Smart contract applications in tourism

Abstract

Based on blockchain technology, smart contracts promise to revolutionize the way parties legally agree. Smart contracts could enable tourism service providers to trade directly with customers bypassing some intermediaries. The study aims at identifying the provided services, economic impact, partners, popularity, technical and technological factors of smart contract applications in various tourism areas. It investigates ten popular smart contract applications that cover a wide spectrum of tourism areas such as hotel reservations, airline tickets, car rentals, payment management, reward programmes, traveller identity, luggage tracking, validity of reviews and ratings and more. These applications are analysed with respect to their purpose, business model, economic impact, partners, provided services, popularity, as well as what cryptocurrency and blockchain they use. Smart contracts enable time and transaction cost savings, convenience, flexibility, security, trust, ease verification of personal data and more. Most applications gained popularity mainly during 2018–19. Almost every application uses a different cryptocurrency. Ethereum is the most popular platform followed by Hyperledger Fabric and Stellar. The development of a universal legislation as well as interoperability is a necessity for the wide adoption of smart contracts.