The essential glossary for tourism experts

Hear ye, hear ye! Travel experts in the making! After providing you with advice destined to help you become a travel agent and earn six figures, we knew the next logical step was to gear you up with a list of acronyms any travel expert should have direct access to in order to smoothly navigate the industry, whether you wish to work for a travel agency, become an independent travel agent, specialize in MICE, Groups or FITs… We therefore came up with the best glossary for travel related jobs!

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Fancy expanding your knowledge? Let's go!

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A

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ADR : The Average Daily Rate measures the average rental revenue earned for an occupied room per day.

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AEA : Association of European Air Lines.

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ARNK : It stands for Arrival Unknown. An ARNK is added to a reservation when there is a break in the itinerary and continuity is not recognized. It does count as a segment when ticketing.

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ATB : The  Automated Ticket & Boarding Pass is IATA’s standard transportation ticket combined with a boarding pass which features a magnetic strip containing passenger and journey details.

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B

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B&B : We all heard of Bed & Breakfasts. It is usually a small lodging establishment that offers overnight accommodation and breakfast.

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BAR : Stands for Best Available Rate and is a pricing mechanism used by hotels and hotel chains which sets prices by forecasting them.

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C

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CRS : A Central Reservation System is designed for the hospitality sector – and in particular for hotel operations – to manage room availability and rates.

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CTA : Are you a Certified Travel Agent? In some countries, like in France, training, although very useful, is not necessary to become a travel agent (read our article on the matter). Nevertheless, you still need to get certified in order to be able to work.

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CTP : A CTP, or Certified Tour Professional, is considered the hallmark of professional competency and excellence in the packaged travel industry.

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D

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DMC : Simply put, a Destination Management Company is a travel agency which specializes in organizing trips for small or large groups traveling for corporate purposes. Several DMCs already trust Ezus’ solution. Book a free demo to know how we can help.

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DMO : The Destination Marketing Organization is an organization which promotes a location as an attractive travel destination. DMOs are also known as tourist boards, tourism authorities, Offices du Tourisme in France or "Convention and Visitors Bureau".

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E

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E.C.T.A.A. : ECTAA’s (European Community Travel Agents' Association) activities range from European Union policy affairs (tourism policy, consumer protection, visa policy, standards, etc.) and IATA matters to destination matters (promotion of selected destinations, dealing with destination issues, such as health and safety, travel restrictions, etc.).

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EMD : An Electronic Miscellaneous Document is an electronic non-flight document that may be issued and used for optional services offered by an airline. These services are also referred to as “ancillary services” and can include such options as preferred seating, baggage, etc.

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eTA : The Electronic Travel Authorization is an entry requirement for visa-exempt foreign nationals traveling to, or transiting to a country, usually by air. 

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ETD : Also known as Estimated Time of Departure, the ETD is the projection of time that is expected for a transport system to depart its point of origin/location. Also, it is an indicated time to start a particular trip/journey. You may also come across it as Expected Time of Departure.

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F

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FAM : FAM stands for “familiarization” trip. Travel media, tour operators and Travel agents are brought to specific locations in order to experience what the destination has to offer first-hand.

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FIT : FIT originally was short for "Foreign Independent Travel," or leisure trips abroad without an escort or fixed package structure. Today, FIT usually refers to "Flexible Independent Travel" - the components of the itinerary might resemble a package, but it is actually custom-built for the traveler.

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G

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GDS : A Global Distribution System is a online network system owned or operated by a company that enables transactions between travel agencies, independent travel agents and travel industry service providers such as airlines, hotels or car rental companies. Amadeus, Sabre, Galileo+Worldspan, are today the main players in this industry. While the first, of French origin, is largely dominant in France, where it is used by nearly 80% of travel agencies, Sabre, Galileo and Worldspan are much more present in the USA and other Anglo-Saxon countries.

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I

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IATA : The International Air Transport Association is the trade association for approximately 290 airlines, which represents 83% of total air traffic. 

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IET : An Interline E-Ticketing is an interline agreement between airlines that allow e-ticketing on each other’s flights. It is essential for service cooperation in areas such as: baggage transfer services, or for guaranteed connection times.

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L

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LFR : The Lowest Fare Routing refers to the least expensive airfare available to a destination.

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LRA : The Last room availability is a contract between a company and a hotel. It guarantees that the hotel will sell their rooms to the company at the contracted price, regardless of how many rooms are left.

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M

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MICE : MICE is an acronym that stands for Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions. It makes up a big part of global business travel.

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MLOS : The Length Of Stay (LOS) is a key parameter in destination management. The Minimum Length of Stay is the amount of time a traveler has to stay at a hotel or other place of hospitality in order to see its booking confirmed. And obviously, since there is a “minimum”, the contrary also exists...

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N 

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N/S: A No-show occurs when an expected person does not arrive or appear somewhere they were expected to be. Airlines attempt to reduce losses caused by no-shows by overbooking, or implementing no-show penalty charges.

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O

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OCC : The Occupancy Rate will show what percentage of your available rooms you’ve sold on a given date or over a specific period. It’s one of the main KPIs used by hotels to measure their performance.

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P

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PAX : In the tourism and travel industry, PAX refers to passengers, travelers, or occupants. 

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PTA : The Prepaid Ticket Advice is an authorization permitting the issuance of a ticket at a location other than the point of payment. It can involve domestic or international reservations.

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R 

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RevPAR : The Revenue Per Available Room is used to assess a hotel’s ability to fill its available rooms at an average rate. If a property’s RevPAR increases, that means the average room rate or occupancy rate is increasing. RevPAR is important because it helps hoteliers measure the overall success of their hotel.
There are two formulas you can use to calculate RevPAR:

Rooms Revenue / Rooms Available OR Average Daily Rate x Occupancy Rate.

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RFP : A Request for Proposal, also known as RFQ (Request for Quotation) is a document that a company will post to elicit a response from TMCs (Travel Management Company).

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S

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SSR : A Special Service Request (SSR) is a message sent directly to suppliers to communicate traveler preferences, special services needed by a traveler, or of a procedural requirement necessary of the carrier.

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T

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TA: Travel agent... That’s probably you! Yes 💗 If not, in the near future. If not, then just you being here tells us you worked with one at least once, or plan on doing so.

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U

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UNTWO : The leading international organization in the field of tourism, UNWTO promotes tourism as a driver of economic growth, inclusive development and environmental sustainability and offers leadership and support to the sector in advancing knowledge and tourism policies worldwide.

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V 

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VAT : This one we all know. The Value Added Tax is a tax payable on sales of goods or services, ultimately payable by the final consumer. Each country or economic union of countries may apply different taxes. 

We talked a little bit about how one should manage the VAT of a travel agency here.

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W

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WTTC : We already talked about the World Travel & Tourism Council in our article about The Best Associations in the Tourism Industry. Have a look at it!

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Obviously, as a travel expert, it will be useful to know a few World Airports Codes, most of them being three letters. 

Most renowned ones are: JFK (New York John F. Kennedy), CDG (Paris Charles De Gaulle), LHR (London Heathrow), NRT (Tokyo Narita) or less known one such as VIE (Vienna’s Flughafen Wien-Schwechat) or LBV (Libreville International Airport).

All codes are assigned and administered by IATA.

Know any we can add to the list? Let’s discuss on our social media pages.

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