Blockchain technology applications in the hospitality and tourism industry: insights from the LockTrip project

Blockchain is an emerging and revolutionary digital technology that has the potential to reshape and disrupt many industries and organizations. Particularly, blockchain is predicted to deeply impact on all sectors of the hospitality and tourism industry, trough new tools such as smart contracts, decentralized applications and cryptocurrencies. However, academic research on blockchain in tourism and hospitality is an emerging topic. To date only few studies have investigated blockchain applications in tourism and hospitality industry. The current lack of understanding in which real use cases blockchain solutions lead to actual improvements in tourism and hospitality sector act as a barrier to the implementation of further solutions and to a wider diffusion and acceptance of this revolutionary technology. Therefore, this paper aims to provide and explore insight into blockchain technology and its current practical applications in tourism and hospitality industry. Our study adopts a case study approach (Yin, 2017), we conducted a case analysis of LockTrip, which has implemented the first blockchain hotel booking marketplace that offers several advantages to both hotels and customers. This study reveals that the blockchain has the potential to radically transform the market of hospitality and tourism services and challenge the current OTAs monopoly. By placing hotels inventory in a blockchain- powered marketplace, consumers are allowed to book rooms for a cheaper rate, since the peer-to-peer network would remove the intermediaries and thereby commissions. Additionally, hotels get back the power on room prices and their profits will benefit from the reduction or elimination of the commission fee usually paid to intermediaries which currently dominate the booking marketplace.