OCTO - Open Connectivity for Tours, Activities and Attractions

?? Welcome, Jagaad! We’re thrilled to have Jagaad join OCTO as a Technology Member, bringing their expertise in API integration to help drive seamless connectivity across the tours, activities, and attractions sector. Looking forward to collaborating and shaping the future of open connectivity together! ??? #OCTO #traveltech

We’re excited to see Bókun implement OCTO connectivity, making it easier for operators and resellers to seamlessly integrate and scale their distribution. Standardized API connections reduce friction, improve efficiency, and open new opportunities for collaboration across the industry. Welcome to the OCTO ecosystem, Bókun! ?? #OCTO #TravelTech

?? Exciting News from OCTO! We are thrilled to welcome Robin Harnish as OCTO’s new Executive Director! ?? Robin is a seasoned executive and industry leader with deep expertise in scaling businesses, leading high-performing teams, and driving strategic growth across both startups and established companies in the Experiences sector. As former VP of Operations at Viator, she saw firsthand the challenges of fragmented integrations across the industry. Her leadership and experience uniquely position her to advance OCTO’s mission—championing standardized APIs that make it easier and more cost-effective for businesses of all sizes to connect, innovate, and grow. In her role as Executive Director, Robin will focus on: ? Expanding OCTO adoption across the industry ? Strengthening support for existing members ? Fostering industry collaboration to drive innovation ? Helping businesses integrate more seamlessly, operate efficiently, and scale sustainably We also want to take a moment to thank Carrie Keplinger for her outstanding leadership as Executive Director. Under her guidance, OCTO has continued to grow and solidify its role in the industry. Carrie has stepped down to pursue an exciting new opportunity at Groupon, where she will be leading the tours and attractions vertical. Carrie will continue to support OCTO’s mission as a member, and we look forward to staying connected with her in this new capacity. Please join us in welcoming Robin as she leads OCTO into its next phase of growth! ?? #OCTO #Connectivity #ToursAndActivities #TravelTech

?? Welcome, Juniper Travel Technology! Great to see Juniper Travel Technology aligning with OCTO standards, helping drive a more connected and efficient future for the tours and activities industry. The #OCTOcommunity is growing! #OCTO #OpenConnectivity #TravelTechnology

We're pleased to officially announce the draft of our new Content Capability in the OCTO API standard specification. This capability will further streamline API connectivity for the attractions and tours sector, allowing operators and resellers to share content more efficiently and onboard new products faster (it's about time!). This was one of the harder projects we've tackled—this past year, we set out to build a "best in class" solution for content, which is one of the most complex elements to map, without overburdening the tech stack. That's not an easy feat. Thank you to the spec committee members for their collaboration on this project - the short list of contributors include Christian Watts (Magpie), Dominic Martinkevic (Ventrata) Ben Smithart (Peek) Jim Fritchman (Gateway Ticketing Systems UK Ltd) Anush Ramani (Xola) Oskar Bruening (Peek) Oliver Morgan (Ventrata) Nemanja Savic (Xola) @Florian Stascheck (Bókun, a Tripadvisor company) Ricky LI (Trip.com Group) Christopher Lovatt (Magpie) Melanie White (Virgin Experience Gifts) @Howard?Zhou (Trip.com Group) Matias Alvarez Capitaine (RhomTrip) & so many other colleagues along the way (apologies for those I missed). We are now taking feedback on the draft, with the input from OCTO members taking priority. ?? Here’s what to expect next: ?January 7 - 14: Member and public review of the content specification draft (currently in motion). ?January 14 - 24: The spec committee will incorporate feedback and finalize the document. ?January 24: The board will vote to ratify the specification, aiming to release it by the first week in February. Members will be able to learn more at our upcoming virtual meeting Jan 21. Join us @ www.octo.travel. Questions? Drop us a line at [email protected]. #OCTO #ContentCapability #Attractions #Tours

OCTO Member Spotlight: Tripster. ?? Thanks for supporting our mission to make connectivity easier and more efficient! ?? Tripster OCTO - Open Connectivity for Tours, Activities and Attractions

?? Welcome Trip.com Group to OCTO!??? We’re excited to announce?Trip.com?Group joining as an official OCTO member! Already leveraging OCTO specs live to connect with attractions and reservation systems,?Trip.com?is now driving innovation by actively contributing to new capabilities like content. The?photos?below?are from the?Trip.com?Group Global Partner Summit in Abu Dhabi, where using OCTO standards to grow your attractions and tours business took the center stage. Welcome, Trip.com?Group! Let’s shape the future of travel together. Learn more about our mission to make connectivity easier and more efficient here ??www.octo.travel

?? Thanks for using OCTO's API standards, Groupon! If you’re in the attractions, tours, or experiences industry, make sure to use OCTO to streamline your API connections.

Welcome to the community, Palisis! Glad you’re here. #octo

?? If you work in the attraction, tour or activities space, then you’ve probably experienced the TEDIOUS process of working with content. Gobs of man hours are spent sharing spreadsheets to update the attraction’s description, details of the offer, hours, etc.(!).?Asset libraries and portals can be just as cumbersome. ?? Well good news, OCTO is here to help! ?? Currently, there are no standards in our sector to organize and streamline content management over an API, but we’re changing that.?We have a mix of experts in the industry working together on the new Content Capability, and a draft is in the works. ?? Want to learn more? Reach out to us at [email protected] or join us at Arival in San Diego on September 30th. ?? Please share this with your marketing, trade, and prod/tech teams - & join OCTO to stay in the know and provide direct feedback. Early shoutout to our current team leads Christian Watts, Dominic Martinkevic, Ben Smithart, & Christopher Lovatt for their ongoing efforts on the first proposed draft, and thanks to Melanie White for a prelim review of it. More to come. ??www.octo.travel #OCTO #OCTOMembership #Attractions #Tours #Experiences #API #ContentIntegration #ArivalSanDiego #TravelTech