Description
Currently, travel services such as checking availability and prices of travel products (both online and offline) are dominantly provided by Global Distribution Systems (GDS). A GDS gives its subscribers pricing and availability information for multiple travel products. The GDSs get their revenue from the booking fees that these organizations pay. Yet there are problems associated with GDSs:
• GDSs are mostly legacy systems with their own private networks, difficult to use cryptic languages, and limited speed and search capabilities.
• Furthermore, GDSs raise their booking fees annually to invest in new technologies and this causes discontent from airline companies.
On the other hand, most of the travel products have become available through the Web sites of parties involved in the travel industry such as airlines and hotels. However these are for human consumption. To make a travel plan involving different companies such as airlines, car rental companies and hotels in an automated way, Web services are essential. Web services by themselves are not enough; to facilitate their discovery and composition their semantics must be described and published in the registry.
