Jan. 7, Travel Pulse has learned. WRTA was founded in November 2006, by Kevin J. Wright, an author of books on religious tourism, and the founder in 2004 of the religious travel division of Globus.

Expedia, Inc., the world’s largest online travel company, today announced a multi-year strategic distribution agreement with WestJet, Canada’s leading low-cost airline offering more than 400 daily flights to 70 destinations throughout Canada, The United States, Mexico and the Caribbean.

Bookings to the Caribbean are down 20 percent, according to The Co-operative Travel. The agency chain studied 30,000 bookings made since November 1 when the increased Air Passenger Duty came into force.

The Jamaica Observer is reporting that Sandals Chairman Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart has agreed to drop all suits filed by his company Gorstew Limited against the three state agencies in 2005 for compensation for losses suffered over the Sandals Whitehouse hotel in Westmoreland, Jamaica.

India has assured the Dominican Republic that it will encourage Indian businessmen to invest in the Caribbean nation’s hospitality, tourism, renewable energy sources, film industry and IT sectors.