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ObjectiveAlthough
standardization initiatives have a long history in the field of tourism, due to
a lack of flexibility and extendibility the intended broad harmonization of
electronic trading has never been reached. Instead of fix standardization, more
flexible approaches for harmonizing electronic tourism markets are needed. The
objective of the IFITT Reference Model Special Interest Group (IFITT RMSIG) is
the harmonization of electronic tourism markets in an open and flexible manner,
based on a reference model. The main purpose of the IFITT RMSIG is
bringing together the different market participants and domain experts to ensure
a broad acceptance of the reference model. The
reference model, provided by the IFITT RMSIG, is a framework for modeling
electronic tourism markets. Instead of fix standardization, the reference model
enables the flexible description of specific models, based on a common modeling
language and standardized building blocks as vocabulary. The purpose of the
reference model is to enable the description of specific models for specific
standards or data exchange formats in a form understandable by other market
participants and enable a mapping between different standards. Suppliers
of tourism services or brokers within the tourism market can use the reference
model to describe their specific standards or data exchange formats which can be
understood and used by other market participants. In this way, not only new but
also existing standards or data exchange formats can be integrated into one open
electronic tourism market. The usage of the reference model for modeling electronic tourism markets offers the following advantages:
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