．GDS，Global Distribution System．

【一】What is GDS?

GDS，Global Distribution System， a global trading platform creates more than 5 billion dollars each year. In brief, GDS system supplier provides a network platform, the suppliers of tourism product set product sales on the background, and then the global travel agents or individual guest (travel website) can conduct transactions through this platform. With the development of tourism e-commerce, the Computer Reservation System (CRS) which integrates the global sale mode and efficient, and has developed into GDS. With the extensive use of the information technology in tourism, GDS has become a diversified and efficient tourism marketing technical tools. It provides the best real-time reservation services for visitors (B2C). It decentralizes the booking system which is operated only by travel agents to consumers.

【二】The market age of globalization

With the development of computer technology, especially the emergence of large capacity database, enriching product information of the GDS became possible. After 1990s, GDS began to bring the hotel ,car rental, cruise ship, travel package and other travel products into its sale area beside airline ticket.

Recognizing GDS’s extensive distribution network is of importance, the hoteliers began to cooperate with GDS. All the major international hotel groups connect their central reservation system with GDS, and their owned hotels also automatically gained the eligibility of global distribution through GDS. International chain group has great advantages on international sale channel comparing to the single hotel. The main reason is that they have the marketing ability and method of GDS. The wide range of integration makes the buyers and sellers grow rapidly and become a true global multinational market.

【三】The amazing performance of GDS (Global Distribution System) in globalization era

In the past decade, hotel industry has been obtaining a rising amount of advance reservation through the GDS (shown in the right table). GDS is expanding rapidly and changing the regional travel transaction mode. More and more buyers and sellers transact through this system and create an ever-growing transaction quantity. Obviously, GDS seems to have been the pronoun of the largest market trading platform in hotel industry.