Sunday 8 May 2011

Awareness of online travel booking websites in India

Awareness of online travel booking websites in India



Awareness is the state or ability to perceive, to feel, or to be conscious of events, objects or sensory patterns. In this level of consciousness, sense data can be confirmed by an observer without necessarily implying understanding. More broadly, it is the state or quality of being aware of something

Traveling is a hobby for people from all parts of the world. Traveling encompasses a lot of activities and you must have knowledge about the journey to different places. The travel sites provide comprehensive information about the airlines, hotels, cruise lines, travel tips and many other things. The travel sites are the ideal tool for any travel related information. Browse your eyes through the list of the best travel sites in world.

Online Booking System (OBS), also referred as Travel Distribution System (TDS), is a computerized GDS based system used to store and retrieve information about tour product, tour product options or lodging facility and conduct transactions for booking it.

A travel website is a website on the World Wide Web, that is dedicated to travel. The site may be focused on travel reviews, the booking of travel, or a combination of both. Approximately seventy million consumers researched travel plans online in July 2006.[1] Travel bookings are the single largest component of e-commerce, according to Forrester Research.

The Web is an essential tool for travelers, but as booking engines and trip forums evolve and multiply, you have to know where to look -- and whom to trust. To help you, Travel + Leisure has assembled the ultimate online guide
Travelogues Many travel websites are online travelogues or travel journals, usually created by individual travellers and hosted by companies that generally provide their information to consumers for free. These companies generate revenue through advertising or by providing services to other businesses. This medium produces a wide variety of styles, often incorporating graphicsphotographymaps, and other unique content. Some examples of websites that use a combination of travel reviews and the booking of travel are TripAdvisorIgoUgo, and Cruise Critic. TripAdvisor allows travelers to view, contribute to, and edit the online travel "guide books", containing over 25 million travel reviews on more than 33,000 destinations worldwide, as of July 2009. IgoUgo offers a place to store and share trip stories, pictures, opinions, tips, and experiences. Similarly, Cruise Critic is an interactive virtual community of avid and first-time cruisers who plan, research, and share their experiences online
Individual airlineshotelsbed and breakfastscruise linesautomobile rental companies, and other travel-related service providers often maintain their own web sites providing retail sales. Many with complex offerings include some sort of search engine technology to look for bookings within a certain timeframe, service class, geographic location, or price range.
Bargain sites
Travel bargain websites collect and publish bargain rates by advising consumers where to find them online (sometimes but not always through a direct link). Rather than providing detailed search tools, these sites generally focus on offering advertised specials, such as last-minute sales from travel suppliers eager to deplete unused inventory; therefore, these sites often work best for consumers who are flexible about destinations and other key itinerary components.
Electronic ticket 
An electronic ticket or e-ticket is used to represent the purchase of a seat on a passenger airline, usually through a website or by telephone although purchase through airline ticket offices or travel agencies can also get you an e-ticket. This form of airline ticket has rapidly replaced the old multi-layered paper tickets (from close to zero to 100% in about 10 years) and became mandatory for IATA members as of June 1, 2008. During the last few years, where paper tickets were still available, airlines frequently charged extra for issuing them. E-tickets are also available for certain entertainment venues.
Once a reservation is made, an e-ticket exists only as a digital record in the airline computers. Customers usually print out a copy of their receipt which contains the record locator or reservation number and the e-ticket number.
According to critical acclaim, Joel R. Goheen is recognized as the Inventor of Electronic Ticketing in the Airline Industry, an industry where global electronic ticket sales (the industry standard) accounts for over $400 Billion (US) a year (2007)
Self-service and remote check-in
E-tickets are very popular because they allow extra services like:
  1. online access to a passenger's reservation which makes amendments to flight plans (such as change of flight date and refunds) possible (subject to ticket restrictions)
  2. online/telephone/self-service kiosk check-in (if the airline makes this option available)
  3. early check-in
  4. printing boarding passes at airport kiosks and at locations other than an airport
It is also possible to have many copies of an e-ticket reducing the possibility of losing a ticket.
Several web sites exist to help people holding e-tickets accomplish online check-ins in advance of the twenty-four-hour airline restriction. These sites store a passenger's flight information and then when the airline opens up for online check-in the data is transferred to the airline and the boarding pass is emailed back to the customer.

E-tickets are sometimes not available for some flights from an airline which usually offers them. This can be due to a number of reasons, the most common being software incompatibility. If an airline issues tickets for a codeshare flight with another company, and there is no e-ticketinterlining agreement, the operating carrier would not be able to see the issuing carrier's ticket. Therefore, the carrier that books the flight needs to provide hard copy versions of the tickets so that the ticket can be processed. Similarly, if the destination airport does not have access to the airline who booked the flight, a paper ticket needs to be issued.
Industry discount (ID) tickets also tend to be issued on paper if they are valid for more than one airline, and if the airlines that the tickets are valid for do not have an interlining agreement. Since e-ticket interlining is still the exception rather than the rule, tickets valid for more than one airline are usually issued on paper.
Currently the ticketing systems of most airlines are only able to produce e-tickets for itineraries of no more than 16 segments, including surface segments.
An internet booking engine (IBE) is an application which helps the travel and tourism industry support reservation through the Internet. It helps consumers to book flights, hotels, holiday packages, insurance and other services online. This is a much needed application for the aviation industry as it has become one of the fastest growing sales channels.

IBEs were necessary as the underlying (often called legacy) systems were unable to cater economically for the large number of shopping transactions and the speed of development required by the customers. In most cases the underlying systems were not designed for direct exposure to consumers.
IBE providers keep adding new features to Internet Booking Engines such as Multiple Search Options so that the customer could book the flight in a manner that suites his/her requirements. If the customer is “schedule sensitive” or needs to adhere to specific travel dates, the IBE offers ticket fares giving priority to the travel calendar. IBEs also support passengers who desire to have multiple stops on their way to their destination. At present, most passengers are seriously concerned about the ticket price. So the IBE of an airline shows a comparison between the low and high ticket fares with the services you get for each.
A user could access a seat map and reserve a preferred seat which is available. The selection of a front row, aisle seat, or window seat is possible. This feature which is known as Web Check-in allows a passenger to check-in online and print his own boarding pass.
Carbon offset programs are also a new feature offered through IBEs. Here, a passenger can contribute to the airline’s environmental initiatives by making a special donation at the time of booking a ticket.


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