Travel website Expedia buys flight-and-hotel booking site Travelocity for $280 million in cash.

Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said Travelocity is a popular travel brand in North America, offering thousands of world destinations to about 20 million travelers per month. 

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The acquisition deal with Travelocity's owner, Sabre Corp., expands Expedia's rising online presence. The Bellevue business has almost a dozen travel sites including Hotwire, Hotels.com and Egencia, the fifth-biggest corporate travel service provider in the world.

The sale allows Sabre to pay more attention to its operations selling airline hotel rooms, tickets and car rentals.

Online clients should not to see any changes, however, due to an earlier arrangement. Starting two years ago, Expedia has been improving the reach and content of Travelocity's Canadian and U.S. websites through access to Expedia's customer service program and hotel supply.

Sabre is the third biggest player among world distribution companies - the other two being Amadeus and Travelport - that serves travel agencies and travel sites like Expedia for online sales. Shares of the company's competitor, Orbitz Worldwide, suddenly rose earlier this week on reports it may sell its business.

The Priceline Group is another big industry player, which is running websites such as Booking.com, Priceline, OpenTable and Kayak.

While Expedia and similar companies rule the travel booking industry and seek to expand into fast growing markets in developing nations, they are grappling with new competition at their own turf from innovative service providers such as the popular last-minute deal site HotelTonight and airfare search maven Hipmunk. 

TagsTravelocity, Expedia, online booking