JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight, text-based data interchange format designed to be easy for humans to read and write and incredibly fast for machines to parse and generate. In the travel technology ecosystem, it is known as the modern replacement of XML. JSON is used as the standard data language for the implementation of the so-called RESTful APIs, mobile travel apps, and next-generation booking engines, which require high-speed and low-latency communication.
To understand why and how JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is dominant in the modern world, one has to look at the problem that it solved — bandwidth and processing cost.
In the case of the travel industry, hundreds of background queries can be triggered by a single customer that might be searching for Flights from NYC to LON from different airlines. When these queries were expressed in XML, the information was heavy and verbose, because every bit of information needed an open and closed tag.
By removing the cumbersome tags and using simple brackets and commas, programmers drastically reduced the payload size of a message. When multiplied by millions of search requests a day, this lightweight structure saves travel companies immense amounts of server computing power and bandwidth costs.
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is the native language of the modern web and mobile applications.
When a traveler opens the Airbnb or Uber app on his or her smartphone, the app communicates with the central servers using REST APIs formatted in JSON. Because smartphones have limited processing power and often operate on unstable cellular networks (3G/4G/5G), data needs to be sent as fast and efficiently as possible. With JSON, these mobile apps are able to load live prices, interactive maps, and rich images of properties seamlessly without affecting the battery and data plan of the device.
While legacy airlines and older hotel Central Reservation Systems (CRS) are still deeply entrenched in XML (through standards like NDC or OpenTravel), the newer generation of travel tech players (such as modern aggregators like Duffel, Impala, and short-term rental managers) build their entire infrastructure API-first, using only JSON.
Eventually, but it will be a very long transition. For new software builds, mobile applications, and modern REST APIs, JSON is the language of choice. However, massive legacy frameworks such as IATA NDC (New Distribution Capability) were initially developed on XML schemas, which means XML will continue to be a basis for B2B pipelines for many years.
Yes. JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) uses nested objects and arrays to organize complex data. A single JSON file can easily have a nested array for a flight, another for a hotel, and another for a rental car, so it’s perfectly suited for dynamic packaging.
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