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This news introduces that China is going to have GDS for tourism industry in October. This is a big progress in China's tourism industry. With the rapid development of China's tourism industry, GDS will play an important role in tourists' daily life. Since China is a big market for this industry, the establishment of GDS in China is a sign of GDS becoming more and more popular in worldwide.

Moving into the sixth month of the year, this article seems to hold true to the growth of international tourism. In relating articles you will find that tourism has hit an all time high so far this year. With the economies slowly bouncing back from the recession people are starting to jump back into traveling. I must agree with the UNWTO Secretary- General, Taleb Rifai, when he stated that tourism should be supported by all governments around the world for economic growth. Tourism is a business in itself and there is always room for growth and potential money gain.

China's Eastern Airlines & Sabre, a Global Distribution System, just signed an agreement allowing Sabre to use the airlines inventory and airfares to market to the travel agencies associated with Sabra.  This will help increase their North American expansion.  Sabre's technology and resources will help enhance the expansion for for China Eastern and Shanghai Airlines.  Marketing intelligence from Sabre has helped the airlines cater to the flight schedules and operations for their customers.  Sabre's network reaches more than 300 million people! 

This article is based on the new trend of traveling & what the travel agents need to stay aware of. Climate change and global warming is on the rise and the majority of the people are starting to make a change. Yes, people are switching vehicles to fuel efficient but are starting to recycle a lot more but people are also changing their traveling motives. Instead of spending a week in the sun at a luxury resort, travelers are wanting more of a cultural experience and yearning to learn about other ways of life. There is a shift in activities which people are starting to take up. A more personal and low key tour of a family or small village is the ideal excursion now. Travelers are also taking into account the carbon emissions they are producing while traveling to their destination. Traveling by train or boat is making a come back instead of flying or driving.

On January 2012, President Obama announced an executive order that would allow travelers from Brazil and China to receive travel VISA faster than before. A study from Huffington Post.com showed that on 2010 Brazilians spent $5,400 per visit, more than any other tourist. This executive order will help increase tourism travel across the nation that will help the economy. The order will help the travel industry, retail and housing. The property that I work at Walt Disney World hosts the majority of Brazilians that visit Walt Disney World. You can spend eight hours in our lobby in the afternoon, and you can experience the amount of money Brazilian guests spend on shopping inside and outside Walt Disney World. Stores like Best Buy and Wal-Mart are the most popular; online shopping has also become very favorable for guests. During the summer season, the hotel processed over 6,000 packages received from Amazon.com and other online stores that were purchased prior to arrival. It is amazing to see the items received and how much luggage guests take with them. With this economic boost, more job creations will occur. The most popular US cities visited by Brazilians are New York City, Las Vegas and Orlando (http://www.traveltobrazil.org/post/20-most-visited-places-by-brazilians-in-brazil-and-abroad.html).

This article explores the a new partnership between the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) and the International Border Management & Technologies Association (IBMATA) to provide a new, faster traveling experience using biometric technology worldwide. This process would potentially eliminate wait times by eliminating frequent use of passports at multiple check points. I believe it could be epic for TSA wait times. The article failed to mention any possible flaws in the security measures for the system. We should expect to hear more after the first pilot program.

This is already happening in Singapore and China. Face recognition is all part of how I entered and left South Korea too. Even expats living there could register. Cameras are everywhere in that country and it shows it when you lose a wallet and the next day someone is knocking at your door. The USA could benefit from the "eye in the sky" as it is a better and more efficient way than threatening with the death penalty that hasn't worked ever.

This article gave us a five new online travel trends.Because travel is a hyper-competitive industry, the most pertinent emerging themes in onine travel are considered and experts insights and predictions are provided in the Las Vegas TDS North America event. First trend is the travel industry need be ready for a mobile-only world. Researches indicates that the mobile sales will increase extremely. Because it is expensive to develop mobile app, so traditional travel companies and online travel companies do not such into launching a mobile app in a short term. Convergence, commerce, content and how these impact customer behavior will be an ongoing theme. There is a risk of firms focus too much on one channel, Customers are using a range of different devices to plan, research, book and review their travel experiences.  Revenue management became essential for the business. It needs to integrate with sales, marketing, channel optimization, loyalty marketing , and operations. Think new markets and new customers like China, India, Brazil and Russia. Firms need to be actively targeting this market and make adjustment such as develop local website etc. Last trend is that there are lots of new development in the industry. Facebook start to monetize travel. Google and Apple are also developing their travel related products. This social travel planning tools become successful. Technology develops and standards emerge, mobile bookings may not just be for the last minute.

This arctic is about what is a global Distribution System, history of the GDS, how does a GDS work and what benefits GDS offer.

A GDS or Global distribution system can come in handy for many different purposes. Some of these companies such as Expedia and Travelocity are know ones in the United States. It is important to weight pros and cons when deciding who to book with when choosing a hotel or an airlines especially since there are so many options. Depending on how you book especially when bundling with a GDS you could get a great deal.

This article evaluates the past and current roles of GDS in the travel and tourism industry. It is clear that the GDS has adapted and changed with the times and now is able to do even more than at its initial conception. However, as the article pointed out the all the functions of the GDS it is clear that OTA's ad websites are also able to provide a lot of these same functions. We discussed this week whether the GDS system is still currently a relevant system and most agreed that it is. However, as we look to the future it will be interesting to see what evolutions the GDS has yet to go through and how it will attempt to remain relevant in the ever changing tourism market.

During 2008, Ernst & Young has conducted a report regarding eco-friendly issue of hotels & resorts ' policies and practices in eight regions including: Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, India, Latin America, the Middle East, Oceania and the U.S.. According to the report, the "greening" trend has been a top priority of hotel industry; they are making development and operational strategies from time to time to maintain the sustainable environment around. Every hotel industry in the world share the common goal but the practice and government concern are different according to each region.  For example: in Asia, the "environmental harmony" has been implemented; China has set 10,000 hotels by 2010, and the world's first zero-carbon, zeo-waste city idea was developed in Middle East, etc. And the report has pointed out some key point for hotel industry to take into account for a green environment like: energy efficiency, conservation, management; or waste water management; or design for sustainability, or partnership for sustainable development, etc.  Due to the fastest growing of the green trend in all industries in the world, this report has been very helpful for anyone who are in the hospitality and tourism industry which believe green trend is a key point to not just to outmatch their competitors but to build a sustainability society as well. 

As the world is facing a numerous of impact which is mostly concern with sustainable environment. Being green is not just all about environment around the hotel but also cut many cost for a business as well. For example, replacing fluorescent bulbs, ceiling fans, linen cards, lights out cards, motion sensors for public rest rooms, meeting rooms have proven to a much lower electric bill. And being green will promote a health & wellness issue for all the guests, employee and community around; this will not only bring back your customers but making the employee enjoy more of their workplace and contribute more of their work.

This article covers an Indonesian study performed to study factors that influence online bookings of consumers. The main factors considered in the study were the perceived usability of the website and the ease of use. The study found that perceived usability influenced the decisions of the consumer, while the actual ease of use did not.