Global Distribution System / GDS System is computerized and centralized web service that provide travel related transactions covering airline reservation, hotel reservation, cruise reservation and car rentals. In brief, central reservation systems that book and process the PNR for global airlines are known as Global Distribution Systems / GDS Systems. Originally, GDS systems were set up for airline reservations but later its extended to process hotels, cars, cruise and holiday packages. GDS system makes it convenient for users to purchase tickets from different airlines or providers thereby forming the backbone of internet based travel booking services. GDS system reaches out to more than 300,000 plus IATA registered travel agents powered by four major GDS networks like Sabre, Amadeus, Worldspan and Galileo. Thus the GDS systems today, are used by travel agents and online customers all over the world to book flights, hotels, rentals and other travel related services. The key point here is that any GDS system will not hold the inventory, but the inventory is held on vendor’s reservation system itself as GDS has real-time access to the vendor’s database.
GDS can also be understood as a network operated by a company that enables automated transactions between booking agents and vendors so as to provide travel related services to end consumers. A GDS system usually links rates, services, bookings consolidating products and services across the major travel sectors like hotel reservations, car rentals, airline reservations and other activities. GDS system’s primary customers are mainly travel agents, who are either following OTA model or using a web based software to connect to GDS. To understand, how global distribution system works, take for example the case of Amadeus GDS. Amadeus is used globally by over 90,000 travel agency locations and over 32,000 airline sales offices for distribution and selling of travel services. This service processes more than 480 million transactions per day, which is huge and over 3 million total bookings per day. GDS along with Online Distribution Data or ODD in the form of connectivity modules allow hotels to connect with Travel agents and online customers. GDS are owned and operated as joint ventures by major airlines, hotel groups, companies and car rentals. Sometimes they are also called as automated reservation system or ARS or computerized reservation system or CRS. Modern GDS system typically allow users to take advantage of booking hotel rooms, rental cars, airline tickets, as well as for other activities like outdoor tours. They also provide access to railway and bus reservations in some segments of markets, although these are not always integrated with the main system. For many years, GDS had a dominating position and role in the travel sector. To avoid high GDS fees airlines have started to distribute flights directly from their websites through web services or APIs, thus bypassing GDS to a large extent, another way of bypassing is by facilitating direct connections to the travel agencies. Author: Author is a travel technology expert and has been involved in several travel portal development projects.
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How far does the integration of GDS has helped in shaping the new era of travel technology?27/9/2016 The reliance on the GDS systems including Amadeus gds have increased significantly over the years. Travel agencies across the world, are more and more using global distribution systems (GDS). GDS systems are enabled to provide online travel deals and data through a single source. A more traditional way of calling the provider to confirm the booking, was used, which took considerable efforts and time per booking. Today, latest travel technologies from the leading consolidators (aggregators) including Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre and Worldspan have become popular among the travel agencies and services providers. Out of all, Amadeus GDS has emerged as the most preferred by travel agents around the world to make flights, hotels, car rentals, holiday packages, ferry, cruises or other travel services booking. The volume of the ticket bookings through Amadeus system such that all the leading airlines are actually connected with Amadeus GDS system. A growing travel agency must integrate Amadeus gds web services on travel website. Apart from the generic travel contents, Amadeus GDS web services provides availability, pricing, details and online reservation module to travel agencies. Nowadays, travellers prefer a one-stop service, and request rich information to make a right decision. Information from the GDS system helps them to navigate, select and book, what they like. The travel agent has to provide detailed, real-time information to enable the consumer to choose an option that is suited to all his/her needs. Amadeus travel system just makes everything easy. Amadeus had maintained its position as the global leader in travel technology and travel distribution solutions for tourism industry, by constantly introducing innovations. Set of solutions like e power suites, web services, APIs and other value added services, let client choose – what they like. Amadeus tools are built to deliver the professional travel booking solutions. It helps the agents to deliver comprehensive travel itineraries quickly and efficiently. For travel technology companies also, Amadeus GDS is a top choice and companies can deliver the custom made solutions to travel agents. With great technical support, that it offers – things can be big for Amadeus. Integrating Amadeus gds web services will definitely take the travel agency to another level, as it can access the huge set of travel contents governed by Amadeus GDS. Regarding Author: Author is a travel technology expert and has been involved in several travel portal development projects. Travel Agency Software is a web based travel booking system. OTA, which stands for online travel agency, are basically the travel company, which uses most of the online processes for bookings. Over the last few years, we saw the growing OTAs, focussing and excelling the online reservation process using top travel agency software. The growth has been great in GDS and Non GDS, both the categories. We also simultaneously saw growing travel technology companies, which are competing in developing and delivering the best in class airline booking systems, hotel booking systems, car booking systems and cruise systems. Travel technology companies have come up with certain very innovative ideas about the search and sort algorithm to integrate several GDS and hotel API providers. The way, online travel model is growing, it is very much required for any travel management company to partner with leading travel agency software development company with in-depth experience in dealing with GDS and API Integration. Online travel agency software / travel portals today, does not only showcase the inventory, but they create most formidable travel booking platform. Travellers can log to the online travel portal and search / book the deals at any point of time. With so many online travel agency software platforms available, it is mandatory to build the custom features to create a niche for your business. One must choose a solution that integrates easily with the existing travel website and provides a great value to the end clients. To choose the top travel agency software company, start with know-hows of the company and then start digging the detail. This is because a company with enough experience API integration and GDS Integration can provide you with a better service and will be able to bring the live certification process quickly. You should make sure the experience of that travel technology company in successful travel reservation system deployment and specially matching something like yours and then go through the product demo. If everything comes positive then great or else the search is on. To decide upon this should be given ample amount of time as this can prove to be the most important decision for your business. To know how to choose best travel technology company for your travel reservation system, one should look for these features in the features list of that company:
Author is a travel technology expert and has been involved in several travel portal development projects. |
AuthorPROVAB TECHNOSOFT is an award winning travel technology company , delivering B2B / B2C travel software, travel CRM, accounting software, car rental software and mobility solutions to global travel & hospitality companies. ArchivesCategories
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