1. Contact:
Valyn Perini, CEO
OpenTravel Alliance
valyn.perini@opentravel.org
+1 978 263 7606
OpenTravel Publishes 2011B Version
Meets Disability Accommodation Requirements
Boxborough, MA- January 17, 2012 — OpenTravel Alliance (OpenTravel), the travel
industry’s leading distribution specification and standards development organization,
announces the publication of the 2011B version of its schema.
Included in this version were some changes to hotel schema that although designed
to be applicable worldwide, focused on a subset of the 2010 ADA (Americans with
Disabilities Act) legislation that specifically applies to electronic hotel reservations
and includes:
 Identifying and describing accessible features irrespective of an individual’s
disability
 Reserving, upon request, accessible guest rooms or specific types of guest
rooms and ensuring that the guest rooms requested are blocked and removed
from all reservations system inventory
 Guaranteeing the specific accessible guest room.
Jonathan Kaye, a London, United Kingdom based disability consultant and
quadriplegic, who has been working with the hotel and travel distribution industries
to improve the booking process for travelers with disabilities for over 15 years and
played a leading role in instigating OpenTravel’s hotel accessibility information work,
said:
“OpenTravel’s work on hotel accessibility information is historic, marking the first
time disability has been formally addressed by the travel distribution industry and I
am proud to have played a part. I wish to congratulate and thank Valyn Perini and
her colleagues for this act of industry leadership. However, we all know that for this
work to be truly effective and successful, it is fundamental that the travel distribution
industry now implement it as fast as possible and hotels and other providers of
accessible accommodation then ensure accurate and reliable information is provided
to millions of travelers with disabilities worldwide.”
The 2011B version also contains updates to hotel, airline, tours/activities and golf
messages, along with new messages for railways and ground transportation
companies.
The 2011B version can be downloaded free of charge from this web site.
-continued-

2. About OpenTravel Alliance
OpenTravel's mission is to engineer specifications to ensure traveler and supplier
information flow smoothly throughout travel, tourism and hospitality. OpenTravel
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 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 message structures are in use,
carrying tens of millions of messages between trading partners every day. To learn
more about OpenTravel visit www.opentravel.org.
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