XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a highly flexible, text-based format used to structure, store, and transport data between different computer systems. In the travel technology sector, XML served as the critical evolutionary bridge between the rigid, legacy constraints of EDIFACT and the dynamic, modern e-commerce experiences of today, serving as the foundational language for hotel distribution, car rentals, and the airline industry’s NDC (New Distribution Capability) standard.
To understand the value of Extensible Markup Language (XML) in travel, you have to look at what it replaced: EDIFACT.
Legacy EDIFACT messaging was designed in the 1980s to be as small as possible (e.g., sending TVL+LHR+JFK). It was incredibly fast but could only handle basic alphanumeric codes. It could not describe a complex product.
XML introduced extensibility — the ability for developers to create their own custom, human-readable tags.
Instead of a cryptic code, an XML message looks like this:
<Flight>
<Origin>LHR</Origin>
<Destination>JFK</Destination>
<Price Currency=”USD”>450.00</Price>
</Flight>
The result is that systems could suddenly transmit detailed, structured information, allowing travel agents to see rich descriptions, cancellation policies, and bundled amenities that were impossible to format in older systems.
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is the structural foundation for two massive standardization efforts in the industry:
While XML is flexible, it is also notoriously heavy or verbose.
Because every piece of data requires an opening and closing tag (like <Price> and </Price>), the file sizes can become quite large. In the travel industry, where a single flight search can trigger thousands of background pricing requests, this heaviness requires immense server power and bandwidth.
Consequently, modern travel tech startups and mobile app developers are aggressively shifting away from XML (Extensible Markup Language) toward JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), which is significantly lighter, faster to parse, and better suited for mobile environments.
No, they speak completely different languages. For a modern XML-based booking engine to communicate with a legacy airline mainframe, the data must pass through a translation layer or parser that converts the XML tags into EDIFACT codes and vice versa.
Yes. SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is a legacy API protocol that relies exclusively on XML for its messaging format. This is why older travel connections are often referred to as SOAP/XML connections.
Not anytime soon. While JSON is the preference for new builds, massive global infrastructures (like the IATA NDC schemas and thousands of hotel channel manager connections) are deeply rooted in XML (Extensible Markup Language). It will remain a dominant data format in B2B travel distribution for years to come.
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