Big Four unveil Viewdata replacement

The industry is a step closer to finally ditching Viewdata, following the development of new technology standards by a group of experts involving representatives from the Big Four.

Under the organisation of Travel Technology Initiative, representatives from the Big Four were joined with technology experts from companies such as Anite and Comtec to establish electronic standards for the industry.

The group has come up with an XML messaging standard, named TORIX, which stands for Tour Operator Reservations In XML.

TORIX was unveiled by Thomas Cook head of IT Mark Foy at last week’s TTI Autumn Conference in London. Mr Foy described Viewdata as inflexible and old fashioned and said Viewdata systems were difficult to maintain and enhance.

He said that operators and agents need to embrace new technology in order to reap potential revenues from new distribution channels that want to do business electronically but don’t want to use Viewdata.

The TORIX XML templates allow the distribution of data between operators, agents and other intermediaries, and means data only needs to be inputted once before it can be accessed at all levels in the distribution chain.

Thomas Cook already uses XML to allow distribution channels such as thomascook.com, jmc.com, sunset.com and lastminute.com to get access to its reservation system. In fact, during August 2004 Thomas Cook Tour Operators’ XML bookings grossed over seven digits, according to Mr Foy.

MyTravel is planning to introduce XML in the second quarter of 2005, First Choice already uses it for firstchoice.co.uk, eclipsedirect.co.uk, falconholidays.ie and jwtholidays.ie to communicate with the Gemini reservation system, and TUI is already using an XML prototype and hopes to enable booking in XML from March 2005.

During his presentation, Mr Foy displayed a series of quotes from technology experts from the Big Four. Keith Newman of TUI said: “Many of us have already been using XML internally between our websites and our reservation systems. It makes logical sense to agree a standard message set, so we can use XML between our agent and tour operator systems.

“Single handedly trying to develop and introduce a new standard would be a bit like trying to sell the first Fax machine – it needs two or more participants to work. This is where the TTI has added real value, by facilitating the definition of the standard.”

Peter Cudmore of First Choice said: “The development of a travel industry XML standard represents an important opportunity to improve tour operators distribution capability with third parties. First Choice are committed to the strategic evaluation and implementation of XML.”

The XML messages that are currently being published by TTI enable product searches, package availability, cost, booking and extras, and will soon enable booking retrieval and cancellation.

The news was well-received by the audience at the TTI Conference, but many industry figures believe Viewdata will continue to survive as smaller operators and agents lack the funds to overhaul their systems.

Rounding off the conference, TTI chairman Tony Allen said: “I have heard nothing today that makes me think Viewdata will be gone by 2020. Because it is a question of who will make the first move and I can’t see either retailers or operators being the first to bin it.”