Today's travel industry is unrecognizable from just five years ago. This is a growing problem for web booking systems and the hotels, airlines tour companies, and other travel providers that rely on them for business. Baggage fees, dynamic vacation packages, entertainment fees, travel insurance, and dozens of other ancillary charges did not exist in 2005 but are mandated today.

How do you code these new reservation components on the existing 20-year old pre-internet IATA platforms and global distribution system originally designed for travel agents? Today these legacy systems are being continually spaghetti-coded into compatibility with a growing number of web platforms so they can communicate instantly with airlines, hotels, tour companies, revenue management systems and payment card companies for each booking. This is just one problem.

At the same time, the number of travel-booking websites has exploded. Most of these sites have unique processes for offering travel options and packages for hotels, flights, cars, kayak tours, balloon rides-you get the picture. There are no industry standards for coding any of these fees or services. Believe it or not, there is no universal identifier for hotels in the lexicon of web reservations.

Stephen Joyce, president of Rezgo, a division of Sentias Software that specializes in tour bookings, offers several surprising data points affecting online travel booking:

• 47,000 companies offer tour activities;
• Only 20 percent of these tour companies accept online reservations;
• 40 percent of all tour capacity goes unsold - about $27B in value.

Mobile Mandate
The traveling public wants its information and booking access in mobile formats. The large hotel chains and air carriers are developing this capacity now. To demonstrate what the future of travel will look like, QuickMobile provided TRAVDEX attendees with a powerful iPhone app that pulled up every event detail from schedules, to attendee lists with instant email capability. It also had links to the Frommer's guide to Atlanta with easy-to-use reservation features for hotels (if they had mobile capability) and other attractions.

PhoCusWright put on TRAVDEX 2010 in Atlanta May 5-7 as a one-stop shopping trade show for technology products and services for the global travel, hospitality and tourism industry. It was a timely forum for international tech vendors to meet with reps from travel companies to discuss partnerships leveraging emerging technologies to support travel industry growth and inter-system communications. There was a lot to discuss.

Hard Truths
The first day of the three-day show was the crucible for hard truths about the state of online travel technology. PhoCusWright execs hosted panels of industry experts on Open Travel Alliance technology standards, the new airline business model (read: ancillary fees) and mobile strategies. All of it was valuable and totally appropriate given the accelerating evolution of OTAs and tour service providers. On opening day, Bob Offutt hosted a discussion of the standards problem with online travel systems. The biggest issue is arguably that a few large companies are controlling competition by limiting access to communication between travel providers.

A separate track did a good job of showing how Apple iSystems are transforming travel communications into platforms for payment applications. The Windows Live service platform also focuses on online transactions and is being adapted for travel related payments. TRAVDEX experts made the point that all of this is evolving rapidly and travel providers must adjust quickly to keep business flowing.

4 Top TRAVDEX Take-Aways
1) New travel fee requirements drive innovation: Baggage fees, F&B charges, travel insurance, entertainment fees, and other ancillary charges did not exist in 2005, but are mandated today. TRAVDEX panelists asked if it is possible to continue coding these new reservation items on existing 20-year old pre-Internet global distribution system originally designed for travel agents. Solution: Develop and deploy new technologies.

2) GDSes: make-over or do-over? Legacy GDSes which worked great in the pre-web past must now be compatible with a huge number of internet booking platforms. Can the GDSes be adapted to instantly communicate the new fees and flexible online packages to airlines, hotels, tour companies, online travel booking sites, and payment card companies for each booking? TRAVDEX panelists suggest is it past time for a new booking standard.

3) The proliferation of travel sites requires data communication standards: The number of travel booking sites has exploded. Nearly all have unique processes for offering travel packages for flights, cars, kayak tours, balloon rides—you get the picture. Yet, there are currently no industry standards for coding any of these fees or services. The goal of most TRAVDEX tech attendees was to reach agreement on a data communication standard, possibly XML, which would adapt to the growing fee requirements and be acceptable to most travel providers. The discussion is ongoing.

4) Travel goes mobile: More travelers rely on handheld mobile devices for communications and want to book travel on their mobile. To the good: many emerging travel tech companies are web-based, fully mobile-ready, and able to handle the evolving fee requirements of 21st Century travel. Mobile is the future of travel booking, tech providers and hotel companies need to get mobile fast.

Michael Squires is COO of Softscribe Inc., a digital marketing + PR firm. His name is synonymous in the hospitality industry with strategic selling. Reach out to him on twitter @MichaelSquires, via email at mbs@softscribeinc.com or sign up for the company's business blog www.softscribeinc.com.