FAQs
Answers to your questions
Isn’t this just another booking website?
No. The Tourism Exchange is a whole new facility for the tourism industry. It is a business-to-business exchange. It is not for consumers. Imagine something like the telephone exchange combined with a tourism expo. One that’s online and open all day, every day. It is a common, neutral marketplace, connecting New Zealand-based tourism providers with national and global distributors. The distributors (both online and traditional) then on-sell your inventory to their customers.
I’m only a small operator. Should I be on the Exchange?
Absolutely. Tourism Exchange is designed to give distributors access to all New Zealand tourism services, from the smallest B&B to the largest hotels. Distributors are looking for niche products in New Zealand. But that’s often been difficult and expensive to source and book. Tourism Exchange will make it easy for distributors to do business with you.
What about large operators? Don’t they already have their distribution channels in place?
Those channels don’t have to change. What Tourism Exchange can do is centralise their channel access. Integrating with Tourism Exchnage allows you to manage and organise your inventory and deliver it automatically to multiple distribution channels with one integration. And, of course, it will give large operators new opportunities with other distribution channels.
What if I’m already listed on a booking website?
Tourism Exchange is simply a central place on the internet where all the industry participants can trade with each other. It isn’t a booking website. Or a booking engine. It’s not a channel manager or an allocation management system. But it deals with all these tools of the industry. So even if you’re already listed on booking websites or have agreements with certain distributors, you can carry on with these arrangements as well as participating on the Tourism Exchange.
What do I do about the allocations I’ve contracted to supply to booking websites?
You can carry on with those. But with the real-time system on the Exchange, allocations can become a thing of the past. You’ll be able to offer every room available to every booking site you use. As rooms are booked, the booking is managed through Tourism Exchange and the new availability is automatically updated to all the sites you distribute through.
What if I don’t have a live reservation management system?
All products and services on the Exchange must be available as live, real-time inventory. If you don’t currently have a reservation management system that handles inventory in real time, we can help you to evaluate your options. We can even offer you a system called Eviivo Frontdesk. It's an easy to use, affordable reservation management system that is already fully integrated with the Exchange.
How do I get the real-time system?
The main reservation and booking management systems in New Zealand will be progressively connected to Tourism Exchange. If you’re using a system that’s already integrated, all you’ll need to do is complete the Participation Pack and Agreement, and we can activate your account. You can then carry on using your existing system which will automatically connect to the exchange.
If you don’t have a reservation management system, you can arrange to install the Tourism Exchange system, Eviivo Frontdesk. It’s an off-the-shelf style, affordable reservation management system that provides instant access to the Exchange.
