Newtrade announces OpenTravel XML conformity

MONTREAL -- Newtrade Technologies Inc., a travel commerce systems company, has developed and implemented XML interfaces that conform to the OpenTravel Alliance (OTA) specifications. As an active OTA member, Newtrade's announcement said that it had contributed to the refinement of the OTA hotel message specifications, a standard set of XML messages, that facilitate data communication between hotels and all hospitality partners.

"Newtrade has been working closely with us to create interfaces based on the OTA specifications," said OTA President Mike Kistner, Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Best Western International. "We greatly appreciate the efforts that they have made to promote the interoperability within the travel industry."

Kistner said that Newtrade's innovative middleware technology provides integration, automation, end-to-end connectivity and channel management solutions for the hospitality industry. It links Property Management Systems and hotel Central Reservation Systems with various distribution channels, including Global Distribution Systems (GDS), online travel agencies, Web portals, switches, and tour operator systems. Newtrade develops interfaces based on the OTA specifications for exchange of travel industry information.

"Newtrade has been actively participating in the development of the OTA Hotel Working Group specifications and has helped to expand it into the global arena," said OTA Executive Director Laura Lynch.

Reducing costs

"Newtrade is concerned with reducing the costs and streamlining hospitality commerce for our customers. With this in mind, we have embraced the OTA philosophy in our software design. Our customers directly benefit from our development efforts by saving time and manpower to put in place interfaces based on OTA specifications," said Frederic Lalonde, Vice-President and CTO,

The OpenTravel Alliance develops communications specifications to allow for the efficient and effective exchange of travel industry information via the Internet. With over 150 members representing influential names in all sectors of the travel industry, OTA is comprised of representatives from the airlines, car rental firms, hotels, leisure suppliers, service providers, tour operators, travel agencies, and trade associations. OTA working groups, together with an OTA interoperability committee to coordinate their efforts, develop open Internet-compatible messages using XML.

Newtrade Technologies, with headquarters in Montreal, is an e-commerce application service provider (ASP) offering companies active in the travel industry strategic online solutions to enhance the management and distribution of online products. Newtrade's products include the management of distributed networks and the marketing of a suite of e-business solutions that allow seamless integration of critical commercial data (price and inventory) on the Internet and wireless Internet. Newtrade is a private company with a staff of 25.

Best Western

OTA's Kistner is CIO and vice president, Information Systems for Best Western International, the world's largest lodging brand. He is responsible for all telecommunication, information and e-commerce systems at Best Western. In his role as president of the OpenTravel Alliance, Kistner provides strategic direction to OTA, charged with developing communications specifications to enable efficient and effective electronic exchange of travel industry information. 

Kistner was previously a senior vice president of the E-Commerce Center and Hotel Information Technology at Cendant Corporation in Phoenix, Arizona. There he was involved in Internet vendor management, resource allocation, organization formation, strategic planning, hospitality systems planning, development and implementation from property-based systems to host central reservation systems and other electronic distribution systems.