An enabling Framework for Blockchain in Tourism

Abstract

This viewpoint article proposes an enabling framework that identifies the use of various blockchain technologies in tourism and their applications (digitalization, automation, disintermediation, and intelligent environment) across the different stages of travel (pre-trip, during the trip, and post-trip). As we know, the tourism sector contributes immensely to world GDP and job creation. However, the COVID-19 pandemic, even after two years since it first appeared, continues to adversely impact the tourism prospects of countries across the world due to nationwide lockdowns and travel restrictions. As the world tries to adapt to the “new normal,“ the tourism sector is forced to re-think its ways of doing business and bring about innovations to facilitate the new norms of contactless and safe transactions. Also, the sector, more than ever, need to effectively deal with its inherent challenges such as transparency and credibility of information, fraudulent practices, opportunistic behavior of intermediaries, and foreign currency risks. Blockchain technology can transform the tourism sector by offering innovative solutions that address its pressing issues. However, our current understanding of blockchain application in tourism is quite limited, with previous work being largely fragmented and narrow in terms of both scope and application. We foresee that the insights offered in this viewpoint, including the framework, will advance both theory and practice and facilitate the implementation of blockchain-enabled solutions across different travel stages.

Blockchain revolution in the tourism industry: A semi-systematic literature review

“…This technology also facilitates the control of the actors in the process and can influence the relationships between them. For example, it can efficiently monitor travellers (Narayan et al, 2022), analysing the willingness travellers (Strebinger & Treiblmaier, 2022b), or it can be used to analyse consumer satisfaction (Raluca, 2022) increasing the trust of the user (Leal et al, 2022) or improving the tourist experiences (Balasubramanian et al, 2022). Based on the proportion of informationsensitive consumers and the cost of adopting blockchain technology, it analyses the optimal pricing strategy and information disclosure quality of an online-to-offline tourism supply chain in different cooperative situations.…”

Metaverse customer journeys in tourism: building viable virtual worlds

“…A significant advantage of the metaverse is that it provides credible information (Balasubramanian et al, 2022). Consumers are enduring the consequences of information pollution on social media for an extended period, with intentional (fake news and claims) and unintentional contamination.…”

Blockchain of things (BoT) innovation for smart tourism

“…BoT technology will be one of the important driving mechanisms in the tourism industry. Consequently, its reliability to share access to information across countries needs to be enhanced, Balasubramanian et al (2022) has proposed that blockchain technology will be used in a wide range of tourism and applications in different stages of travel including before during and after the trip (Suanpang et al, 2023). This will lead to changes in tourist behavior in using blockchain in tourism after the COVID-19 pandemic in many dimensions as follows: The pandemic has fueled a growing interest in sustainable and responsible travel, with blockchain technology offering solutions for tracking and verifying sustainability metrics (The Enterprisers Project, 2019).…”

“…BoT technology will be one of the important driving mechanisms in the tourism industry. Consequently, its reliability to share access to information across countries needs to be enhanced, Balasubramanian et al (2022) has proposed that blockchain technology will be used in a wide range of tourism and applications in different stages of travel including before during and after the trip (Suanpang et al, 2023).…”