Glossary
The language, in plain English.
Travel technology is full of acronyms. Here’s what they actually mean, no jargon, no login required.
- VTO · Virtual Tour Operating
- Running the full tour-operating lifecycle (packaging, pricing, ticketing and fulfilment) as automated software rather than manual back-office work.
- Dynamic packaging
- Assembling flights, accommodation and extras into a single sellable trip in real time, priced as one product against live availability.
- Classic packaging
- Pre-defined holiday packages built ahead of time, as opposed to dynamically assembled ones.
- GDS · Global Distribution System
- A network (e.g. Amadeus, Travelport, Sabre) that aggregates and distributes travel inventory between suppliers and sellers.
- NDC · New Distribution Capability
- An IATA XML standard that lets airlines distribute richer content and ancillaries directly, beyond traditional GDS fares.
- Bed bank
- A wholesaler of hotel rooms (e.g. Hotelbeds) that aggregates accommodation inventory for resale by operators and agencies.
- PNR · Passenger Name Record
- The booking record holding itinerary and passenger details for a reservation across the travel supply chain.
- Ticketing
- Issuing the actual travel documents (e-tickets, vouchers) once a booking is confirmed and paid.
- Fulfilment
- Everything after the sale, issuing documents, instructing suppliers and reconciling, that turns a booking into a delivered trip.
- Ancillaries
- Add-ons sold alongside the core trip: transfers, car hire, insurance, activities, seats and bags.
- Metasearch
- A comparison engine that aggregates prices across many sellers and refers travellers on to book.
- CDP · Customer Data Platform
- A system that unifies booking, browsing and loyalty data into a single customer profile for segmentation and activation.
- Payment splitting
- Automatically distributing a single customer payment to the right suppliers and partners, reconciled to what was sold.
- Dynamic pricing
- Adjusting prices continuously based on demand, margin targets and market conditions rather than fixed rate cards.
- Inventory / availability
- The real-time stock of seats and rooms that can actually be sold at a given moment.
- OTA · Online Travel Agency
- A digital retailer that sells travel from many suppliers directly to consumers.
- API
- A defined interface that lets systems talk to each other, here, the single connection through which all supply reaches Travel IP.
- PSD2 / PCI DSS
- European payment-services regulation (PSD2) and the card-data security standard (PCI DSS) that govern how payments are handled.
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