Top 5 Companies Using Blockchain to Change the Travel Industry

• Toshendra Kumar Sharma
• January 03, 2020

A large group of people today are excited about the various ways in which blockchain technology will transform the travel industry for the better. One of the main reasons for this excitement is the myriad of companies that are involved in a single customer’s travel plans. Being the disruptive technology it is, blockchain has the potential to greatly improve the overall travel experience by allowing consumers to interact with service providers directly. We can confidently say the process is already underway given the fact that many technology startups and multinational corporations have started developing blockchain solutions across a wide range of industry use cases.

In this article, we will throw light on the top 5 companies that are playing a major role in establishing blockchain’s place in the industry.

Companies Transforming the Travel Industry

The following are some of the notable companies that are working to improve the key aspects of the travel ecosystem.

1. Cool Cousin

Cool Cousin was launched in Tel Aviv in 2016 and is being used today by more than 500,000 travellers across the globe. Through the curated travel experience that it offers, it aims to act as a better alternative for tourists. Identifying the potential attractions and highlights of a region is a big part of a traveller’s planning process. Though popular travel websites such as TripAdvisor and Lonely Planet offer a certain amount of travel guidance, they are affected by certain issues that stem from the lack of profit-oriented models and transparency.

The blockchain-based ecosystem of the company offers an accountable and authentic tour opportunity for its users by incentivizing local guides to monetize their local knowledge. The feedback and rating systems of the application are reliable as it is based on blockchain. It offers a CUZ Token where the value flows between the users and is not extracted by intermediaries along the chain. This is due to the decentralized nature of blockchain.

2. Sandblock

In the hypercompetitive tourism and travel sector, loyal rewards have gone through several iterations, but the most recent project in this sphere offers a real departure with the help of blockchain technology. A majority of the frequent travellers belong to hotel and airline loyalty programs. Though the rates of participation in loyalty programs are high, a lot of customers are willing to accept better deals from competing for service providers and carriers if the price is reasonable.

Sandblock is a new entrant that is looking to transform the loyalty landscape with its blockchain platform. The system allows travel providers to create their personal loyalty tokens that can be used like real coins and exchanged for fiat and brand-specific rewards.

Customers can use these tokens to redeem rewards and can also earn more by being an active participant. It helps businesses by providing better data and transparency and an ecosystem that returns the value in terms of happier customers and improved targeting.

3. Travelchain

Travelchain uses an open-source blockchain to eliminate intermediaries on the supply chain. It empowers users to collect and monetize travel data and helps them keep it safe from prying eyes. Users can receive tokens as compensation for sharing data with service providers or travel agencies. The tokens can later be redeemed for money or services.

Companies that participate will be able to get access to more detailed information about travelers, which they can use for pinpointed promotion targeting. These companies also offer customized tours and promotions based on the preferences of travelers, thus delivering value to all stakeholders.

4. Winding Tree

Winding Tree is a blockchain-based startup that uses the LIF Token to directly connect travelers with service providers such as tour guides, hotels, and airlines. This helps minimize the associated fees for travelers and also reduces the costs incurred by service providers. It uses the ERC 827 protocol and smart contracts to offer better savings for the stakeholders of the travel industry. Its nonprofit status ensures that there there are no middlemen involved to add unnecessary fees to the booking process.

5. Webjet

Inaccurate hotel bookings often cause anxiety and stress for your travel experiences. Webjet, a popular online travel agency, has designed a new model to avoid irritating booking experiences. Webjet’s system enhances the consumer experience by recording all the entries on the immutable ledger of the blockchain, thus reducing the likelihood of lost or mistaken bookings and reducing the layers between sellers and consumers. The improved security features of blockchain offer better protection for the entire travel ecosystem. It offers a great level of accountability and transparency for users.

Conclusion

Blockchain is challenging the status quo of the current travel environment, such as bad reviews, long queues, booking irregularities, and high fees, with a host of services that are designed to streamline and modernize the travel experience. Blockchain helps build and strengthen mutually fulfilling relationships that contribute to the overall value.

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