Blockchain Collaboration in the Travel Industry Between Vista Tourism and Further Network

Vista — the leading travel agency in Turkey, which is focused on corporate sales, and the representative of Carlson Wagonlit Travel* in the country; will collaborate with Further Network — a Blockchain based P2P ecosystem for the travel industry.

*Carlson Wagonlit Travel is one of the leading global travel management companies; offering services in 150 countries.

The Scope of the Collaboration

Vista aims to be one of the first travel agencies to adapt to Blockchain technologies. In their collaboration with Further Network; Vista will be testing the use-cases of Further Network’s Blockchain-based settlement and payment process from a travel agency’s perspective. This is an important step for both parties as this collaboration will set a milestone for the future of Blockchain in travel.

The scope of the test will be the use of STR (Smart Travel Record)* and making/receiving payments via Aton (Further Network’s digital currency, which is based on Stellar).

*STR is an enhanced form of smart token consisting of flight, hotel or any other reservation or any other travel product information.

What is Going to be Achieved with this Collaboration?

A travel agency works with various accounts. IATA (International Air Transport Association) is one of the biggest ones, as it is the regulatory association for more than 250 airlines. But each non-IATA airline is another account and adds more to handle for the agencies. In some cases, even IATA-member airlines require the travel agencies to keep their accounts separate for specific inventories (i.e. domestic flights in a specific country). An agency has to deposit different sums of money into these accounts as down-payment each month. This is the common standard of how the industry handles the trust between the airlines and the agencies.

From the travel agencies’ perspective, this system imposes a financial burden and risk, since they can’t transfer money from one account to another, because it is blocked by the corresponding party for the whole month. And even at the end of the down-payment period, there may still be some disputes from sales that occured weeks ago. This basically means the money can not be cleared for anyone to use. With Further Network, billing and settlement is going to happen at the same time. This means, instead of trying to fill sales quotas towards their down-payments with each account, agencies will be able to close a sale-case literally within minutes and move on to the next one. This system also minimises disputes, since settlements are made at the same time with the payments.

And for the airlines, a transaction and settlement process takes up to 45 days in addition to the extra fees and deposits (application fees, participation deposits, membership fees, annual fees) that airlines undertake. Instant settlement & payment enables airlines to receive their money in seconds instead of months, without the high transaction fees.

With this collaboration and more to come between travel companies and Further Network; the main goal is to deploy a Blockchain based reliable system that will handle real-time billing and settlements. Travel agencies will be able to manage their finances with a single account, invest as much as they want whenever they want. And the airlines will bypass the long awaiting periods and extra costs and they will receive their money in seconds, with intermediary costs being reduced by more than 60%.

Kadir Özgür Oğuz- Co-Founder & CEO of Further Network said:

“With our P2P collaboration technology, it is possible for the travel agencies to reclaim the control of their cash. The issues caused by the current trust-management process between airlines and travel agencies are being solved by our Smart Contract, which allows real-time transactions that also keeps disputes down”

About Vista

Founded in 1989, Vista is one of the largest scale travel management companies in Turkey with 201 employees and is among Turkey’s top 500 companies

Being the representative of Carlson Wagonlit Travel in Turkey, Vista focuses on corporate sales, and provides high service standards in addition to efficient and reliable services, globally.

About Further Network

Further Network is a technology company, who introduces Blockchain technology to the travel industry; aiming to solve the Billing, Settlement, and Payment (BSP) issues while removing the 3rd parties and completing BSP in real-time.

Further Network’s technology enables a faster and customizable ticketing and travel experience for Airlines, Agencies, Hotel Wholesalers and travel product issuers as well as travelers.

Visit Further Network website and join Further Network on Telegram and never miss the latest updates!