Is blockchain tourism’s new hope?

Abstract

Purpose Blockchain is a disruptive technology enabling distributed, encrypted, smart and secure peer-to-peer transactions. The fragmented nature of the tourism industry with a high number of contracts and transactions between several parties has security issues, disputes and delay. Although these motivate the use of blockchain, scholars have barely begun to systematically assess the value proposition of blockchain in the hospitality and tourism industry. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts, opportunities and challenges of blockchain in the tourism and hospitality sector. The authors present early use cases of blockchain in the tourism industry. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted a multiple case-study approach and grounded this study based on the technology acceptance management literature with context-specific variables that are pivotal to the study of this topic. Findings This paper outlines the useful features of blockchain in the tourism industry in seven major streams and raises four future research questions. This review will enable hypotheses to be set out for consumers and producers involved in tourism to uncover potential motives and barriers to embracing blockchain. Research limitations/implications Blockchain is a relatively new technology, and given that all use cases are limited to the proof of concept and have not been fully adopted by the industry, empirical assessment of case studies is not feasible yet. Originality/value As blockchain is becoming more known and used in the tourism industry, there is a need to identify challenges, issues and concerns relevant for this industry moving forward. This paper fulfils this need and provides directions for future research.

Implementation of Blockchain Technology in the Tourism Industry: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Also, tourist destinations can benefit from a digital ledger because it provides an immutable reputation and rating system where review data cannot be removed or altered by fake accounts (Karode, et al, 2020). In such a way, the online review system will increase its reliable thanks to a reputable and immutable information system of a tourist destination (Irannezhad and Mahadevan, 2020). As results BC technology can contribute to: a) obtain costumers true data; b) protect their personal data in a distributed ledger, c) offer a reliable review of a tourist service, and; d) offer empowering costumers by enabling them to own and control their personal information.…”

“…Tourism sector is characterized by a fragmented business nature with a high number of contracts and transactions among several actors, often lead to several security issues, disputes among parties, delay and high cost (Irannezhad and Mahadevan, 2020). The introduction of smart contracts has contributed to decreasing these issued.…”

“…In particular, Tourism Union International (TUI) a German-based travel company using blockchain technology and related cryptocurrencies has implemented a process for their clients to book and pay for their reservations or for obtaining other services (Rashideh, 2020). Moreover, TUI intends to solve other problems such as lack of transparency about the hotel's capacities, different rates at different source markets, manual communications and loss of information, introducing smart contract associate with BC technology (Irannezhad and Mahadevan, 2020). Some others private companies upcoming examples who are introducing this technology are Travelflex, Tripago, Roomdao (Yadav, et al, 2021), CryptoBnB application by AirBnB, UBER (Irannezhad and Mahadevan, 2020), Singapore airline (KrisPay project), Aeron (Karagoz Zeren and Demirel, 2020).…”

“…Since 2014 BC has been applied also in the tourism and hospitality industry with the goal to increase safety and revenues of the stakeholders (Irannezhad and Mahadevan, 2020). The main function of this industry sector is serving travelers.…”

“…Thus, BC could contribute to solve these disadvantages decreasing competition among stakeholders, improving costumer's services and reducing service costs (Rashideh, 2020). Although introduction of BC in the tourist and hospitality industry is still in the early stage its importance is raising so much that only in the first quarter of 2019, 15.4 million of US$ was raised by tourism blockchain-based startups (Irannezhad and Mahadevan, 2020). Some benefits, in fact, including both travel agencies and tourists.…”