Phase 1 of the new 5-star resort facility, Iberostar Rose Hall Beach hotel was officially opened last week by Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding. The second phase of the $225 million investment is expected to be completed by May of next year and the third phase by November of 2008. When completed, this will add just 1,000 more hotel rooms to Jamaica’s tourism capital, Montego Bay.

Delta Air Lines Inc. plans to cut costs to deal with higher fuel prices, a senior official told investors on Tuesday, but he offered little insight into whether the third biggest U.S. air carrier will combine with another airline.

Vueling carried 495,860 passengers during November 2007, 74.8 percent more than in the same period last year as the carrier announced. Load factor climbed up to 63.4 percent, 7.3 points above the one registered in November 2006.

A growing sense of economic uncertainty so far hasn’t left Americans uncertain about their travel plans. In fact, a new survey found that 75 percent of Americans said they plan to spend at least as much on leisure travel in 2008 as they did this year.

Canadian tour and airline operator Transat A.T. Inc. will spend $55 million to team up with H10 Hotels of Barcelona in a joint venture to operate five hotels in Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

The Spanish hotel chain Sol Meliá announced financial results for the first nine months of the year which show an increase of 16.1 percent in net profits to 141.9 million euros, and also announced the purchase of the German hotel chain Innside and its portfolio of 12 leased hotels, of which 8 are currently in operation in Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf and Bremen. The other four hotels will be added between 2008 and 2010 in Vienna, Berlin, Dresden and Düsseldorf.