Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP®) announced today that it is a sponsor of the 2016 OpenTravel Alliance Advisory Forum. The event provides an opportunity for technology leaders from numerous verticals of the travel industry to connect. Air, hotel, car rental, cruise line, rail, leisure and more will be represented. The Advisory Forum is at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando, Florida from May 16-19, 2016.

"HFTP is proud to sponsor the 2016 OpenTravel Advisory Forum," said HFTP CEO Frank Wolfe, CAE. "OpenTravel continues to develop and maintain interoperability for disparate travel systems, and HFTP is happy to provide any assistance necessary to create a better industry for our members."

The 2016 Advisory Forum will provide keynotes and panels to prepare attendees for technology changes in the travel industry, including topics such as the digital marketplace, semantic search and the API economy. The Forum will also include workshops and OpenTravel's first Hackathon Lite, offering hands-on experience with the OpenTravel 2.0 object-oriented model.

"Nowhere else do you have the opportunity to connect and collaborate with some of the travel industry's top technology companies and distributors," said Greg Poirier, OpenTravel Alliance executive director. "We are grateful for our strong partnership with HFTP as we continue to improve business processes and transactions in the world of hospitality and travel."

Earlier this year HFTP announced an agreement to assist OpenTravel Alliance with its 2.0 Object Oriented Platform in the lifestyle development areas of golf and spa. HFTP will provide assistance via its global network of members, industry research centers, conferences and global electronic distribution channels.

To register for the OpenTravel 2016 Advisory Forum, visit http://www.opentravel.org/Activities/Default.aspx. To book hotel reservations, visit www.mydisneymeetings.com/opentravel.

About HFTP

HFTP, founded in 1952 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, USA with additional offices in Maastricht, The Netherlands, and Kowloon, Hong Kong, is the global professional association for financial and technology personnel working in hotels, clubs and other hospitality-related businesses. HFTP provides first class educational opportunities, research, and publications to members around the globe including, the premiere hospitality technology conference HITEC – founded in 1972. HFTP also awards the only hospitality specific certifications for accounting and technology – the Certified Hospitality Accountant Executive (CHAE) and the Certified Hospitality Technology Professional (CHTP) designations. HFTP also owns the world's only hospitality specific search engine, PineappleSearch.com. HFTP was founded in the USA as the National Association of Hotel Accountants. For more info, e-mail [email protected].

About OpenTravel

OpenTravel is a not-for-profit trade association, founded in 1999 by travel companies, with a primary focus on the creation of electronic message structures to facilitate communication between the disparate systems in the global travel industry. At the dawn of today's online consumer direct bookings, OpenTravel created the necessary messaging standards to enable the power that direct bookings for consumers have become today.

OpenTravel is comprised of member companies representing airlines, car rental companies, hotels, cruise lines, railways, leisure suppliers, service providers, tour operators, travel agencies, solutions providers, technology companies, and distributors. OpenTravel members identify message standards, prioritizing project work and creating messages. Tens of thousands of OpenTravel message structures are in use, carrying tens of millions of messages between trading partners every day.

For more information on OpenTravel membership, new products or projects, as well as the 2016 Advisory Forum, please visit www.opentravel.org or email [email protected].

Jessica Blankenship
Public Relations Manager
HFTP