How technology is successfully transforming travel to better serve the ever–connected digital consumer

Purpose This paper aims to explain how Travelport has responded to the trends and challenges of the travel industry. The travel platform by Travelport facilitates travel commerce by connecting the world’s leading travel providers with online and offline travel buyers in a proprietary business-to-business travel marketplace. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on information drawn from official information sources and relevant data from Travelport. Findings The key technology in play is the application programming interface (API). Driving travel performance is at the heart of Travelport’s mission, and the mobile-centric API encompasses the speed of search, relevancy of response and accuracy of data. Originality/value This paper presents the perspective of a global distribution system (GDS) operator regarding trends and challenges affecting the travel industry and the transformation of traditional GDS to travel commerce platforms.