Introduction
Digitalization is a trend that has heavily impacted the tourism industry. Horwath HTL (2015), the worldās largest hospitality consulting brand, points out that technological (r)evolution and digital channels belong to the mega trends in tourism which will influence mid- and long-term tourism development. The World Economic Forum (WEF) (2017, p. 3) states in its report on digital transformation in the aviation, travel, and tourism industry that āthere is widespread recognition among industry leaders that the role of digital technology is rapidly shifting, from being a driver of marginal efficiency to an enabler of fundamental innovation and disruptionā. The WEF details recent industry trends, such as a growing demand for travel, the rise of the digital consumer, changes to the security landscape, and technological trends such as the rise of intelligent automation and the dominance of digital platforms. As a side note, the term āblockchainā is mentioned only once in their 40-page report as a potential enabler for the safe and secure exchange of personal data.
The academic tourism community has long acknowledged technology and especially the impact of the Internet as an important and timely research topic. Standing et al. (2014) identified a total of 288 relevant academic publications published between 2001 and 2010 that scrutinize the impact of the Internet in travel and tourism and classified this existing research according to seven main areas: tourism sector studies, e-business, information search, online purchasing, marketing, website analysis, and e-research methods. Interestingly, they conclude that āwhat can be gleaned from the earlier years of Internet and tourism research is that practitioners and experts alike tend to underestimate the impact of the Internet in the futureā (p. 111).
In a recent study, Gelter (2017) provides a comprehensive and current overview of the relevant academic literature inside and outside of the tourism research community. He clusters the various ongoing trends into categories including e-tourism, Internet, smart technology, cloud computing, big data, new digital travelers, gamification, and social networks: a bundle of mega trends which heavily impact on what he calls ādigital tourismā. Blockchain technology is described as āa revolutionary technology that in the future will transform financial transactions, and strongly influence [the] tourism industryā (p. 74). More specifically, he writes that āBlockchain will create unique opportunities for travel companies to track their customerās preferences, build more personalized and meaningful interactions, and extract more value from loyalty programsā (p. 75).
Hence, it can be concluded from previous studies in combination with ongoing technological developments that the tourism and travel industry is still in a transition period which is characterized by a strong transformation of the role of stakeholders and their respective interaction processes. Blockchain represents the latest development in a long line of technological innovations that bear the potential to significantly shape the tourism and travel industry in the not-too-distant future. To date, there exists a dearth of scholarly literature in tourism-related journals exploring the phenomenon in great detail and helping to lay the theoretical foundation for future studies in this area. In this chapter we will help to close this gap. We argue that through systematic research, academia can help the industry to better understand how to best cope with blockchain technology and how to fully exploit its potential. More specifically, we strive to answer the following research questions:
- RQ1: How will blockchain impact existing structures (e.g., networks) and relations in the tourism industry?
- RQ2: What resources/capabilities will tourism organizations need to be able to cope with Blockchain-induced changes?
In the following sections, we present the results from qualitative interviews with the managers of several European Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) who outlined their ideas and visions on how blockchain might potentially affect the industry. We apply four widely used theories from social science research to develop frameworks and propositions that can help to guide future tourism and travel research.
Methodology
The goal of this study is to understand and classify the perception of blockchain by tourism industry professionals as well as to develop a theoretically sound research agenda based on these findings. Our focus was on DMOs, which are responsible for the management of the wide variety of elements that make up a destination. Thus, DMOs possess an excellent overview of ongoing tourism-related activities in a specific region as well as their respective implications. They are therefore perfectly suited to comment on the ābig pictureā of the tourism industry, which includes a multitude of stakeholders with differing interests (Manente and Minghetti 2006). In order to attract visitors to destinations in a highly competitive international market, destinations need to offer good value to their customers. This can be successfully achieved only through collaborative efforts by diverse actors at the destination, from airport infrastructure to hotel developments and the public transport network. Destination management involves coordinated management of attractions, amenities, accessibility, marketing, human resources, and destination-image-related issues. DMOs are responsible for leading and coordinating activities with their partners, for promoting the destination, and for providing strategic leadership for destination development (World Tourism Organization 2007). Three levels of DMOs exist: (1) National Tourism Organizations (NTOs, e.g., Austrian National Tourist Office); (2) regional, provincial, or state DMOs (e.g., Colorado state tourist office); (3) local DMOs for cities or smaller geographic areas (e.g., Paris Tourist Office). DMOs can be publicly funded, private profit-oriented organizations, or a mixture of both.
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first qualitative in-depth study to investigate the phenomenon of blockchain in the tourism and travel industry. Therefore, we decided to conduct an explorative study to uncover potential advantageous and disadvantageous impacts of the blockchain for different stakeholder groups. We conducted interviews with DMO managers from ten major European cities, namely Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Copenhagen, Genoa, Helsinki, London, Tallinn, Valencia, and Vienna, representing ten different countries. These cities are in varying regions with diverse potentials and tourism strategies, and therefore present ideal units to explore the phenomenon under investigation. A purposive sampling approach was used to ensure a heterogeneous and diverse sample (Shadish et al. 2002).
The interviews were semi-structured and were supported by a guideline that was drafted by the researchers based on internal discussions and available literature on blockchain in general as well as its potential implications for tourism. Due to the novelty of the subject, the majority of the literature consisted of consulting studies and industry reports (e.g., Horwath HTL 2015; World Economic Forum 2017).
The recruitment of the participants was done in person during a major tourism conference. Subsequently, a follow-up email was sent with information regarding blockchain technology in general and links to short videos on YouTube explaining the concept in more detail. The email included an invitation to choose a date and time for the interviews. The interviews took place between October 17 and November 29, 2017. All the interviews were conducted in English via Skype and were recorde...