Travel Startups Now Possible with Blockchain

We’ve been harping on the role of permissionless innovation and open markets for travel for a while now. But this wasn’t an overnight revelation from some disconnected young entrepreneur, it is founded on the cumulated frustration of countless travel suppliers, providers and entrepreneurs in the travel space who struggle day in and day out with the archaic distribution systems they are forced to use. Today, I want to share, word for word, a response from one of you in the travel space, an email I received this morning:

“Fantastic! Thank you and please keep me informed as a partner.

We are right now working with Hotelbeds and hitchhiker to launch a citybreak concept in the Netherlands and after that Europe. So city, flight, tours the whole package.

The process of developing is ridiculously slow because of bedbanks and GDSs.

So You can imagine how great it will be to have just one open and decentralized network that connects you directly to suppliers instead of large bureaucratic annoying companies, which also only want to stay “safe” :)

As you can see our point of sale is b2c adding value to packages and trips.

Again you need to have the inventory to crush the big players. If you succeed in that this will be HUGE I am very positive.

Because of my frustrating experience i am also thinking to develop a dApp that will connect only to WT with a booking system so entrepreneurs can have a complete package to start in the travel industry; website, CMS, Booking system. What do you think?”

In the valley and from those surrounded with comforts and convenience I hear the argument that they’re okay with centralization, the current system works okay, it’s simply a price we pay for stability. So when it comes to currency it is in the developing world where the clear and undisputed value is most evident, the game-changing transformation of crypto.

Likewise in travel, the old system seems okay from the outside, but it’s from those inside who seek to innovate and can’t because of barriers. From those who know firsthand how much better travel should be, that the demand for openness comes. I receive emails like this daily from those in industry.

In the spirit of “talk is cheap, show me the code” we aren’t just receiving emails, but a number of solutions already being built on top of Winding Tree in rentals, corporate travel, bookings and more which we’ll be announcing over the coming days.