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SECAUCUS, N.J. – Northstar Travel Media, the world’s leading business-to-business media company serving the travel and meetings industries, has announced that it is supplying a unique hotel identifier that solves the problems associated with multiple identifiers. “For nearly a decade the travel industry has struggled with the costs and problems created by multiple identifiers, said Sheila Rice, VP Business Development & Licensing. “Over the years, each business created its own system resulting in a proliferation of identification numbers. A single entity may have numerous proprietary codes across different systems. As each segment of the industry tries to integrate information with suppliers, travel agents, hotels, GDS systems, CRS providers, content publishers and payment processors, predictable problems ensue.” With a history spanning more than 70 years, Northstar Travel Media is already established in the business and process of identification numbers. It is uniquely positioned to lead a solution for this long-standing and increasing industry problem. As the content provider of unique hotel identifiers, Northstar Travel Media has been supplying this data to leading travel and hospitality companies for more than a decade. Northstar’s database of 200,000 hotels worldwide contains up to 300 fields of data for each hotel. “Northstar Travel Media has a pristine reputation for providing data that is comprehensive, accurate, reliable and flexible,” said Tom Kemp, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “We look forward to providing more content solutions with our unique hotel identification numbers.” Licensing of the unique hotel identifier data includes hotel name, address and telephone number. Content packages can be customized to provide solutions to meet specific needs. The Unique Hotel Identifier builds on Northstar’s existing hotel products and services that include more than 60,000 hotels around the world reviewed and classified using the company’s industry-standard consumer classification hotel rating system. Northstar Travel Media is the leading provider of news, information and data for the travel, meetings and hospitality industries and parent of brands Travel Weekly, Business Travel News, Meetings & Conventions, Successful Meetings, Incentive and TravelAge West. NTM’s electronic directories — Travel Weekly’s Hotel & Travel Index and M&C Facilities Search — provide in-depth data on hotels, meeting and convention properties, and business travel in the United States and internationally. In addition to its directories and periodicals, NTM publishes a number of online subscription information resources, including travel42, Weissmann Reports, STAR Service Online, Intelliguide Corporate and BTP24. Northstar also is an industry leader in marketing services, custom communications, content licensing and database management serving the travel and meetings industries. Additionally, Northstar recently acquired PhoCusWright, the premier global travel, tourism and hospitality research and event business at the intersection of the Internet and the global travel industry. Based in Secaucus, New Jersey, the company also has offices in New York, Glen Ellyn, Illinois; Los Angeles; and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Northstar Travel Media, LLC is a portfolio company of BV Investment Partners, a leading private equity investor in the media and communications sector.

Amadeus also found that 26% of travelers are more likely to respond to messages tailored to their personal interests, and 22% are more likely to respond to promotions that are specific to their location.

Merchandising is about providing customers with a shopping experience that presents products in the best possible light, at the best possible time, and allows them to tailor their travel experience. In the past, GDSs have faced criticism from airlines and other industry stakeholders for not always being able to accommodate this philosophy

Fast forward to today, and Amadeus is working hard to change this perception by providing tools to travel agents that allow the passenger experience to be personalized. In addition to making ancillary services available to travel agents at the point-of-sale, they can now access and book even more enriched content through ‘airline fare families’.

While the major GDSs -- Sabre, Amadeus and Travelport -- initially resisted NDC, all three eventually reversed course and last year announced that they would develop and test NDC-enabled solutions.

"It is clear that the GDSs are now en masse embracing NDC and trying to at least equalize the airline dot-com content and experience and trying to bring that to the indirect channel,"

Sabre earlier this month released its first set of NDC application programming interfaces (APIs) with United Airlines. That gave some agency customers the ability to make NDC bookings, which Kathy Morgan, vice president of NDC at Sabre, called "huge."