As Blockchain becomes more popular experts see potential uses for this in some of the more dated aspects of the travel industry and for Norm Rose, the president of Travel Tech consulting the bookings, payments and fraud protection jump to mind.

“Fraud is a major concern for the hotel industry,” Rose said. “Historically information is stored in a central place which primes it for attacks and exposure . Blockchain has the advantage that it is decentralized, which adds a layer of protection.”

Rose sees multiple applications for the so-called “smart contract” aspect of Blockchain. This automatically carries out contracts like payments, which could be used for payroll, but also for bookings. The details of the contract are stored on every single node of the Blockchain, which eliminates discrepancies and could prevent errors with bookings.

Yet the Rose also warned that Blockchain might not be ready to implement in every business.

“Blockchain is a very young technology,” Rose said. “A typical credit card company can process 2,000 transactions per second where as one of the faster Blockchain currencies, Ethereum can only process 20 per second.”

Another concern about the technology is volatility. Although the most famous cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, has become a widely adopted, over the past year the world has watched it reach teetering heights and then plummet – it may be too risk for many travel companies, said Rose.

One of the main parts of the travel industry that Rose sees being changed by Blockchain technology – famous for cutting out the middleman – is the role of the OTA.

“Eliminating the middleman would mean changing the roles of OTAS,” Rose said. “In the same way that telephone companies have changed their roles over the past 20 years.”

4Hoteliers.com covers ITB Berlin annually - www.4Hoteliers.com/itb

This is strictly an exclusive feature, reprints of this article in any shape or form without prior written approval from 4Hoteliers.com is not permitted.