Travel suppliers and distributors: how does the world of travel distribution work?

Behind every flight booked or holiday sold by an agency lies a dense ecosystem of suppliers, intermediaries and interconnected technologies. Airlines, GDSs, tour operators, bedbanks, DMCs, travel tech platforms: they all contribute to the fluidity of travel distribution.

For travel agents, understanding this architecture has become essential. In an increasingly digitalized market, performance depends as much on the quality of advice as on mastery of the tools and connections that structure the offer.

Table of content

• What is travel distribution?
• Travel agents at the heart of a much broader ecosystem
• DIGITRIPS in the travel retail ecosystem

What is travel distribution?

What’s travel distribution?

Travel distribution – or tourism distribution – refers to all the players, technologies and channels used to market tourism services to travelers.

For Digital Director and tourism expert Frédéric Pilloud, travel distribution is“an industry that implements global booking systems that act as intermediaries between travelers and suppliers, such as hotels, flights, transfers and other travel-related services. “

Travel distribution plays a central role in the tourism industry: it acts as a link between suppliers (airlines, hotels, local service providers), technological intermediaries and distributors, of which travel agents are a part.

Its objective is clear: to make the offer accessible, legible and bookable in real time.
Prices, availability, product content, conditions: everything must be structured to facilitate sales and optimize the booking process.

What services are covered by travel distribution?

Travel distribution centralizes a wide range of products enabling professionals to build complete and personalized stays:

• Flights (and other transport: train, bus)
• Accommodation
• Transfers and mobility solutions (cars, coaches, private jets, etc.)
• Car rental
• Travel insurance
• Activities, excursions and services at destination

This centralized approach enables travel agents to design customized, competitive and coherent offers, while improving operational efficiency.

Travel agents at the heart of a much broader ecosystem

A sector that goes far beyond travel agencies

Travel distribution is not limited to travel agencies. Every travel agent operates within a complex, interconnected ecosystem.

Behind a simple search or quote lies a complete chain of players: suppliers, aggregators, technology connectors, platforms, institutional partners. The famous roadshows of the tourism world facilitate exchanges between the various players.

This architecture remains invisible to the end traveler, but it is essential to the performance of tourism professionals.

Which players are travel agents connected to?

In their day-to-day work, travel agents interact, directly or indirectly, with many key players:

• Airlines, which distribute their content via GDS, direct connections or NDC (New Distribution Capability).
• GDSs (Global Distribution Systems) like Amadeus, which centralize the airline offer.
• Bedbanks or wholesellers, who provide access to B2B hotel inventories.
• Destination Management Companies (DMCs), local destination operators.
• Tour operators, who design and package offers for resale by agencies.
• Tourist Offices, which facilitate collaboration between destinations and distributors.
• Travel Tech intermediaries, who connect, aggregate and structure content.
• OTAs (Online Travel Agencies), major players in digital distribution.
• Supplementary service providers: insurance, mobility, additional services.

They all contribute to a smooth booking process.
The challenge? Getting these systems to communicate with each other reliably, quickly and efficiently.

DIGITRIPS in the travel retail ecosystem

What role does DIGITRIPS play in travel distribution?

In an environment marked by content fragmentation, the rise of NDC and the multiplication of connectivity standards, DIGITRIPS provides a technological orchestration layer.

Its role: to structure and unify access to the offer, without friction.

With DIGITRIPS Proa booking platform dedicated to travel agents, the Group connects agencies to a large ecosystem of suppliers – airlines, accommodation providers, tour operators, DMCs, insurers – via a unified, high-performance technological solution.

DIGITRIPS Pro simplifies :

• multi-source research,
• comparison of offers,
• reservation,
• post-sales management.

Complementing the agencies’ ERP and business tools, the platform enables professionals to gain in efficiency, visibility and competitiveness, while retaining control of their customer relationships.

An ecosystem of interconnected partners: airlines and destinations

Travel distribution relies on collaboration and the quality of connections established between players.

DIGITRIPS is developing strategic partnerships with airlines and destinations to enrich its content and bring more value to travel agents.

Air Canada, Air Europa, Air France, Lufthansa and many other airlines are part of this ecosystem.
At the same time, DIGITRIPS collaborates with Tourism Offices and partner destinations through marketing campaigns, workshops and professional events such as theIFTM.

These partnerships reinforce the quality of our offer, the depth of our inventory and the commercial relevance of our products for agencies.

Travel distribution is a complex ecosystem, structured around multiple players, technologies and connections.

At the heart of this architecture, the travel agent remains the privileged point of contact with the end customer.

DIGITRIPS, through its solution universes – DIGITRIPS Pro, DIGITRIPS Tech and DIGITRIPS Partners – intervenes at different levels of the distribution chain.
Our ambition: to simplify technological complexity, structure access to content and provide sustainable support for tourism professionals in a constantly evolving European market.