Transcript Challenges for Tourism in the European Part of the

The vision
TOURISMlink in a nutshell
EU-funded initiative
EU-funded demonstration initiative to:
• Improve ICT adoption by SMEs in the Business to
Business tourism industry
• Improve the competitiveness of the tourism industry,
by enhancing business relationships between source
markets and destinations
• Facilitate the connection of SMEs to the global digital
value chain through the development of simple, lowcost, easy to use, and interoperable solutions
Tourismlink in a nutshell
Automation objective of Tourismlink:
Create, manage, distribute and transact tourism content across
European B2B actors using open communication definitions
Stakeholders of Tourismlink:
Content
Content
Content
Content
providers (tourism experience providers)
managers (DMC, inbound travel agents, etc)
distributers (TO, booking sites, etc)
consumers (outbound travel agents)
Content promoters (national, regional tourism boards)
Content regulators (EU, countries, regions)
Main challenges of Tourismlink:
Huge number of difficult to reach content providers (>2M)
Huge variety & wealth of content
Lots of stakeholders with different needs
Lots of existing local automation initiatives
=> Highly fragmented context
Extremely fragmented context
several
distribution
channels
different systems
different ICT
standards
fragmentation of
the market and
strong marketing
and operational
inefficiencies
The proposed distribution model
SPOKE
The Hub provides content
management capabilities in
the cloud
The Spokes provides the
distribution capabilities
Linear growth of
distribution complexity
TOURISMlink framework
TOURISMlink framework
Integration in the tourism industry distribution chain
European
Interoperable exchange
Scalable, modular and developed as
Available without license costs
platform
open source
Content distribution issues
Solutions given by TOURISMlink
Problems
Supplier connect one-toone
Overbooking
No price control
Lack of global business
information (360º)
Lack of knowledge about
niche market or new
providers
Difficulty payment
management
Inefficient business
environment
Solutions
Unique personalised
connector with all
distributors
Control of allotment and
prices
Full business information
Control of payment
management
Transactions between
trusted parties
High level architecture
General functionalities
• Connectivity to external systems
• Booking notifications in real time avoiding fax or e-mail
• Immediate update for allotments, rates offers and
supplements
• Allows to manage all clients benefits in only one interface
• Only one extranet with the same configuration for all
different connections available, it’s easy to update your
product at the different channels
• Allotment is controlled and updated by the hotelier directly
• Price control and detailed management for the rates
depending on the client
• More connectivity, direct channels as destination webs are
allowed to be connected.
• Graphic booking engine can be added into B2B websites.
Central Reservation System
TOURISMlink core
Rate management
Inventory management
Channel manager
Connection to the main distribution channels
managem
Property management system
Easy management of the property
• Operational functions
of front office
• Sales and planning
Business intelligence
Easy decision management
Quick access to the
pulse of your property
Portal B2B
Designed for SMEs and micro enterprises
Access to
complementary offer,
not only accommodation
Open message: SUPPLIER XML
Put your product into the platform
Echo message (Both directions)
Sales plan / inventory Request
Tour
operator
CRM
Online
Agency
Hotel Web
Sales plan/inventory Response
Hotel
TL
Inventory modification Request
Booking
Center
PMS
Sales plan/inventory modification
Response
Booking notification
Booking information
GDS
Traditional
Agency
Spokes: Supplier XML connections
Completed
In a near future
Open message: Access XML
Take product from the platform
Open Session RQ
Session Response
Travel
Agency
Availability (zone or hotel) request
TL
Availability response
Tour
Operator
Client
Accommodation info Request
Receptive
Accommodation info Response
Block Request
Block Response
Final Client
Spokes: Access XML connections
Completed
In a near future
What we learned
Pilot participants
The pilots have been carried out with the involvement of
national associations of tour operators, travel agents, hotels,
restaurants, cafés and complementary offer services.
107 companies from 3 destination associations:
•CEHAT (Spain)
•UPUHH (Croatia)
•FEDERALBERGHI / FIPE (Italy)
76 companies from 9 source markets associations:
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UHPA (Croatia)
ACCKA (Czech Republic)
SRF (Sweden)
SMAL (Finland)
APAVT (Portugal)
ANAT (Romania)
HATTA (Greece)
DRV (Germany)
FIT (Belgium)
Pilot results of using the platform
The system shows the capacity to support:
•Innovation
•Widen market,
•Reduce costs & increase margins
More in particular:
•Faster response times
•Less duplication of data
•Fewer transcription errors
•More reliable operational data
•More transparent tracking of operational activities
•Higher service levels for customers
•Higher employees satisfaction
•Fast learning curve
•(average 2.5 days to be operational with the system)
What we learned from the pilots
In general:
• Pilot companies acknowledge the need and benefits for an
open European Tourism content distribution network.
• However, SME’s are very time and resource constraint.
From destination providers:
•Access to the European market
•Single system to manage and
distribute Tourism products services
From travel agents:
• TA are looking for immediate usable
niche products/services
• Appreciate the ancillary services
Way forward
The Tourismlink proposition
What ?
Objective: get as many as possible small and medium tourism
experience providers online and available across Europe to
professional tourism experience sellers.
How ?
• Distribution language definitions:
•Create and manage the definitions of the open messages
• Distribution approach:
•Federate the local automation initiatives in a network across
Europe using the open messages
• Working open reference distribution platform:
- to proof the concept and mature the message definitions
- allow cities/regions/associations/countries and
private companies without automation capabilities to
quickly join the network
Federation of distribution platforms
One common distribution language
Benefits:
- compatible with existing
regional hubs
- allows regional content
ownership and branding
- network effect
“United in diversity”
How? High level roadmap
TOURISMlink activities will continue in a new non-profit structure.
The creation of this structure will ensure the update and
maintenance of the framework as well as its broad dissemination
and marketing. The structure, besides creating a federation of
interconnected tourism hubs, will continue to run the operating
platform created for the pilots, thus allowing small and medium
tourism companies to easily access TOURISMlink.