How could the Bolockchain Technology affect the future of Tourism

When we are doing transactions via a bank or any financial institution, there are some disadvantages that we all face. During transactions an amount of the value is kept as a transaction fee. Sometimes this could be a relatively high percentage. Adding more of a burden, there is the risk of hackers, who could do transactions on your behalf or do transactions through illegitimate access.

This is when during the global financial crisis in 2008 cryptocurrency was introduced as a way for people to take control of their own money, without having to depend on companies, banks, or governments and their fees and controls. Cryptocurrency is an exchange medium just like USD, the difference is the use of encryption to control the monetary unit creation and verifying the transfer of funds. . Bit-coin is the most widely known cryptocurrency and this is the one for which blockchain technology was introduced.

A blockchain is a decentralized ledger of all transactions across a peer to peer network. In this technology participants are able to confirm the transactions without the involvement of any intermediate central clearing authority.

How can the blockchain technology transform the tourism?

Blockchain technology is bound to impact the way people travel. Altogether it would be a new experience for the tourists when they are booking travel tickets and the hotel rooms using the latest technology.

. The use of digital technologies like blockchain in tourism will only help in expanding the sector further. Many companies have realized the potential benefits of blockchain and have applied the technology at their workplace.

Global tourism market crossed USD 8 trillion in 2017 and it is predicted to reach USD 11.38 trillion by 2025 with year on year growth rate of 4.7%. A lot of companies across the world have realized the benefits of using the blockchain technology and have adapted it at their work place.

How the blockchain technology is utilized in the tourism industry?

It can also help prevent over boarding of flights. Payments for the services can be made quickly and securely using blockchain methods. Thus, it enables faster checkout during transactions.

The main application of blockchain in the tourism industry is making secure and traceable payments. Booking flight tickets is relatively easy in these present, but it could be made further simplified with the blockchain based methods. There is an open-source distribution ecosystem that goes by the name Winding Tree and it could be used in the process of booking flight and hotel tickets. It is reported that the transaction costs of consumers using the blockchain facility for ticket bookings has been drastically reduced by 20%. Arirline companies like Air New Zealand have already adopted the blockchain technology for their business and according to their feedback the ticket sales process have become less complicated. This could be used to prevent the over boarding of flights. You can make quick and secure payments using the blockchain methods. That is how these methods support faster checkouts during the transactions.

Blockchain allows the payments to be done directly between the two parties involved rather than relying on digital payment methods which use third- party payment apps. Now you realize how this technology could be the beginning of the end for payment merchants. We should not be surprised if the blockchain technology mark the end for payment gateway companies like Visa and MasterCard in the near future. Using third party apps like Expedia to get the best deal and standing on queues for verification in airports might not be a part of the future with blockchain technology. Companies like Uber and Lyft will assist the technology to move forward. The payments will be completed much faster when you use this technology even when you use autonomous cab services. The amount to be paid is automatically reduced from the user’s digital currency and that is how transactions are completed.

If the governments think wisely and adapt the blockchain technology in their sector, they could provide way more secure and quicker experience for the people who are using public modes of transportation. Introduction of blockchain and AI technologies will cause the physical rail and bus ticket to vanish. One database would map a user’s travel across all modes of services used by the customer. When using this technology payments could be easily made according to the user’s choice, be it daily or monthly.

All public transportation services will make use of a single identification and payment method. The governments could regulate the private transportation sector by introducing them the blockchain system.

Blockchain can keep the full stop for the physical contracts. The physical documents would be replaced by the digital ones. The digital contracts you sign would save the time and would come in handy in case of a dispute. The customer can use a digital copy of the agreement for understanding and analyzing the terms and conditions included by the service provider.

Identification of the customer

For the security reasons, it is a must for the immigration officers to verify the identity of each and every foreign tourist. Blockchain technology is capable of changing the whole way of traveler verification. The current procedure is such that, a traveler has to get his identity verified at multiple stages including check-ins and immigrations and this consumes a lot of time. When you adapt the blockchain technology for the tourism industry, it will save you plenty of time as it could reduce the time spent for customer verification at immigration, check-in times at hotels and long queues at embassies. There is a possibility for the passport to go away if the regulators adapt blockchain in their tourism industry. Somehow, this seems bit tough as it will be difficult for the major nations to apply the blockchain technology. There is a digital identity platform build on blockchain named “ShoCard” which could authenticate people without usernames and passwords. The system is safe as there is no centralized database and hence could not be hacked by anyone.

Baggage management

This is quite critical. We have heard of numerous instances of misappropriation of baggage. Loss of baggage and their mishandling has become a concern for the airlines. The international baggage goes from one hand to another several times during the transportation. The luggage could get misplaced in transit owing to human mistake. Blockchain and other technologies could be used to misappropriation of baggage, the AI and sensor technologies will help you determine the luggage location in case it gets misplaced. You can attach sensors to your bags that could track the location even if the luggage get misplaced. This is how utilizing the blockchain technology in tourism for baggage management solves the baggage loss issue prevalent in the industry.

Customer rewards system

A strategy used by the Travel service providers to encourage the returning customers is running loyalty schemes. If you apply the blockchain technology here, the customers could be apply to redeem their loyalty rewards without much hassle to use them in future travel. At the same time this eliminates the need of a third-party mediator platform. “Trippki” is a service which uses a loyalty reward system for their customers. Customers are provided with crypo tokens when they stay in hotels. The tokens gets permanently recorded in the blockchain and used in future transactions. In simple words, the usage of blockchain in the field of tourism are helping the companies to retain their customers and to increase their profits. There is hardly any question about security as field as the blockchain data cannot be manipulated.

Transparent business ratings

The current trend is that people read reviews and check the forums before travelling. But their accuracy is questionable as many business are getting paid reviews for themselves and some are using fake ones. As the competition increases the businesses get more inclined to use these fraudulent strategies. The user experience could be completely different from what has been in the reviews. This reduces the customers trust on online reviews. In a blockchain, the data is highly secure and transparent. Hence the user may not get disappointed and it will not damage the consumer trust and transparency.