Generating Structured Destination Feeds: Schema for Travel Metadata, Offers, and Loyalty Tips

Stop wasting engineering cycles converting messy travel content — publish a single structured feed that apps and aggregators can consume reliably

Travel publishers in 2026 face a familiar problem: destination pages, loyalty redemption tips, and paid offers live in different systems and formats. Developers integrating that content want a single, well-documented feed that contains destination metadata, offers, and loyalty redemptions — ready to index, map to itineraries, and surface in apps or voice assistants. This guide gives you a practical JSON Schema, sample JSON Feed and XML (RSS/Atom) payloads, validation patterns, and integration tips tailored to late 2025–2026 trends like headless CMS adoption, verifiable credentials for loyalty, and LLM-powered content discovery.

Why a standardized travel feed matters in 2026

• Faster integrations: Aggregators, OTA apps, and news engines can onboard your content with fewer mapping rules.
• Reliable monetization: Structured offers with partner IDs and commission fields reduce disputes and improve conversions.
• Interoperable loyalty: Inclusion of redemption metadata and optional verifiable credentials simplifies digital wallet and app redemptions.
• LLM-ready content: Large models and search agents prefer structured metadata for reliable answers and recommendations.

Design principles for travel feeds

1. Canonical identifiers: Every destination, offer, and loyalty item must include a stable ID (UUID/URN or provider canonical id).
2. Single source of truth: Feed must reflect the canonical, versioned state of the resource (use ETag and updated_at).
3. Explicit versioning: Embed feed_schema_version and feed_version to allow non-breaking evolution.
4. Localized fields: Support language-codes and locale-aware strings for name, description, tips.
5. Privacy & security: Use OAuth 2.0, signed webhooks, and avoid leaking PII in syndicated feeds.
6. Consumable by both humans and machines: Provide JSON Feed first, with RSS/Atom variants for legacy integrators.

Core JSON Schema (summary)

Below is a practical JSON Schema (concise excerpt) you can expand. This schema targets JSON Feed-style items plus a top-level "travel_feed" object that carries semantics for destinations, offers, and loyalty redemptions.

{
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
  "$id": "https://yourdomain.example/schemas/travel-feed-2026.json",
  "title": "Travel Feed v1.0",
  "type": "object",
  "required": ["feed_version","generated_at","items"],
  "properties": {
    "feed_version": {"type":"string"},
    "generated_at": {"type":"string","format":"date-time"},
    "items": {
      "type": "array",
      "items": {"$ref": "#/definitions/item"}
    }
  },
  "definitions": {
    "item": {
      "type": "object",
      "required": ["id","type","title","updated_at"],
      "properties": {
        "id": {"type":"string"},
        "type": {"type":"string","enum":["destination","offer","loyalty"]},
        "title": {"type":"string"},
        "summary": {"type":"string"},
        "updated_at": {"type":"string","format":"date-time"},
        "canonical_url": {"type":"string","format":"uri"},
        "locale": {"type":"string"},
        "tags": {"type":"array","items":{"type":"string"}},
        "destination": {"$ref":"#/definitions/destination"},
        "offer": {"$ref":"#/definitions/offer"},
        "loyalty": {"$ref":"#/definitions/loyalty"}
      }
    },

    "destination": {
      "type":"object",
      "required":["place_id","coordinates","country"],
      "properties":{
        "place_id":{"type":"string"},
        "name":{"type":"string"},
        "coordinates":{
          "type":"object",
          "properties":{
            "lat":{"type":"number"},
            "lon":{"type":"number"}
          }
        },
        "country":{"type":"string"},
        "city":{"type":"string"},
        "categories":{"type":"array","items":{"type":"string"}},
        "best_time":"string",
        "safety_level":{"type":"string"},
        "schema_org":"object"
      }
    },

    "offer": {
      "type":"object",
      "required":["offer_id","price_currency","price_amount"],
      "properties":{
        "offer_id":{"type":"string"},
        "partner_id":{"type":"string"},
        "title":{"type":"string"},
        "description":{"type":"string"},
        "price_currency":{"type":"string"},
        "price_amount":{"type":"number"},
        "expires_at":{"type":"string","format":"date-time"},
        "blackout_dates":{"type":"array","items":{"type":"string","format":"date"}},
        "affiliate_url":{"type":"string","format":"uri"},
        "commission_rate":{"type":"number"}
      }
    },

    "loyalty": {
      "type":"object",
      "required":["program_id"],
      "properties":{
        "program_id":{"type":"string"},
        "program_name":{"type":"string"},
        "redemption_options":{"type":"array","items":{"$ref":"#/definitions/redemption"}},
        "verifiable_credential":{"type":"object"}
      }
    },

    "redemption": {
      "type":"object",
      "properties":{
        "id":{"type":"string"},
        "points_required":{"type":"integer"},
        "cash_value":{"type":"number"},
        "expires_at":{"type":"string","format":"date-time"},
        "instructions":{"type":"string"}
      }
    }
  }
}

Practical JSON Feed sample (travel_feed)

This JSON Feed follows the JSON Feed style (versioning and items array) with a custom travel payload inside each item. Consumers can map to their own models or use the travel namespace directly.

{
  "version": "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1",
  "feed_version": "travel-v1.0",
  "title": "City Guide & Loyalty Feed",
  "home_page_url": "https://publisher.example/",
  "feed_url": "https://publisher.example/feeds/travel.json",
  "generated_at": "2026-01-15T12:00:00Z",
  "items": [
    {
      "id": "dest--uuid-1234",
      "type": "destination",
      "title": "Lisbon, Portugal",
      "summary": "Best neighborhoods, tips, and how to redeem points for city tours.",
      "updated_at": "2026-01-10T09:00:00Z",
      "canonical_url": "https://publisher.example/lisbon",
      "locale": "en-GB",
      "tags": ["europe","city","beaches"],
      "destination": {
        "place_id": "osm:way:12345678",
        "name": "Lisbon",
        "coordinates": {"lat":38.7223,"lon":-9.1393},
        "country":"PT",
        "city":"Lisbon",
        "categories":["city","coastal"],
        "best_time":"April–June",
        "safety_level":"medium",
        "schema_org": {"@type":"City","name":"Lisbon"}
      }
    },

    {
      "id": "offer--uuid-9988",
      "type": "offer",
      "title": "48-hour Lisbon Museum Pass — 20% off",
      "summary": "Museum pass with skip-the-line and affiliate tracking.",
      "updated_at": "2026-01-12T15:30:00Z",
      "canonical_url": "https://publisher.example/offers/lisbon-museum-pass",
      "offer": {
        "offer_id":"offer-9988",
        "partner_id":"museumpass-inc",
        "price_currency":"EUR",
        "price_amount":24.0,
        "expires_at":"2026-06-30T23:59:59Z",
        "affiliate_url":"https://affiliate.example/clk?offer=9988",
        "commission_rate":0.10
      }
    },

    {
      "id":"loyalty--uuid-2026",
      "type":"loyalty",
      "title":"Airline X: Regional Upgrade with Points",
      "summary":"How to redeem 15k points for one-cabin upgrade on transatlantic flights.",
      "updated_at":"2026-01-14T07:00:00Z",
      "canonical_url":"https://publisher.example/loyalty/airline-x-upgrade",
      "loyalty":{
        "program_id":"airx-uk",
        "program_name":"AirX Plus",
        "redemption_options":[
          {"id":"red-1","points_required":15000,"cash_value":250.0,"expires_at":"2026-12-31T23:59:59Z","instructions":"Book eligible fare class and call loyalty desk."}
        ],
        "verifiable_credential": {"type":"VC:loyalty_v1","issued_by":"airx"}
      }
    }
  ]
}

RSS / Atom mapping for legacy consumers

Not all partners will accept JSON. Provide an RSS/Atom endpoint that maps directly from your structured model and exposes the same travel semantics via namespaced elements (XML namespaces help avoid collisions).

<rss version="2.0" xmlns:travel="https://yourdomain.example/ns/travel/2026">
  <channel>
    <title>City Guide & Loyalty Feed</title>
    <link>https://publisher.example/</link>

    <item>
      <title>Lisbon, Portugal</title>
      <link>https://publisher.example/lisbon</link>
      <guid>dest--uuid-1234</guid>
      <pubDate>Fri, 10 Jan 2026 09:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <travel:destination>
        <travel:place_id>osm:way:12345678</travel:place_id>
        <travel:name>Lisbon</travel:name>
        <travel:coordinates>38.7223,-9.1393</travel:coordinates>
        <travel:country>PT</travel:country>
      </travel:destination>
    </item>

  </channel>
</rss>

Validation & CI: keep feeds healthy

Validation should be part of your CI/CD for any content pipeline that publishes feeds.

• Automated JSON Schema validation using ajv (Node.js) or jsonschema validators in other ecosystems.
• Create unit tests for sample items (destination, offer, loyalty) and ensure all required fields are present.
• Lint namespace usage for XML outputs, validate XML against a RelaxNG/XSD when possible.
• Monitor feed freshness with synthetic checks: assert generated_at delta < 24 hours (or your SLA).

Node.js example: ajv validate

import Ajv from 'ajv'
import travelSchema from './travel-feed-2026.json' // schema above

const ajv = new Ajv({allErrors:true})
const validate = ajv.compile(travelSchema)
const feed = JSON.parse(await fetchFeed())

if (!validate(feed)) {
  console.error('Feed validation errors', validate.errors)
  process.exit(1)
}

Best practices for offers and monetization

• Include partner_id, affiliate_url, and commission_rate to simplify downstream reconciliation.
• Provide price_currency (ISO 4217) and price_amount to avoid ambiguity for global consumers.
• Mark blackouts and explicit expires_at for legal clarity; keep both machine timestamps and human-friendly messages.
• Expose tracking pixels and campaign parameters via affiliate_url or analytics fields, but sanitize PII.

Loyalty: expose redemptions and verifiable claims

Modern loyalty integrations benefit from two capabilities: clear redemption metadata and optional verifiable credentials (VCs) that allow wallets/apps to prove eligibility.

• Redemption entries: include points_required, cash_value, instructions, and partner_restrictions.
• VC readiness: publish an optional verifiable_credential object (type, issuer, issuance_date, proof_url). Early 2026 sees pilots using VCs to let apps validate loyalty status without sharing PII; pairing VCs with mobile scanning flows helps front-line teams validate redemptions (voucher scanning).
• Idempotent redemption IDs: provide redemption IDs consumers can reference in confirmations and webhook callbacks.

Delivery & API design

Two common patterns work well in the field:

1. Pull feed endpoints (e.g., GET /feeds/travel.json) with ETag & Last-Modified for caching and delta detection.
2. Push updates via webhooks to registered aggregators (WebSub or custom). Sign webhook payloads using HMAC or JWT for trust.

Recommended HTTP headers

• ETag: "v1:sha256hash" — for cache validation
• Last-Modified: timestamp
• X-Feed-Version: travel-v1.0
• X-RateLimit-Limit / X-RateLimit-Remaining
• Content-Encoding: gzip

Consumer integration: a quick example

App developers typically need a small checklist to integrate quickly:

1. Fetch JSON Feed URL and validate schema.
2. Index destinations by place_id and coordinates; map to internal place dataset (OSM id, Google Place ID).
3. Normalize currency and dates; localize title/summary via locale fields.
4. Match offers by partner_id and track clicks via affiliate_url.
5. For loyalty redemptions, surface instructions and optionally request VC validation through the loyalty issuer.

Minimal consumer code (pseudo)

const feed = await fetchJson('https://publisher.example/feeds/travel.json')
for (const item of feed.items) {
  switch(item.type) {
    case 'destination': renderDestination(item.destination); break
    case 'offer': renderOffer(item.offer); break
    case 'loyalty': renderLoyalty(item.loyalty); break
  }
}

Operational guidance: scale, observability, and governance

• Rate limits & tiers: Publish different endpoints or keys for free partners vs enterprise distributors.
• Analytics: Emit consumption events (feed_hits) with hashed consumer IDs and X-Feed-Request-Id for attribution. Provide partners with a reporting API or S3 export.
• Schema evolution: Use semantic versioning (major.minor.patch) and support feature flags in the feed (e.g., capabilities array) so consumers can adapt.
• Backfill & deltas: Offer a change-log or /changes endpoint returning operations (create/update/delete) for fast syncs.

2026 trends that affect your feed strategy

• Increased adoption of headless CMS and CMS-driven feed generation — expect more publishers to auto-publish structured feeds.
• Verifiable Credentials pilots — loyalty and elite-status proofs will be exchanged as cryptographic tokens rather than raw PII more often in 2026.
• LLMs and agents will consume structured feeds directly to compose itineraries; feeds must provide unambiguous, timestamped metadata.
• Edge compute will enable per-partner personalization at the CDN edge; design feeds for partial responses and selective fields to minimize bandwidth. See our notes on indexing manuals for the edge era for delivery patterns.

"Structured feeds are the connective tissue between publishers and the next generation of travel experiences — from itinerary builders to voice agents."

Migration checklist (publisher)

1. Inventory all destination pages, offers, and loyalty content types.
2. Define canonical IDs and map external place IDs (OSM, IATA, Google Place).
3. Implement the JSON Schema validation and add CI checks to content pipelines.
4. Publish JSON Feed and an RSS/Atom variant (namespaced) for legacy partners.
5. Roll out webhooks for real-time updates and test VC issuance for loyalty flows if applicable.
6. Monitor usage and offer partner dashboards for transactions and analytics.

Troubleshooting common issues

• Missing prices: ensure offers include price_currency and price_amount. Use nulls only when intentionally not provided.
• Mismatched place IDs: include multiple external IDs (osm_id, iata_code, google_place_id) to reduce mapping errors.
• Feed too large: implement pagination or per-topic feeds (e.g., /feeds/lisbon.json, /feeds/offers.json).
• Data drift: keep updated_at for each item and maintain an operations changelog.

Advanced strategies

• Content negotiation: Accept Accept: application/json;profile="travel-v1" to serve compact or enriched payloads.
• GraphQL gateway: Provide a GraphQL layer over the feed for partner-specific queries while maintaining the canonical JSON feed for bulk syncs.
• Async feeds: Use AsyncAPI or WebSub (pub/sub) for large, real-time syndication networks.
• Signed offers: Sign critical offers with issuer keys to prevent tampering and facilitate quick verification by aggregators. For high-traffic APIs, pair signatures and cache strategies with reviews like CacheOps Pro — hands-on to avoid serving stale or tampered data.

Putting it together: sample publishing flow

1. Editor publishes a destination page in headless CMS; CMS triggers webhook to transform content into canonical JSON item.
2. Transformation service validates the item against travel-schema and writes to feed-store.
3. Feed generator updates feed JSON, increments feed_version and pushes ETag change to CDN.
4. Registered aggregators receive WebSub notifications; enterprise partners pull deltas from /changes endpoint or request full feed if out-of-sync.
5. Analytics pipeline records impressions and affiliate clicks for reconciliation and payment settlements.

Actionable takeaways

• Start by publishing a JSON Feed with a clear feed_version and generated_at.
• Include stable place IDs and both machine (ISO) and human (friendly) fields for each destination.
• Expose offers with partner and commission metadata to speed partner onboarding and reconciliation.
• Make loyalty redemptions machine-readable and experiment with verifiable credentials for secure redemptions.
• Validate every change with JSON Schema in CI/CD and provide both JSON and RSS/Atom endpoints for compatibility.

Next steps & call to action

If you publish travel content, start small: convert 10 high-value destinations and 5 offers into the feed schema above and expose a JSON Feed endpoint. Use schema validation in CI and provide an RSS/Atom fallback for legacy partners. If you want a jumpstart, Feeddoc provides tools to generate, validate, and document structured feeds (JSON, RSS/Atom) and to add analytics and webhook management without building the entire pipeline from scratch.

Ready to standardize your travel feeds? Publish a sample feed using the schema in this guide, run automated validation, and invite two partners to test integration this month. Contact Feeddoc or follow our implementation checklist and start syndicating structured destination metadata, offers, and loyalty redemptions that apps and aggregators will love.

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