What is the OCTO standard for and how does it serve the tourism industry?
OCTO is a standard established by some of the world's largest companies in the tourism and travel sector. Its goal: to standardize communication flows between tour operators during activity bookings, whether that involves entry tickets for museums, tourist passes, or guided tours. OCTO stands for "Open Connectivity for attractions, TOurs and activities."Before the OCTO standard, every tourism company selling tickets for activities and visits online offered its own API (Application Programming Interface). An API is a software system that enables tickets to be sold anywhere in the world, provided that reseller websites are able to work with the supplier's API. And that is where things started to get complicated. As online sales of activities and visits grew, each supplier developed their own API independently, each with their own approach. To use a language analogy, everyone was previously speaking their own tongue.
The OCTO standard came along to normalize all of this by proposing shared communication standards for all APIs. Now, a museum, an attraction, or any supplier wishing to sell tickets online can create or adapt their API to comply with the OCTO standard, for example, in how concepts such as pricing, participants, or customer information are handled. OCTO clearly defines, for instance, how communication flows exchange the elements included in a rate.
The OCTO standard therefore offers a huge time saving for both suppliers and resellers. A supplier who complies with the OCTO standard can immediately be sold through a reseller's website, without requiring months of custom software development. That also means significant savings on development costs on both sides.
Who can use the OCTO standard to resell their activities and visits?
As its name suggests, the OCTO standard is "open" and freely available. If you are an activity supplier or a reseller, you can freely build your API based on the OCTO standard specifications. All specifications are openly available, so you can construct your API by incorporating each of the defined elements.As a result, the tourism industry as a whole is getting on board. The OCTO standard has, for example, been adopted by the well-known GDS Amadeus, the online agency Tiqets, and several major activity providers such as City Sightseeing and theSUMMIT observatory in New York. OCTO represents a remarkable revolution for the world of travel.
Our platform Explorates also complies with the OCTO standard, and you will find our parent company CNEWYORK among the members of the OCTO consortium. By using Explorates to resell your tickets or visits through online agencies, you have the assurance of following the OCTO standard, a guarantee of stability and long-term reliability!
One final important point: as explained above, the OCTO standard is a communication standard for APIs. However, as a tour guide or museum, you do not need to learn the OCTO language at all. Like Monsieur Jourdain in Molière's Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, Explorates will allow your booking system to speak OCTO without even knowing it!
