GRADE XI
TOURISM
GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM
Q1. What do you mean by Global Distribution System?
ANS. Global Distribution System is a Travel Agency Network that enables interconnectedness between Airline
Computer Reservation Systems and travel agency terminals.
• It’s distinct from a Computer Reservation System which is a reservation system used by Airlines.
• The Global Distribution System (GDS) is used by travel agents to make reservation on various
airline’s reservations systems.
• A Global Distribution System (GDS) differs from an airline CRS in one critical aspect, a GDS
holds no inventory of its own.
Q2. How does GDS work?
ANS A GDS holds no inventory of its own. The inventory is held in various airline reservation systems.
• The GDS system has links to all major airline CRS.
• When a travel agency terminal requests a reservation on the service of a particular airline the
GDS system routes the request to the appropriate airline Computer Reservation System.
• This enables a travel agent with a connection to a single GDS to book flights and associated
services on virtually all the airlines in the world.
• The major GDS systems are Amadeus, Sabre, Galileo & Worldspan.
Q. How the Global Distribution System has been evolved in due course of time.
ANS GDS have evolved from the first computer-based reservation systems implemented by several U.S.
airlines in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
• American Airlines (AA) was the first company to develop a real time computerized reservation
system.
• In a joint venture with International Business Machines (IBM), the Semi-Automatic Business
Research Environment (SABRE) was launched in 1964 and helped process nearly 26,000
reservation requests per day.
• By the late 1960s and early 1970s, virtually all of the major carriers, including United, TWA and
Delta were operating their own central reservation systems (CRS).
• It was not, however, until 1976 that these systems were installed in travel agencies, allowing
agents to both book and change reservations directly in the system using remote access terminals.
• Clearly, the ability for airlines to operationalize their booking systems in geographically
dispersed markets was a major competitive advantage for those who participated.
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Q. What is Halo-effect?
ANS The rapid entrenchment of CRSs with travel agents enabled bias in the reservation process. For example,
SABRE might decide to withhold inventory from other CRSs in an effort to gain a competitive
advantage. Further, a CRSs owned by a particular airline could be programmed to display their airline’s
information ahead of their competitors in an effort to distort consumer choice. This was compounded by
the natural tendency of travel agents to book flights with the carriers providing the CRS terminals ---
known as ‘Halo effect’.
Q. What was the result of Halo-effect?
ANS As a result of Halo-effect, in 1984 the Civil Aeronautics Board began to regulate these systems to insure
a free and competitive market for both travelers and airlines.
Q. Explain the role of Amadeus in integrating travel services across the world?
ANS Amadeus is a leading global distribution system and technology provider that serves the marketing, sales
and distribution needs of the worlds ‘Travel and Tourism Industry’.
It has a comprehensive data network and database that is among the largest of their kind in Europe
serving more than: 217 markets worldwide,
over 100 million visitors per month,
90 thousand travel agency locations,
many Hotel properties,
490 Airlines (95% of the world’s scheduled airline seats)
17 cruise lines,
29,663 airlines sales office locations
22 car rental companies.
As well as other provider groups like ferry and rail services tour operators and insurance agencies. By
this we can say Amadeus is helpful in integrating travel services across the world.
Q. How does the Amadeus create database?
ANS The travel industry relies heavily on technology.
This trend is accelerating, with multiple channels and methods to interact with travelers.
The extraordinary circumstances in 2020 have accelerated technology advances with a major impact on
travelers such as touchless passenger handling and electronic IDs.
Most travel providers use sophisticated methods for merchandizing their products, evolving toward fully
personalized offers covering all parts of a trip.
This customization requires an understanding of traveler behavior that is achieved through the analysis of
large amounts of data.
Artificial intelligence and advanced cloud-based data analytics are starting to play a critical role for
providers and distributors to stay ahead in this very competitive industry.
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