Since the 1950s，Tourism (including air tickets、Accommodation、Car rental、Cruise) already has strong technical support，These technologies have been working for consumers、Operators and travel agencies provide services such as wholesale pricing and inventory management。

The $30 billion Global Distribution Systems (GDS) market is the indirect distribution channel in travel transactions。Whether it is a traditional travel agency，Or an OTA like Priceline or Expedia，We are very dependent on GDS distributors，They generate nearly $8 billion in bookings annually through GDS。

For consumers，Skyscanner、Kayak、Metasearch services like Trivago or even TripAdvisor play a similar role to distribution systems in the booking process，They can increase product and price transparency，Provide convenience for consumers to compare products。

Whether it is technical crawling，Or system integration，The core of these systems can be called electronic reservation systems to some extent。

There is a big supply problem for tourist destination activities，That is despite the fact that the available inventory connected to the distribution system has continued to grow，But their share in the reservation system is still small。

The current 188bet app download method is，OTA focusing on destination activities (such as Viator、GetYourGuide, etc.) Build and manage database suppliers by purchasing products，But the cost of maintaining this process is very high，Suppliers and consumers need to constantly update inventory status in real time。

But the problem with this solution is，Just like when you go shopping in the supermarket，After selecting the item you like, check whether it is in stock。This is why OTA only focuses on free sales of products in big cities and recommending products to tourist groups。

In fact，M&A activity in travel distribution is quite frequent，The remaining major players are the world’s three largest GDS distributors (Amadeus、Sabre and Travelport)、Two major OTA giants (Expedia and Priceline) and major airlines。

The distribution methods of the hotel industry are relatively diverse，The fragmentation characteristics are very obvious，In addition, distribution channels rely heavily on OTA，So it is difficult for major hotels to be regarded as global distribution channels。

This phenomenon is consistent with Metcalfe’s Law – the value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of network users。

Because of this，GDS and OTA are involved in various aspects of travel distribution，And it is difficult for new entrants to challenge their status，Unless they can offer completely different products and services like Airbnb instant vacation rentals。

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In short，GDS (Global Distribution System) is a system that allows travel service providers (mainly airlines)、Hotel、A network that realizes automatic transactions between car rental companies) and distributors such as travel agencies。

The world’s first GDS distributor was born in a project between American Airlines and IBM in the 1950s，Sabre, then a division of American Airlines, became the leader in the first batch of enterprise GDS software products。

Other airlines subsequently followed American’s lead，United Airlines founded Apollo，Delta Airlines launches DATAS，Both network systems are now integrated into global GDS distributor Travelport；At the same time，British Airways launches Travicom，This distribution system integrates content provided by 49 airlines，But most of its assets were eventually acquired by Travelport。

Amadeus was established relatively late，In 1988, it was operated by several European airlines (Air France、Iberia、Lufthansa and SAS) jointly established。At that time, almost all travel agencies relied on GDS distributors in the United States for ticket inventory，So，There is ongoing controversy surrounding whether airlines that control GDS distributors will manipulate flight display lists (preferring flights of their own airlines) - just like today when Google is accused of controlling the natural search results displayed on Google's website。

final，GDS distributors are forced to divest themselves from those parent companies/airlines，Form a distribution pattern similar to the current one，There are only three major competing players left in the world，They are Amadeus、Sabre and Travelport。

The impact of the Internet on the traditional GDS distribution market

The Internet has broken the distribution pattern of the entire industry，Airlines no longer rely solely on indirect distribution channels，They can now increase the proportion of direct bookings by investing in their own website。Low-cost carriers such as Ryanair and easyJet have followed this approach almost without exception。Because airlines now have other options，This approach does weaken the bargaining power of GDS distributors and traditional travel agencies against airlines。

In response to this practice of airlines，GDS distributors start investing heavily in online travel agencies (OTAs)，Unite with OTAs to fight 188bet Online Sports Betting and Casino against airlines，For example, Amadeus invests in Opodo，Sabre invests in Travelocity，and Travelport invested in Orbitz (in 2015, Travelocity and Orbitz were acquired by Expedia as 2.US$800 million and US$1.6 billion acquisition)。

However，As competition intensifies in the B2C industry，GDS distributors gave up these acquired OTA businesses，Turn focus on corporate travel、On traditional travel agencies and aviation information software services。

At the same time，The Internet has also given birth to new technologies that replace GDS distributors，For example, ITA Software、Google Flight Search and metasearch engine Kayak, which provides retail booking services、Skyscanner etc.。Also，After the emergence of the Internet, GDS system quickly expanded its business to the accommodation field，At the same time, a large number of channel management products connected to the system were spawned。

The significance of GDS distributors to tourism destination activities

Then，What impact can accessing GDS distributors have on destination activities？In short，It can provide a distribution network covering the products of a single supplier。This means OTA、Airlines and hotels will pay more attention to their core users，Then easily sell these destination activities to customers as ancillary products。

To achieve this goal，More suppliers need to use electronic booking systems - especially third-party booking systems，This will reduce the cost of tools such as channel management。Then，These B2B software applications can connect to larger distributors，Resellers in turn are able to serve numerous new mobile and web applications、Hotels and other innovative services provide inventory。

The current problem is，The entire distribution chain is too long、Too little inventory - the supplier displays the inventory on OTA，OTA distributes inventory to GDS，GDS sells inventory to external 188bet app parties。In this process，Most inventory cannot be updated in real time，The scope of diffusion is also very limited。Result，In the over $100 billion destination activity booking market，Only 4% of bookings generated by OTAs through GDS。

Travel destination activity softwareWhat kind of help can suppliers bring?

Change in the entire distribution field has been relatively slow，But something is changing in the destination activities world，Slowly moving closer to the mainstream tourism industry，For example，BeMyGuest, a Singapore destination travel activity booking platform, recently announced that it has received US$8.5 million in Series A financing，The platform strategically shifted its business focus to B2B peer business in 2016；Destination activity software provider Peek announces acquisition of competitor Zozi，The total financing of the two is as high as US$61.2 million。

B2B technology company provides channel management services to customers，But they mainly work with Viator, a destination activity booking platform owned by TripAdvisor、Cooperation with large companies such as Expedia，These large companies can in turn sell these inventories to consumers and their B2B partners。

The distribution pattern of destination activities is being further improved，The growth in consumer demand has led to an increase in supply-side demand。In this sense，B2B event software companies will benefit more through cooperation。There are two reasons here。First，Metcalfe’s Law tells us，A network is only as valuable as the number of users it connects；Second，Collaboration between these companies can help the industry create unified standards，Reduce integration costs for channel partners，It can also improve the bargaining power with partners。

*This article is written by Zhihui analyst Li Haiqiang (WeChat: lhq434849653)，Compiled from Tnooz，Editor: Qiu Wei，Original title: "Are global distribution systems the missing link in tours and activities?》