AUSTIN, TEXAS, USA (January 17, 2018) — Travel association OpenTravel Alliance (OpenTravel) recently elected Susanne Auinger, senior advisor of partner management at DB Systel GmbH, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn AG, as chairperson for its board of directors. Auinger most recently served as vice chair on the OpenTravel board.
“I am grateful to be given the trust and opportunity by OpenTravel’s board members to co-create and advance our future strategy of even stronger cooperation, extended interacting with standardization organizations and new verticals,” said Auinger. “I am excited to work hand-in-hand with our board, staff, members and partners to exchange ideas, gain synergies and serve and support existing as well as new travel verticals. Today, the travel industry is experiencing substantial changes driven by the customers’ demand who expect enhanced travel experience and end-to-end services primarily driven by mobile technology.”
OpenTravel’s board of directors has a mission to help the association enable the future of travel by driving the evolving digital experience for consumers around the world. Open Travel is the source for the most adopted, cross-industry technology standards that enable business solutions driven by the travel community.
“As an open alliance of the different travel verticals, OpenTravel is convinced that speed, efficiency/ease interconnecting and interacting between the industries are critical assets to meet the demands of this disruptive market as well as provide transactional success,” said Auinger. “Our mission is to create, improve and deliver best of class models and tools to enable companies to meet the demanding technical challenges of API economy and semantic search as well as the aspect of new business models and partnership opportunities.”
Auinger also serves at the chairperson for the OpenTravel Forum – Enabling the Future of the Connected Consumer Experience – that will be co-located with HITEC® Amsterdam, produced by Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP®), from April 11-13, 2018 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Centre in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
“We are all excited that Susanne will be serving as a chairperson on OpenTravel’s board as she brings a European perspective, experience and perspective to the table,” said Mike Tinkey, CEO at OpenTravel. “She is a visionary collaborative leader, and is focused on the seamless customer experience solutions in her professional projects across Europe that are rail-focused and incorporate OpenTravel Standards.”
For more information about OpenTravel Alliance, please contact Jessica Blankenship at media@opentravel.org or visit https://opentravel.org.
About OpenTravel Alliance
OpenTravel Alliance is passionate about solving the problems inherent with connecting multiple systems within the complex travel distribution arena. Our mission is to enable the future of travel by driving the evolving digital experience for consumers. OpenTravel Alliance creates, expands and drives adoption of open specifications, including but not limited to the use of XML, for the electronic exchange of business information among all sectors of the travel industry.
OpenTravel Alliance is comprised of companies representing airlines, car rental firms, hotels, cruise lines, railways, leisure suppliers, service providers, tour operators, travel agencies, solutions providers, technology companies and distributors. Tens of thousands of OpenTravel Alliance message structures are in use, carrying tens of millions of messages between trading partners every day.
OpenTravel Alliance is a not-for-profit trade association, founded in 1999 by travel companies, with a primary focus on the creation of electronic message structures to facilitate communication between the disparate systems in the global travel industry. For more information on OpenTravel Alliance membership, new products, or projects, please visit http://www.opentravel.org or email info@opentravel.org.