A new non-profit association plans to integrate the “incredibly
fragmented” technology and distribution landscape in the tours and
attractions space.
OCTO – which stands for Open Connectivity for Tours, Activities &
Attractions – comprises a consortium of leading reservation and
ticketing system providers, distributors, experience operators and other
companies in the tours, activities and attractions sector.
Key to OCTO’s establishment is a desire to advance technical
connectivity standards for travel’s third-largest sector by maintaining
an open-source technical specification and documentation for the
industry.
The OCTO Spec will enable reservation and ticketing system providers
and tour, activity and attraction ticket resellers to connect their
systems for more efficient distribution.
Currently, OCTO has 32 member companies with expectations that more
companies will join. Founding members include Arival, Go City, Magpie,
Tiqets, among others.
“The technology and distribution landscape in tours and attractions
is incredibly fragmented, with hundreds of technology providers,
in-house technologies and many hundreds of resellers,” said Carrie
Keplinger, EVP of Go City and vice president, OCTO.
“This has required each company to invest in new API development
every time they want to connect to a new partner. A standard
specification would significantly reduce the cost for many companies in
our industry to connect to more partners and grow the industry.”
OCTO does not provide an API, channel manager or connectivity
infrastructure or services, nor does it charge for any services. The
specification and documentation are freely available on the OCTO
website.
OCTO is also seeking representatives from tour and activity operators
and visitor attractions to join and participate on the Operator
Advisory Committee and working groups, to ensure that operators have
direct input on the direction of the specification.
The first meeting of OCTO members will be held on 10 October from
12:30-2:30pm at Paris Hotel in Las Vegas at the Arival Las Vegas
conference. Non-members may attend and observe for a US$50 donation at
the door which can be applied to a future membership.