1 the opentravel alliance xml for the travel industry october 15, 2002 tpfug palm springs, ca

OTA The OpenTravel™ Alliance

1

The OpenTravel Alliance

XML for the Travel Industry

October 15, 2002

TPFUG

Palm Springs, CA


2

Introduction

Paula Heilig – Business Planning Strategist, Worldspan

– OTA Travel Integration Work Group

– OTA Interoperability Committee

– OTA Data Content/Best Practices Group


3

Topics covered

• Why was OTA formed?

• What has OTA done to date?

• Who is involved in OTA?

• What is OTA planning to do?

• When will OTA deliver a specification that will

help us reinvent travel industry distribution?

• Discussion


4

OTA defines travel very broadly

• What is ‘our’ industry?

• It’s not just Air

• It’s also Hotels, Cars, Tour companies,Cruise

lines, Rail

• It’s also Agencies, GDSs

• And software and services companies

• And customers


5

Travel and other industries

• Travel has many of the same problems as its customers

• How do we make business partnerships more efficient?

• How do we make different computer systems talk …

– Faster?– Cheaper?– More flexibly?– Better?

• ‘Use XML’ is (now) the widely-accepted answer

• How do we get a common XML dialect for the widely-defined travel industry?


6

Extensible Markup Language (XML)

At the core of the Web services initiative. Most Web services specifications are based

on XML. Examples:

SOAP WSDL

De Facto markup language for defining common message vocabularies.

XML is a markup language that is similar to HTML in some ways, however, XML tags describe data content not presentation and format.

XML based technologies such as XSL (Extensible Stylesheet Language) can be used to format XML documents.


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XML and Web services

Two main uses for XML XML is essentially a markup language for

creating self describing data. In this regard, XML is the basis for Web services

standards which build on this text based data format.

XML in conjunction with XSL can be used to dynamically merge data (in XML format) with static content and formatting instructions, as in a Web page.

This is less important for Web services, although XSL Transformations (XSLT) may be important for message transformations.


8

XML Basics

XML is just plain text with the addition of some XML tags enclosed in angle brackets.

An XML element is everything from (including) the element's start tag to (including) the element's end tag.

Attributes are used to provide additional information about elements.

Example:<VehiclePref>

<VehicleTypePref PreferLevel="Only" VehicleType="Car" VehicleDoorCount="4"/>

<VehicleClassPref PreferLevel="Only" VehicleClass="Compact"/>

<AirConditionPref PreferLevel="Preferred"/>

<TransmissionPref PreferLevel="Only" Type="Automatic"/>

</VehiclePref>


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OTA’s Mission

Specify a common XML dialect for the travel industry and help it evolve

as things change.


10

Accomplishments

1999

•OTA Formed

2000

•Customer Profile Specification Released

•Agreement with HITIS

•Infrastructure Specification Released

2001

•Availability & Simple Booking Specification Released

•ebXML Alignment/Schema Specification Released

•2001a

•2001b

2002

•2002a

•2002b


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2000 - Customer Profile Specification

•Customer elements

•Customer preferences for air, car, hotel, etc, for different types of trips

•Customer affiliations

•Infrastructure

•Access history

•Privacy provisions


12

2001 - Availability & Simple Booking

Non-Customer Profile / Point-Of-Sale Identification

Availability (cross-industry)

• Airline Availability (no itinerary pricing)

• Car Rental Availability, with rates

• Hotel Search / Availability with rates

• Travel Insurance quote

• Golf

HITIS Integration

• Hotel Reservations

• Guest Stay History, Agent Commissions, Statistics

• Availability, Rate and Inventory for Group Meetings (TWOMS)

• Hotel Descriptive Content

Package Tours /Holiday Bookings (TTI )

Simple Booking (cross industry)


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2002 - Best Practices

Best Practices

• Schema Design Guidelines

• Ensure Commonality & Reusability

• UML approach

Air

• Pricing, Fare Rules, Flight Details, Low Fare Search

• Addition of payment support and price validation to booking request

• Schedules, Flifo

• Modify Booking

Rail

• Availability

• Booking, etc.


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Car

• Modify and Cancel Booking

• Location Search

• Location Details

Loyalty Programs

• Certificate Create

• Certificate Redemption

Travel Itinerary

• Read


15

2002 – Latest News

Relationships

• Affiliated Membership

– TTI

– Educational


16

Organization

Board of Directors

Provides leadership to encourage the development of specifications for electronic commerce communication protocols for the travel industry

•Ensures that due process is followed

•Determines what Work Groups are needed

•Includes representatives for each Work Group


17

Organization

Work Groups for each travel-related segment:

OTA Work Groups recommend specification development for consideration by OTA’s Interoperability Committee

•Air

•Car

•Hotel

•Leisure

•Travel Integration (formerly Non Supplier)


18

Organization

Interoperability Committee

•Two representatives of each Work Group

•Sets priorities for the Work Groups

•Recommends scope and schedules to the Board

•Develops technical specifications for Board approval


19

Organization

• OTA Introduced Project Teams in 2002– Ad hoc teams responding quickly to members’

needs for development

– Supported by the Working Group, approved by IO

– Member involvement in the Team spans the entire membership for the most comprehensive work

» There is a “call to action” when a Team is launched to solicit cross-member support

• Current OTA Project Teams:– Rail Project Team

– Travel Itinerary Project Team

– Loyalty Project Team


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Objectives for the future

• Widen scope

• Embrace other global initiatives and reduce overlap – eg. UN/CEFACT, ebXML, IATA, etc.

• Improve description of product/service data

• Lower costs for new product development and introduction

• Expand distribution opportunities

• Web Services

• Take advantage of the latest Internet-based technologies (e.g., wireless)

• Work cooperatively with government agencies (e.g., security)


21

OTA Member CompaniesAccor Adapsys L.P. AgentWare Air Transport Association Airline Automation, Inc. (AAI) Airlines Reporting Corporation Alaska Airlines Amadeus American Airlines American Express American Hotel & Lodging Association American Automobile Association AMTRAK ANC Rental Arroyo Group, LLC Atinera, LLC ATPCO Avis Rent A Car System, Inc. B-ThereBest Western International, Inc.Budget Group, Inc.

Cahners Travel Group Carlson Hospitality Carlson Wagonlit Travel Cendant Corporation Contal Information Technology PLC Continental Airlines, Inc. Datalex Communications USA, Inc. Daylight Software, Inc. Delta Air Lines Dollar Rent A Car Systems, Inc. The Eastman Group Eland Technologies Enterprise Rent-A-Car Epsilon E-Travel – An Amadeus CompanyExpedia Farelogix.com, Inc.Fidelio Cruise Software GmbH Galileo International GetThere-A Sabre Company Get2Hawaii, Inc.


22

OTA Member Companies

Global Travel Exchange, Inc.Goldenware Travel Technologies, LLC Golfswitch Government of Canada-Treasury Board Secretariat Group Voyagers, Inc.HCL-Perot Systems HEDNA Hermes SoftlabHertz Corporation Hilton Hotels Corporation Hospitality Solutions International Hotels.comHotwire Hyatt Hotels CorporationIBM Innovata, LLC InterGlobe Technologies Insuractive ITA Software, Inc. KDS

LanyonLogibro Inc. Lumina Technology Pty Limited MarketDerby, Inc. Marriott International Microsoft Mondial Assistance GroupMulti-Systems Inc. mySedan, LLC National Golf Course Owners Association Navigant International Newtrade Technologies, Inc.OAG Worldwide Online Fulfillment ServicesOpenJaw TechnologiesOutrigger Hotels & ResortsPasskey.com, Inc.Peregrine Systems, Inc. Perot Systems CorporationRail Europe Group


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OTA Member Companies

Rezlink International. Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd. Sabre Inc. SAP AGSapient, Inc.Sidestep, Inc. Silja Line Oy Six Continents Hotels Inc. SkyTech Solutions LLCSun Microsystems, Inc. SwissotelSynXis CorpSystrends Inc.Telme Online LimitedThrifty Rent-A-Car System, Inc.Tourism British Columbia

Tourism TechnologyTravel Technology Initiative Limited TravTech.com, Inc.Traventec, Ltd TRX Technology Services United Airlines Universal Air Travel Plan US Airways VM Systems, Inc. Voyager Technologies, Inc.WIPRO TechnologiesWizCom International, Ltd. World Access Service Corporation WORLDSPAN XML Technologies, Inc.


24

The OpenTravel Alliance

333 John Carlyle Street, Suite 600

Alexandria, VA 22314

T: (703) 518-7005 F: (703) 548-1264

[email protected] www.opentravel.org

1 the opentravel alliance xml for the travel industry october 15, 2002 tpfug palm springs, ca

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