discuss options and book their journeys. They
`would make arrangements with the operator
`to collect their tickets upon departure at the
`stations nearest to them using one of the new
`self-service machines. The insertion of the cus-
`tomer’s card would enable the ticket details to
`
`be retrieved from the main-frame computer,
`printed locally and dispensed from the machine.
`This would of course require on-line telecom-
`munications from the self-service machine to
`
`the Nottingham main-frame computer and the
`major card authorization systems.
`Travel agents Travel agents use a number of
`systems to obtain information on rail travel
`and issue tickets to their customers. Although
`some very large agencies use APTIS, as described
`above, for most travel agents the two most
`commonly used systems are: (i) the reservations
`functions available via the GDSs, and (ii) the
`agent ticketing system (ATS). I’l| describe each
`in more detail:
`
`- Quick issue Each Tribute PC workstation
`has the capability to store up to 50 frequently
`used itineraries. Once stored, these template
`itineraries may be called up and used to
`shortcut the entire journey planning, reser-
`vations and ticketing process. Because each
`operator may have his/her own set of quick
`issue itineraries, the total scope for tailored
`processing is considerable.
`- Balance function The user may request a
`status of the sales made to date and the
`amounts of moneys taken, at any time. This
`supports the control of telesales cash and
`sales processing functions.
`branded
`Self-service Self-service machines
`QUICKFARE are located on the concourse of
`1,000 stations around the country. These ma-
`chines issue tickets in exchange for cash,
`i.e.
`notes and coins. At present
`these machines
`do not accept plastic cards. The QUICKFARE
`machines are supplied from a Swiss company
`called Ascom Autelca and are extremely robust
`and reliable. In addition to QUICKFARE, some
`train operating companies have decided to use
`ATM style ticket issuing machines, which are
`marketed by a separate company called SHERE.
`There are now over 20 SI-IERE self—service ticket-
`ing machines installed in several stations. These
`machines issue ATB format rail
`tickets and
`accept plastic card payments from customers.
`SEMA are working with Ascom Autelca to
`evaluate further enhancements to the QUICK-
`FARE machines in the medium term. One
`option is to extend the current payment method
`from cash to include plastic cards. This will in
`turn require an on-line link to the major card
`authorization systems from each QUICKFARE
`machine. Although the QUICKFARE machines
`are high quality, robust and reliable, the fact
`that they must handle cash makes them an
`expensive proposition for widespread roll-out
`to more stations.
`
`— TSG ATOC has designated TSG as the
`travel agency system of the future for rail
`sales and servicing. Incidentally,
`the term
`‘TSG’ is to be renamed soon and explaining
`its initials would only serve to confuse so,
`let’s stick to TSG for the purposes of this
`explanation. Over 400 travel agents currently
`use TSG and the medium term target is to
`grow this to 2,000 or more. With TSG, travel
`agents are able to use their GDS PC ter-
`minals to link into the rail main-frame com-
`puter in Nottingham. This link is effected
`by means of a switching technology that is
`slightly different for each GDS (see Chapter
`4 for a description of how each GDS imple-
`ments non-air supplier access). 50, TSG is a
`set of enabling technologies that distributes
`Nottingham’s central main-frame functions,
`such as reservations, ticketing and servicing,
`to travel agents using their existing point-
`of—sale GDS PC terminals. In concept, this
`is similar to the way in which airlines dis-
`So, a more cost effective solution is being
`tribute their sales functions via the GDSS.
`sought by SEMA. It
`is currently considering
`As such,
`it is not therefore a piece of soft-
`the development of its own self-service ticketing
`ware that runs in the agent’s PC. TSG was
`machine that would only support plastic card
`originally developed by Eurostar to enable
`payments. This new machine would work in
`travel agents to gain access to their new
`conjunction with the telesales centres. Cus-
`channel tunnel train services via Galileo.
`tomers could telephone a telesales centre to
` _m_
`SUPPLIERS
`91
`
`Petitioners‘ Exhibit 1021 , Page 1 01
`
`

`
`Using TSG, seats can be reserved on cer-
`tain UK domestic rail journeys in both first
`class and standard coaches of all InterCity
`trains using GDS terminals installed in travel
`agencies. Reservations can also be made
`on most inter—urban rail services. First class
`
`single and standard twin berth sleeper com-
`partments are reservable on all InterCity
`sleeper trains. The travel agent can choose
`certain reservations preferences for their cus-
`tomers such as, window or aisle seat, fac-
`ing or back to the direction of travel, dining
`seat or non-dining, smoking or non—smoking
`seats.
`
`Travel agents can use their existing GDS
`terminals to access the rail main-frame sys-
`tem using the ‘BRL’ entry. Agents without a
`GDS can use viewdata terminals using the
`Imminus or AT&T travel networks, again
`using ‘BRL’ as the access code (see Chapter
`4). Agencies with the latest Galileo Focal
`Point UK terminals have the additional
`
`benefit of access to FACETS. This system
`runs on the rail main-frame computer and
`supports an integrated fares, timetable, avail-
`ability and reservations facility that com-
`pares favourably in terms of functionality
`with most airline systems. At a certain point
`in time, a few hours before departure, the
`system prints reservations dockets for the
`departing train that a train operating com-
`pany employee places in the appropriate
`headrest of each seat.
`
`TSG can generate a rail machine inter-
`face record (MIR) for back-office accounting
`purposes. This main-frame created data record
`is therefore used to generate accounting trans-
`actions and is stored for future management
`information purposes (see Chapter 7 for more
`details on back-office or agency management
`systems). It remains the responsibility of the
`travel agent to ensure that their back-office
`system is capable of successfully processing
`the rail MIR.
`
`netic strip on the reverse side (a plain o|d
`ATB ticket has no such magnetic strip). Only
`the ATB2 has the magnetic strip that can be
`read by devices at the ticket gate or en route.
`For continental travel, this will help Speed
`the passenger through check-in formalities
`at the new Eurostar terminals instead of the
`old style travel document that will have to
`be exchanged for an ATB ticket before he/
`she can start his/her journeys. Shorter check-
`in times are of course especially essential to
`business customers who travel at peak times
`and usually pay full fares.
`You may recall our earlier discussion of
`ATB type tickets and their associated printers
`in the section on airline reservation systems
`or GDSS. Well, the rail ATB (Fig. 3.7) com-
`plies with the IATA 722 encoding standards.
`This means that the data that are encoded
`
`on the magnetic strip on the reverse of the
`ATB, conform to a standard that has been
`set by IATA and used by all the airlines.
`The ATB printer is, however, different from
`most conventional printers in one important
`respect. In addition to printing an ATB and
`encoding it simultaneously, it can also read
`the magnetic strip on a previously printed
`ATB ticket. The potential is therefore in place
`for a travel agent
`to have just one ATB
`printer in the office that can print and pro-
`cess both air and rail tickets.
`
`Clearly therefore, one of the long term
`objectives of ATOC is for travel agents to
`use a single printer for producing all UK
`rail tickets. This will enable a single ATB
`printer to be loaded with a set of airline
`ticket stock and a set of rail ticket stock.
`
`The GDS systems use special software to
`control contention between the various
`
`workstations that need to print a ticket.
`Contention occurs, for example, when Work-
`station 1 initiates an airline ticket printing
`command at the same time that Workstation
`
`2 issues a rail ticket print command. This
`special contention handling software makes
`ATB based ticketing is an important fea-
`it possible to use just a single ATB printer
`ture of TSG. This is supported by means of
`at the point—of—sale. This is important because
`an ATB2 style ticket printer that is directly
`ATB printers can be quite costly. Looking
`connected to the GDS PC. Incidentally, the
`even further ahead it may one day be possible
`ATB2 style ticket is the one with the mag-
`
`
`92 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR TRAVEL AND TOURISM
`
`Petitioners‘ Exhibit 1021, Page 102
`
`

`
`
`
` V
`
`fa? N6vEM8E§§1937:7
`, stow-stnunskn 0rEN§”_,fj.§fbu1uaRD:.iE. uitiyisfisfi
`'
`" ”'
`‘*5 -“""’"3h§ vitiniumttt 26 DECEMBER 1997”;d
`om: LQNDON
`LBIRMINGHAMZTNTERNQTIONAL T
`To
`_ Adult ONE
`’Chi1d NIL
`tRouteHNY;PERMITTED
`
`aqirn.§‘i¢¢aiisVir3E cigge g..?.g;r§, gf
`
`
`
`Figure 3.7 A rail ATB
`
`for a single stock to be used for both airline
`tickets and rail tickets. However,
`in order
`for this to happen, there will need to be a
`lot more work done in the standards area.
`
`Because this is all organized by committees
`from leading airlines, rail companies and
`other travel suppliers, it may well take some
`time to agree such standards.
`The ticket printed by the TSG system
`is for a maximum of three legs or sectors
`of an itinerary. More sectors can of course
`be ticketed but these will require more than
`one ATB. So, for example, a five-leg journey
`would have Legs 1, 2 and 3 printed on the
`first ATB and Legs 4 and 5 on the second.
`Standards are a critical
`issue for industry
`systems as I am sure you will have gathered
`from the section in Chapter 1. ATOC has
`adhered to the international union of rail-
`
`ways (UIC) and rail combined ticket (RCT}
`standards for European ticket
`issue. This
`means that tickets produced on UK rail sys-
`tems will be acceptable on the Continent and
`can be read and processed by other non—UK
`systems.
`Incidentally,
`the rail printer will
`also be capable of printing credit and charge
`card forms. These will comprise a portion
`for use by the card company and 21 tear-off
`slip for the customer. This will no doubt
`be a valuable time saver for most
`travel
`
`In terms of GDS connectivity, the rail
`system is accessed via a special partition
`within the GDS multi-access capability. There
`is a GDS language entry that a user must
`enter into the GDS terminal
`in order to
`
`request seat and sleeper reservations. This
`is converted by the GDS system into the
`appropriate rail system entry (the rail sys-
`tem uses an alternative format to the airline
`
`systems), and transmitted via telecommun-
`ication lines into the main-frame computer
`in Nottingham. The rail system response
`on this return half of the dialogue is not
`converted but instead appears in native mode
`on the travel agent’s GDS system display.
`ATS ATS is a ‘stand alone’ PC software
`
`package that has been provided to travel
`agents since 1991. ATS produces train tickets
`on continuous stationery and supports auto-
`mated settlement of ticket sales to RSP. It is
`
`primarily for travel agents who have rail
`ticket sales of up to £05 million per year.
`The software is currently used by around
`150 travel agencies. To use ATS the travel
`agent needs to have a dot matrix printer
`attached to their PC. This printer is loaded
`with continuous rail ticket stock that is very
`similar to OPTAT airline ticket stock in size
`and format. The main difference is that this
`
`SUPPLIERS 93
`
`Petitioners‘ Exhibit 1021, Page 103
`
`ticket stock comprises just three parts: (i) a
`travel copy, (ii) a copy for the travel agent,
`agents.
`
`
`

`
`British Rai
`
`ngnm. Ticketing System
`
`("run .'
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`J\l
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`
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`I38
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`
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`
`43.3:
`
`F8 I-inf:-". F9: zJuv.I.rzi«:-.,-
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`III
`
`'. PS6 ‘to quit.
`F'}~!:l)~
`
`Figure 3.8 An ATS screen
`
`and (iii) an audit or accounting coupon.
`The main menu offers the following set of
`functions:
`ticket
`issue,
`ticket cancellation,
`back-up sales data, daily sales report and
`best-seller input. There are also parameters
`that control ticket stock, accounting periods
`and VAT codes. The principal
`function
`is, however,
`the issue of rail
`tickets and
`this is
`therefore explained in more detail
`below.
`
`The first question the ATS system (Fig. 3.8)
`asks the user,
`is to verify that the number
`of the next ticket to be printed tallies with
`the ATS PC stock records as displayed on
`the screen. Once this has been confirmed the
`
`issuance process starts. The system
`ticket
`works most effectively when it has been
`set up with details of the most frequently
`used itineraries. There may be up to 50 such
`itineraries and each is pre-set with: from city,
`to city,
`fare, class, etc. W/hen a ticket
`is
`required from the best—seller list, the agent
`selects the route, adds the date and :1 refer-
`ence and the ticket is printed automatically.
`If the journey is for a non—best—seller itiner-
`ary, the agent simply enters all the details that
`are required on the ticket, such as from
`city, to city, class, fare (from the rail tariff
`book), date and reference. Finally, when all
`data have been entered the ATS system may
`be instructed to print the ticket.
`The details of all tickets issued for a day
`are added to a data base, which forms the basis
`
`94 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR TRAVEL AND TOURISM
`
`of the end—of—month rail sales return. Each
`
`month the system produces a floppy disk
`that is mailed to RS1’ along with a copy of
`all the audit coupons of the tickets issued for
`the month. This saves a great deal of manual
`effort and totally eliminates the need for
`a hand—written rail sales return. It
`is also
`
`possible to print consolidated daily and
`monthly sales reports for all tickets sold by
`the agency.
`The ATS system also interfaces with
`Galileo's President Agency Management
`System (PAMS). This is achieved using a
`connection from the serial port of the ATS
`PC to the serial port of the PAMS PC. This
`connection allows a MIR to be transferred
`
`from ATS into PAMS for every ticket issued.
`A MIR contains all the information needed
`
`by the P/-\.’VlS back-office system to process
`the sales ledger functions (including the auto-
`mated printing of customers’ invoices) and
`other accounting tasks associated with rail
`ticket sales. This makes it possible to cap-
`ture some basic accounting data at the point
`just prior to the ticket actually being printed.
`Information such as client account number,
`cost centre, product code, method of pay-
`ment, credit card type and card number. This
`saves the travel agent's back—oflice account-
`ing staff from having to re—key the ticket
`information already keyed at the point—of—
`sale into PA.’\-'18 and then having to add other
`customer account information.
`
`Petitioners‘ Exhibit 1021, Page 104
`
`

`
`Retail servicing points
`
`There are many different places where informa-
`tion on train services are required by customers.
`For example, there are the telephone sales centres
`scattered around the country. There used to be 45
`of these telesales centres although they are being
`rationalized at the direction of the rail regulator
`and eventually there will only be around four large
`telesales centres and six smaller units. Rational-
`ization has resulted in a new consolidated NRES.
`This is accessible via the telephone using a single
`national number charged at local call rates. But
`there are other retail servicing points besides NRES,
`such as travel agents that do not necessarily sell
`rail tickets, small stations and rail shops. The main
`systems used to provide train operating informa-
`tion to these retail servicing points are:
`
`a Tribute This is a PC—based software product.
`It performs certain rail related functions locally
`and also uses ISDN telecommunications to
`
`connect into the rail main—frame computers in
`Nottingham. This provides its retail servicing
`users with the power of a local PC system
`but with the enormous resources of a main-
`
`frame just a phone call away. An important IT
`architectural feature of Tribute is co—operative
`processing.
`The term co—operative processing means
`that Tribute’s system functions are provided by
`a team of computers working together and shar-
`ing the workload. Tribute uses co—operative
`processing techniques because it shares the
`total processing workload between its host PC
`and the remote rail main—frame computer. It
`therefore closely resembles an airline GDS. The
`screens that the user sees and interacts with
`
`are based on main—frame responses but these
`are enhanced locally by Tribute’s special PC
`software. The resulting screens are extremely
`user friendly and are similar in appearance to
`the Microsoft Windows format that is by now
`so familiar to many PC users.
`SEMA plan to migrate parts of the data
`base held on the Nottingham main—frame to
`the local Tribute PC hard disk. Processing and
`storage functions within Tribute would then
`be increasingly shared between the Nottingham
`main—frame and the local PC. The fares data
`
`base, for example, will be split into two parts
`for storage and access purposes. Local fares
`will be stored on the user’s PC and refreshed
`
`each night via the main—frame link, while all
`other fares will be stored only on the main-
`frame and accessed as needed. This should help
`take the load off the central main—frame and
`
`make Tribute more responsive. Another main-
`frame support functions accessed by Tribute
`include FACETS. FACETS combines the CPF
`
`fares system, the CATE timetable system and
`the British Rail CRS reservations system.
`CATE and FACETS These are the timetable
`
`and fares systems that run on the Nottingham
`main—frame. They are accessed from high volume
`rail servicing points by dedicated terminals
`connected by leased lines to Nottingham.
`The customer information system (CIS) This
`is located on station concourses. It shows de-
`
`parture details of trains leaving from a station
`within the next hour and in some cases also
`shows arrival information.
`
`Rail planner The rail train timetable has been
`computerized for some time. It is stored as a
`very large data base, comprising some 89 Mb
`of data storage, held on the main frame com-
`puter in Nottingham. Until 1992 this timetable
`was only available in the form of a large and
`somewhat complex book known as the British
`Rail Great Britain Timetable. The principal aim
`of Rail Planner is to simplify the planning of
`customers’ journeys by providing local access
`to this timetable data base.
`Rail Planner is another ‘stand alone’ PC
`
`based software product (Fig. 3.9) that allows
`users to plan their journeys simply by specify-
`ing their origin/destination requirements. This
`is achieved by providing the entire rail time-
`table on a PC data base, which is compressed
`so that it occupies only 1.8 Mb of PC hard
`disk space. This has been done by using special
`software and a user friendly man/machine dia-
`logue. Rail Planner is available in two options:
`(i) Rail Planner software plus a timetable data
`base supplied twice each year, or (ii) Rail Plan-
`ner software with a timetable data base that
`
`must be updated each month with changes.
`The core element of Rail Planner is the time-
`
`table data base that, with its monthly refresh
`
`SUPPLIERS 95
`
` 105
`
`Petitioners' Exhibit 1021, Page
`
`

`
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`96 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR TRAVEL AND TOURISM
`
`Petitioners‘ Exhibit 1021, Page 105
`
`

`
`is close to being as accurate as the
`function,
`timetable data base stored on the main-frame.
`Rail Planner is a Windows—based product
`and uses familiar GUI standards. The user
`simply enters the from and to cities, the date
`of travel and the approximate departure time.
`The system responds with a display of the itiner-
`ary showing the intermediate stops and train
`changes en route. Also displayed are several
`earlier and later options that may be of interest
`to the traveller. When the route has been
`finalized, a map option may be requested. This
`pictorially shows the chosen route with major
`stations and all
`interconnecting points. The
`map can be printed and handed to a traveller.
`Rail Planner has been available from British
`
`Rail since September 1992 (when it was branded
`journey Planner). The software was originally
`supplied by a German company and has now
`been modified for use in the UK. The system is
`distributed on floppy disk and is mainly used
`by individual
`travellers and corporate travel
`planners.
`
`Central accounting functions
`
`One of the main functions of the RSI’ is to ensure
`that the revenue derived from rail ticket sales is
`
`distributed equitably between all the train oper-
`ators and other third parties, e.g.
`the London
`Underground. The SEMA group undertakes this
`task on behalf of RSP using several large main-
`frame computer systems, the main one of which
`is called CAPRI. CAPRI is fed with ticket sales
`
`have been laid down for each ticketed route that
`
`allows certain assumptions to be made regarding
`the allocation of ticket sales revenue. As you can
`imagine, with over one-quarter of a billion tickets
`sold each year, this is a job that is only feasible to
`perform using a large and powerful computer.
`Once the ticket sales transaction data have been
`
`analysed, the CAPRI system determines the share
`attributable to each train operating company and
`also calculates the commission due. It then deter-
`
`mines the amounts payable to third parties such
`as the London Underground and ferry companies.
`The end result of this process is a set of entries
`that are passed into the books of account of each
`train operating company.
`
`Rail sales distribution
`
`An enormous volume of rail tickets is sold in the
`
`i.e. over one-quarter of a billion
`UK each year,
`tickets annually, but compared with other travel
`industry suppliers, only a small proportion are
`sold via travel agents. One reason for this is
`that travellers tend to buy their tickets from the
`station as they depart. Another possible reason is
`that from the travel agents‘ perspective the revenue
`on a British Rail
`ticket
`is usually perceived as
`being rather low for the average journey, espe-
`cially when the rather laborious monthly manual
`settlement procedure is taken into account. In fact,
`the average commission rate on rail tickets is some
`9 per cent, which is actually quite competitive
`with domestic air travel.
`
`data from the various point-of—sale systems that I
`described above. However, the revenue allocation
`process is not as straightforward as you might think.
`Let’s consider the logistics in a little more detail.
`First of all, the details of the actual routes that
`the passengers travelled may not automatically
`be derived from the ticketed sales data generated
`from the points-of-sale. The UK rail network is
`sufficiently large and diverse to enable travellers
`to take alternative routes between their origin and
`destination points. So,
`it
`is not always possible
`for the revenue accounting system to calculate how
`a ticket’s sales value should be split between two
`agents is, however, set to increase significantly in
`Or more train operating companies on the basis of
`the route actually travelled. Instead, a set of rules
`the not too distant future. In fact, it is expected
`
`
`Once again, business travel is a little different
`and most business travel agents will offer their
`corporate customers British Rail tickets. The rea-
`son for this is twofold: (a] it provides an all round
`service and gives a better and more caring image
`to the customer if a comprehensive range of pro-
`ducts can be provided, not just the profitable ones;
`(b) business travellers often travel first class and
`the journeys are usually long distance, all of which
`means that the revenue earning potential of these
`type of British Rail tickets is in fact quite attract-
`ive. For this reason therefore, some travel agents
`do carry a stock of British Rail tickets.
`The sale of rail tickets that are sold via travel
`
`SUPPLIERS 97
`
`Petitioners‘ Exhibit 1021, Page 107
`
`

`
`that the total volume of rail tickets booked through
`the UK travel
`trade will more than double by
`the end of this decade. This is primarily due to the
`channel tunnel, which opened in 1994, and the
`commencement of Eurostar and Le Shuttle, both
`of which provide new high speed surface links to
`the continent that challenge air and ferry services.
`In summary, if travel agents are to be encour-
`aged to sell UK domestic rail
`tickets and the
`new cross-channel products, it is imperative that
`they have access to efficient and cost effective
`sales and ticketing technology. Rail companies are
`therefore developing some very sophisticated sup-
`porting technology that should make the sale of
`most rail tickets highly profitable for travel agents
`and lower the cost of direct sales.
`
`Information suppliers
`
`Information is the raw material of the travel and
`tourism industries. There is an enormous number
`
`of travel suppliers and each one describes their
`products using a wealth of data; and besides travel
`suppliers there is a whole set of reference informa-
`tion that the industry and travellers themselves
`need if they are to travel the world safely and
`effectively. Unfortunately,
`these data and their
`assembly into useful
`information are scattered
`across many different companies and sources. Life
`would be a lot simpler if information on travel
`and tourism was stored in just a single place and
`easily accessible from anywhere in the world. This
`ideal
`is, however, unattainable at
`the present
`time, although the future holds the promise of
`new technologies that could rationalize data sources
`and standardize the way we access and use infor-
`mation. It is therefore essential that we explore
`companies that specialize in the accumulation, stor-
`age, distribution and provision of information to
`the travel and tourism industries. Probably the
`leading company in this field is the Reed Travel
`Group.
`
`REED TRAVEL GROUP
`
`Reed Travel Group is a member of the Reed
`Elsevier plc group, a world-leading publisher and
`information provider in the areas of scientific, pro-
`
`98 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR TRAVEL AND TOURISM
`
`fessional, business and consumer publishing. With
`its principal operations in North America and Eur.
`ope, Reed Elsevier has annual sales in excess of £3
`billion and employs more than 25,000 people world.
`wide. Reed Travel Group is the world’s largest
`independent provider of travel information pro-
`ducts and services to: (i) business travellers, travel
`planners and the global travel
`industry; and (ii)
`GDS and airlines. The Reed Travel Group mission
`statement is:
`
`‘To be the preferred supplier to the global travel
`community of:
`(a) comprehensive,
`impartial
`in-
`formation; (b) essential news and opinions; and (c;
`effective solutions and knowledge. Our corporate
`culture will
`inspire and empower employees to
`provide our customers and associates with products
`and services of superior value and to deliver a fair
`return to our shareholders. We will be good cor-
`porate citizens with respect to the communities and
`environments in which we work.’
`
`With more than 2,500 employees in more than
`5 0 offices around the world, Reed Travel Group’s
`businesses serve all the major global travel markets
`including air transportation, hotel, cruise, meet-
`ings, leisure, cargo, rail and other travel sectors.
`Although I won’t be covering all of these pro-
`ducts and services in this book, there are several
`
`that are very relevant to the effective use of IT in
`travel and tourism, which I will be exploring in a
`lot more detail in this and other chapters.
`Reed Travel Group’s leading business portfolio
`includes: OAG, Travel Weekly, Meetings Oi” Con-
`ventions, Hotel Travel fndex, TravelNet, Weissmaim
`Travel Reports, ABC Corporate Services, Reed
`Travel Training and Utell International. The com-
`pany’s products are distributed globally and the
`business operates from centres in the UK, USA
`and Singapore. Reed Travel Gr0up’s products and
`services serve many different markets: (a) travel
`principals, such as airlines, airports and hotel/car
`companies;
`(b)
`the corporate market,
`including
`travellers, travel arrangers and buyers; (c) travel
`intermediaries, such as travel agents, CRS, GDS
`and freight forwarders/cargo agents; and finally
`(cl) USA Government departments, including the
`Federal Aviation Administration and Government
`
`travellers. The complete range of products may
`be categorized as follows:
`
`Petitioners‘ Exhibit 1021, Page 103
`
`

`
`ive assistants. Reed Travel Training is endorsed
`by IATA and the Universal Federation of Travel
`Agents’ Association UFTAA.
`I do not cover
`these training products in this book.
`0 Hotel Sc Travel Index This is a leading hotel
`directory providing up-to-date booking in-
`formation on 45,000 hotels, resorts and inns
`world-wide. Published quarterly, Hotel 69' Travel
`Index contains all pertinent hotel information
`including rates, accommodation details, contact
`names, addresses, toll-free phone and fax num-
`bers, representatives and commission policies
`and GDS access codes. These products are not
`covered in more detail in this book.
`
`0 ABC Corporate Services This is the original
`provider of quality corporate services for in-
`dependent travel agencies. The company’s prim-
`ary products include: (i) Premier Hotel Plan, a
`comprehensive programme including negotiated
`rates, value added amenities and block space;
`(ii) Business Breaks, a meetings’ facilities guide
`for corporate travel planners; (iii) the travellers‘
`emergency service system (TESS), a 24-hour
`emergency hot—line; (iv) an international rate
`desk and (v) Global Connect, a global travel
`management network. These products are not
`covered in more detail within this book.
`
`0 EasyRes A leading viewdata—based reserva-
`tions system for leisure travel agents in the UK,
`offering free and easy access to a wide choice
`of airlines and fares, last seat availability, hotels
`and car rental booking facilities. The EasyRes
`service is presented in more detail in Chapter 6
`— Communication Networks.
`
`As I have mentioned before, information is the
`raw material of travel and tourism. Insofar as
`
`Reed Travel Group is concerned, this raw mate-
`rial is a prime company asset. It is an asset that is
`represented, at its lowest level, by collections of
`individual data items. These data items are stored
`
`OAG This encompasses the print and elec-
`tronic travel information products and services
`that are offered to travellers, corporations and
`the travel industry. These publications supply
`the information needed to make effective travel
`decisions. OAG and its electronic products are
`described in more detail below. The specialist
`GDS fares and schedule distribution service
`(known, respectively, as OAG Genesis and OAG
`Direct) are described earlier in this chapter (see
`the Fares Distribution section above).
`Utell International This is the world’s largest
`hotel marketing, sales and reservations service
`promoting 6,500 hotel members in more than
`180 countries. This service is described separ-
`ately in Chapter 4 — Distribution Systems.
`Weissmann Travel Reports This is a leading
`provider of global electronic and hard copy
`destination information to the travel industry.
`Its data base includes destination information
`
`the
`on more than 10,000 cities throughout
`world and is available by country profile, state/
`province profile, city profile and cruise port-
`of—call profile. It is particularly relevant to IT
`in travel and tourism because it
`is a source
`
`o