THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS A SILLY QUESTION.

You can go directly to the distributors; however, Tourism Exchange USA allows you to access a global network of distributors in one place at the click of a button. By connecting to the Exchange, you can manage your availability, pricing, bookings, and content across multiple distribution channels and also access a wide range of analytical data.

For SMEs, getting distributed via some of the larger, or niche, distributors can be a daunting task. Tourism Exchange USA offers all the benefits as outlined above in an accessible way for businesses of all sizes.

A channel manager usually syncs bookings and availability and won’t normally have the same capability as Tourism Exchange USA to pull content from across distributor systems.

Channel managers also typically only link to ‘on account’ distributors, rather than to direct booking websites to which the Exchange also connects.

The booking fee is paid directly to Tourism Exchange USA and is used for the ongoing operation, maintenance, and development of the platform.

Tourism Exchange USA has been designed to support every size of tourism business, from small boutique bed & breakfasts to hotels to the biggest attractions in the country.

You don’t need a website to link to Tourism Exchange USA, but we strongly suggest that you have one. Your website is an important marketing tool – where consumers go to look, and often book. You can create booking pages for your own website from the Exchange platform once you’ve bought a domain name and done basic website design.

If you don’t have your own booking system we can still get you up and running on the TxLoad part of the system. This allows you to upload your availability and prices manually.

We recommend that you sign up for a booking system in the future, but if you don’t have one yet TxLoad is a good starting point.

TxLoad is a part of the Tourism Exchange USA platform designed for suppliers who don’t have a booking system. It allows you to enter your prices, availability, and content manually into the Exchange. If you also take offline bookings for your tourism product, you need to remember to update the inventory on TxLoad as any changes wouldn’t be automatically recorded in the system.

If your booking system hasn’t been connected to Tourism Exchange USA yet, you can use TxLoad to get connected. As soon as your booking system is connected, you’ll be able to switch to the connected booking system.

For bookings made via a direct booking website, the money goes straight into your account. Distributor commissions and booking fees are automatically settled by Tourism Exchange USA in the following month.

For bookings through online travel agent (OTA) websites that use ‘on account’ payment, you’ll receive your money according to their individual processes. Tourism Exchange USA will send you an email reminding you of the booking and the need to collect payment from the OTA or agent.

The Tourism Exchange USA booking pages allow multiple tickets to be booked at once but will only allow a user to book what’s available in a supplier’s booking system.

There’s also a limit of 20 tickets per category that can be booked through the MyWebsite booking pages provided by the Exchange. For example, you can book up to 20 adult tickets, 20 child tickets, and 20 concession tickets for a total of 60 tickets. Please note, multiple bookings may be needed to reach your total.

Rates and availability for products will be automatically loaded to Tourism Exchange USA from your connected booking system once your account is active. Depending on your booking system, some content may also flow through automatically. Information such as business description, product description, photographs, geocode information, booking terms and conditions of use can be loaded through our dashboard.

If you don’t have a booking system, or your booking system isn’t yet connected to Tourism Exchange USA then this information will need to be loaded manually into TxLoad.

Yes.

You can continue with your existing distributor and opt into only additional, unique distributor channels via Tourism Exchange USA. Alternatively, you can choose to stop working with that distributor directly and go through the Exchange instead.

Yes. Any booking system/channel manager can request to integrate with Tourism Exchange USA as a connected booking system so that their suppliers can connect.

The sooner you get connected, the sooner you’ll have access to an ever-growing range of distributors who can package and sell your product globally.

Live allocation is usually controlled via your own connected booking system, but you can also separately control the cut-off time for bookings before arrival for Tourism Exchange USA reservations. For example, you can choose to cut off bookings 24 hours before the check-in time.

The booking will be entered into your connected booking system, which will be the main record. In most cases, the booking system will then issue its own booking confirmation email. However, depending on the distributor channel, Tourism Exchange USA may also send a booking notification to the consumer and to you.

For OTA distributor bookings such as Booking.com, the consumer will receive their normal confirmation from the distributor.

For bookings through direct distributor channels, you’ll receive payment in full at the time of booking, so there’s nothing more you need to do.
For Online Travel Agent/On Account bookings, no-shows are handled in accordance with the individual distributor’s terms and conditions.

You set your own cancellation policy within the booking terms entered via your dashboard or booking system. This is applied to all direct bookings, and the consumer must agree to these terms before being able to confirm the booking.

For Online Travel Agent distributor bookings, the cancellation policy is set as part of the registration/setup with the specific Online Travel Agent.

For bookings through direct distributor channels, you’ll already have received payment in full at the time of booking. You may process a full or partial refund, or no refund at all, depending on your defined booking terms.
For bookings via Online Travel Agent Distributor channels, the funds received for a canceled booking are as per the cancellation policy you defined when signing up.

Yes. This is an option on the Tourism Exchange USA dashboard. It will reduce your reach and consumer appeal, but it’s an option you can use.

The sooner you get connected, the sooner you’ll have access to an ever-growing range of product suppliers.

Any supplier with product can sign up to Tourism Exchange USA. All suppliers who sign up agree that their product complies with all relevant laws, regulations and legally required standards, and all regulatory guidelines and Industry Codes of Conduct in relation to the promotion and sale of tourism products.

Any supplier who has signed up can opt in to your distribution channel by agreeing to your terms and conditions. The system works off live data so all information is accurate, and there’s an option for you to approve suppliers before they go live in your system. If needed, you can also block a supplier that doesn’t meet your criteria.

It’s free to use Tourism Exchange USA's white label tools. Key features of connecting using these include:

• Minimal development work required.
• Fixed user experience.
• Direct payment only.

The key features of connecting with Tourism Exchange USA through an API are:

• Build your own user experience.
• Work with ‘on request’ suppliers.
• Supplier direct or ‘on account’ payment. There are some development costs to set up the API, and these are dependent on requirements.

It’s the name for the Tourism Exchange USA toolkit of APIs made available to distributors to connect their systems to supplier booking systems.

Only one connection can be made between a supplier and a distributor. This is controlled via the supplier’s connected booking system/channel manager or via the Tourism Exchange USA dashboard. For a direct distributor, the distributor can block a supplier via their dashboard if needed and/or liaise with the supplier to choose their connection type according to the distributor’s own policies and procedures.

By creating campaigns within the distributor dashboard, distributors can define and manage the products offered to consumers for use in marketing initiatives. These campaigns are typically developed to promote tourism/bookings within the distributor’s destination. Distributors can create a marketing campaign that includes a ‘landing page’ where chosen suppliers can be efficiently and effectively presented in a list to consumers. The distributor can define which suppliers can participate and/or the exact requirements they need to meet to qualify. The landing page then links to a booking page URL where consumers can place online bookings.

If you have a booking system that acts as an aggregator to the market and would like to distribute your products through Tourism Exchange USA, please contact us for more details at [email protected] or 1-800-348-3809.

Selling the destination is a key success factor in selling products, and destinations can use Tourism Exchange USA to become a distributor. This allows you to market all of the products within your destination and benefit from the analytical data and campaign tools the Exchange provides. However, before any sales can take place, we need to ensure the product is available on the platform. The Exchange team will be working closely with suppliers to get their products registered so please encourage your local businesses to get involved. Details on the benefits to suppliers are listed in the Supplier section of the website.

You’ll be able to run campaigns through Tourism Exchange USA. For example, for your destination, you could group all garden products together and apply a price discount or just use it as a promotional grouping. Similarly, if you are promoting a touring route, the Exchange allows you to pull together all product within a set distance of that route (for example, two miles either side of a certain plotted path). There are lots of exciting possibilities to bring your destination to life online.
For answers to other questions, please browse the ‘Distributor’ FAQ section.

As a connected technology partner, you’ll only need to pay for the internal time and resources involved with connecting. There are no further connection costs.