While the pandemic has clearly negatively impacted the travel industry in multiple ways, the silver lining has been the necessity to find new ways to innovate and open up the industry to new customers.

Companies are now noticing the potential of cryptocurrency to attract a segment of customers who have their money in the form of digital currencies. As a growing number of airlines, hotels and restaurants announce their support for cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, we could see a potential revolution in the way the travel industry operates.

Cryptocurrency has emerged as an effective payment option for a range of different applications and platforms and is becoming increasingly mainstream. The number of companies embracing crypto is growing, with those such as Starbucks, AXA Insurance, Tesla and Mastercard allowing customers to use cryptocurrencies as an accepted payment method. More recently, we have seen travel companies opening their doors to the world of cryptocurrency payments and decentralized blockchains. Those companies include:

● Cheap Air

● Bitcoin Travel

● Travala

● Expedia

● Webjet Exclusives

● Destinia

Travel companies such as Staysure, the UK’s largest provider of travel insurance, have also shown their interest in the currency, creating their interactive site ‘My Bitcoin Holiday‘ to display the rapid rate of bitcoin growth over the past decade. The brand has placed an emphasis on the benefits of long-term investment by charting the rise of bitcoin over the past decade in the novel medium of budgeting for a holiday.

National companies tend to think and operate in five-year time frames. Given the cross-border nature of the travel market, it’s only natural that companies operating in this sector would be paying attention to borderless decentralized currencies such as bitcoin. The idea of accepting bitcoin as a form of payment for travel insurance has clearly crossed their mind at some point. Indeed, had Staysure started accepting bitcoin as a payment five years ago, the purchasing power of those payments are materially demonstrated via the output of the ‘My Bitcoin Holiday’ tool, as demonstrated in this example below:

Blockchain technology can allow more flexibility when booking travel. Given we are already advancing into a cashless society, cryptocurrency has the potential to gain a lot of traction within the travel industry. The decentralized nature of blockchain technology has the benefit of building transparency and efficiency into transactions, while streamlining existing processes for pricing and payment collection. Whilst cryptocurrency adoption within the travel industry remains in its infancy, it’s clear that we’re seeing various signals that institutional adoption is continuing to grow. Given Gen Z are likely to drive digital currency acceptance, travel suppliers and insurance providers should be making steps towards embracing cryptocurrency payments moving forward.