<B>OTA Debuts Data Protocol</B>
By Cheryl Rosen
Travel buyers and suppliers this week will take an e-step closer together as the OpenTravel Alliance releases Version 1.0 of its XML-based communication protocol for recording and passing along travel data.
This first release will offer a standard format for passenger profile information only. But it sets an important precedent in pulling together a wide variety of industry players--including suppliers in every segment, travel agencies, technology vendors and even a travel manager or two--to agree on formats that one day will be used for far meatier stuff.
"The final discussions back and forth are taking place right now, and then the Interoperability Committee, OTA's steering and voting body, is expected to recommend that the board approve the specifications. We're optimistic that will occur on Jan. 13," said OTA executive director Tim Cochran. "It's obviously the first of many, many functions that have to be completed for the travel industry, but it's an important stepping stone, and most of the customer profile data is common across all different industries. I think we'll share some very good work and drive the requirements of other industries as well."
The year-old association originally had promised to deliver Version 1.0 by October 1999 (<I>BTN</I>, June 7, 1999), but few are complaining about the delay now that there are positive results to report.
"Even what we have done so far is useful," said OTA board member Tom Grubbs, who represents Avis Inc. "The ability to create cell activity between the various verticals in the industry is difficult in part because we all have different names for the same things. In the airline industry it's a passenger; in the hotel industry it's a guest; in the car rental industry it's a customer."
But clearly, bigger things than this are in the works. Avis itself "is budgeted to migrate to XML in the year 2000," and increasingly sees itself moving to Internet and even direct distribution.
"The market demands the expansion of online travel distribution," Grubbs said. "That's not to say we are not still embracing the use of the GDS. But we will be expanding and enhancing distribution channel opportunities as they present themselves. So we have a very concerted effort to embrace what Avis thinks is a fairly strong and very positive consumer reaction to online travel."
Grubbs declined to cite an exact figure for Avis's online sales, but did say the number grew "exponentially" between 1998 and 1999 to a figure higher than the 2-3 percent.
On the OTA agenda for 2000 are a Version 2.0 that will add "significant functionality" and an expansion across the Atlantic, where the OTA will hold its first European Users Forum.
Grubbs acknowledged that Avis has fielded requests from certain customers for direct connectivity. "We are not looking to disturb the existing, mutually beneficial distribution chain, but the Internet is generating interest from suppliers, customers and the general consumer, and we feel our position in the OTA better positions us to respond," he said.
But he challenged the suggestion that Avis lags behind Hertz in stepping up more quickly to the direct-connections plate, saying that Avis is "just as involved in similar initiatives and responding to the market similarly. The corporate travel market is certainly a big, consolidated, well-educated sector, and we think this will probably position us to do the things that the corporate traveler is demanding these days. Motorola and Seagram and others are pushing the Rosenbluths and the AXIs to new heights, and the OTA presents a medium for us as suppliers to better respond across multiple vertical lines."
<B>Continental Runs The Direct Play</B>
Indeed, OTA president Jim Young, whose day job is Continental Airlines' managing director of distribution planning (see story, page 33), said the carrier plans to port the profile data in its homegrown XML-based AirFrame system to the OTA standard as soon as it is adopted. "As hard as we're working to develop messaging standards with the OTA, we're still proceeding with our own bypass initiatives," Young said. Continental has "three specific bypass trials going on right now," one for small travel agencies, one for medium to large agencies, and a third for corporations using the Oracle E-Travel booking system.
Three small agencies now are in "double beta" with a program that offers "an opportunity to earn a little and share in the CRS savings" for booking Continental directly through the AirFrame system. Two larger agencies are testing a portal that links directly into Continental's Shares system instead of a GDS. And Oracle E-Travel corporate customers are being offered "a much lower cost" for bookings through the AirFrame link. Young declined to name names, though, citing nondisclosure agreements.
"To get as far as we did with Oracle, they had to agree to use the same messages we did in AirFrame," Young noted. But with the OTA standard in place, "we can just both agree to go to the standard, and replicate everything very quickly. We can exchange profile data without their having to code everything the way we did."
With passenger profiles now standardized, OTA next will "start to move into reservations," Young said, perhaps looking at availability or PNR data, or at another quick win, which would be "to tack on what's already done in the payment area through the Financial Exchange standard. My goal is to keep the momentum going and everybody's interest up by picking something that provides a lot of value to all the segments in the channel."
Cochran, meanwhile, called on corporate travel managers to join the association and make their needs known to the industry. "We'd love to see a little more involvement from the corporate travel sector," he said. "They are certainly invited and encouraged to join us.