THE ABC OF ELECTRONIC DISTRIBUTION

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Gadget/ Widget

Widgets are small independent programs included in the graphical design of a website. Examples are RSS-Feeds, Social Bookmarks etc. Typical Gadgets are more unusually or cleverly designed than normal technological objects at the time of their invention.

GDS (Global Distribution System)

GDSs were formerly used as international reservation systems by the airline industry in collaboration with travel agencies. Besides flights, hotels, rental cars or train tickets can nowadays also be booked via the GDS. The market is shared among four main GDSs: Amadeus, Galileo, Worldspan and Sabre. All licensed travel agencies have access to the GDS via computer terminals. The main revenue drivers for hotels are travel agency consortia, using the GDSs predominantly for corporate travel bookings. The GDSs also distribute rates to 3rd party websites; so called GDS-powered websites.

GOPPAR (Gross Operating Profit Per Available Room)

Gross operating income of a hotel per available room.

GUI (Graphical User Interface)

General term for graphical desktop or user interface. The GUI (front end) is used to access the database (back end) via the IT application, e.g. the Amadeus Selling Platform GUI is used to access the Amadeus GDS database.