South Korea: Where Blockchain Can Penetrate the Travel Industry
Korea Blockchain Week did not just showcase keynotes and meetings, but highlighted the momentum of blockchain innovation in Asia.
Bringing Beyond Blocks to Seoul, Korea Blockchain Week proved to be a very successful event, which wrapped up last week. Beyond Blocks Korea became one of Asia’s most prominent blockchain conferences, with double the amount of participants attending than its previous conference in Tokyo.
The event caught the eyes of many blockchain enthusiasts, as South Korea is known to be one of the most technologically connected societies in the world. In fact, despite the market accounts for only 1% of the population worldwide, it is responsible for 30% of global cryptocurrency trading. The event was seen to open doors for opportunities to accelerate global enablement and proliferation of blockchain technology.
Why South Korea is the Place to Start
International travel is rapidly growing in South Korea, contributing a direct GDP growth of 1.6% in 2017, and is expected to continuously rise by 3.5% until 2028. More than 22 million people (out of total 51 million population in South Korea) are traveling overseas annually, and more than 17 million travelers visit South Korea every year.
South Korea has the fastest internet connections in the world, with 93% of its population online, most, if not all, of which are hyper-connected through social media. This means information travels extremely fast, as did the idea of digital assets and cryptocurrency. The abundance of information-sharing through mass media and social media contributed to accelerating public interest. When Ether broke $1, it created an Ether spending spree, and a huge population of South Korean citizens took full advantage of the new facilities to get into “the next bitcoin” early. In the next 4 months, it proceeded to multiply 40-fold, rising above $40 and cementing massive public interest.
Moreover, South Korea has a reputation for being an early adopter of new technologies. Indeed, tt is much easier to create hype around new technology where internet users are well connected. Through online channels, South Koreans have come to see blockchain technology in a very positive light. Recently in July, South Korea has taken another step towards the legitimization of cryptocurrency with the announcement of a new regulatory initiative that will recognize cryptocurrency exchanges as legal entities or the first time in history.
Passport at Korea Blockchain Week 2018
The Beyond Blocks event caught global attention with twice the amount of participants and visitors than its previous summit in Tokyo. Yet, the Blockchain Week that lasted for five days featured even more events that brought together renowned blockchain pioneers, speakers and attendees.
Phil Yuen, CEO of Passport, was invited as a keynote speaker to announce the project’s vision at Beyond Blocks, as well as hosting a keynote session at Hashed Night in Seoul. It was clear enough that Korea is the city of technology and innovation, and Passport could envision the new travel-blockchain platform in South Korea.
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About Passport
Passport is a blockchain-based solution that aims to allow transparency and remove friction in the travel ecosystem. Through reducing fees occurred in payment processing, network, issuing bank, FOREX, and OTAs and distributed system booking, Passport will effectively lower transaction costs for all participants and incentivize loyalty rewards by aggregating merchants in the travel ecosystem. With instant penetration into worldwide markets, thanks to partnership with handy, Passport will immediately be utilized in handy Travel Wallet and handy Hotel Payment Network, increasing access for the users and establish Passports presence.
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