There has been plenty of talk recently about the concept of freely available APIs in the travel industry, with many organisations making the seismic shift to become more open.
On the one hand you have startups such as Flextrip issuing a rallying cry for more open access to data by the so-called gatekeepers of the industry, so that up and coming companies can experiment and can create new ideas.
And then you have a giant of the industry in Travelport, one of the gatekeepers, beginning to see what is possible by opening up its own API, abeit tentatively and trying to ensure its own commercial position is not impeded in the process.
This is all very encouraging.
I recently attended an amazing presentation at the Global Ecommerce Summit in Barcelona, Spain, where particularly impressive was Best Buy and Michelle Azar, its vice president for emerging markets.
The video below is the best representation I have so far seen of what it means to build a set up open-ended APIs, like the ones exposed at the successful THack event in London earlier this year.
I think its inspiring to think that "out there", there are thousands of ideas, long tail operators and raw creativity that will take travel content in future and continue the evolution of "how to do it better".
In a world where traffic is no longer limited to expensive travel media and search sites and anyone can share, like or blog your content, it is key that data feeds are opened and make sure travel happens all over the web, including mobile and tablet devices.
Best Buy shows us here the first step in how to make that happen at scale. Enjoy.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7r7QpIDEI_o
NB: Editor's note - Gisbert is leaving Expedia to become international managing director for the Low Cost Travel Group, where he will be responsible for expanding the company to other countries around Europe. He is planning to continue to write for Tnooz.