What’s up in the Web3 x Travel space?

There are a lot of folks who keep claiming there are no REAL use cases for crypto and that it’s only built on speculation.

But in the coming years, IMO, we will see many applications involving real-life economies that learn how to leverage on-chain tech to increase their efficiency and users’ acquisition/retention.

One of the sectors that will experience much growth in the future is the Travel space.

Last week, while I was peacefully scrolling on X, I got hit by this tweet from @travalacom:

These stats are impressive:

• Close to $10 million in sales for March
• Over 190k monthly users who are buying real-life products using crypto assets at a rate of around 74% for all of those In Real Life sales.
• Travala also boasts around 57k Smart Members, who stake tokens on the platform to receive different perks such as discounts on flights, hotel nights, and activities.

It caught my attention because it clearly shows that you now have crypto-native applications that are being built at the juncture of Blockchain and real-life activities. Not only using a financial onramp based on blockchain tech (paying with stablecoins or crypto assets) but also leveraging the concept of token staking ($AVA being the native Travala token) to increase customer retention with unique perks and discounts.

So I investigated further and found that a nascent ecosystem was being built around Travala.

The Travala Ecosystem

First, they integrated @ViatorTravel, one of the biggest digital tour operators worldwide, into crypto on-ramping in 2021.

This opened up a whole new niche of crypto users to all the tours offered by Viator.

There is also Concierge, a tailored agency for high-net-worth crypto users who are looking for a unique Travel experience.

Another project that has been built around the Travala ecosystem & that I found interesting is Dtravel.

They already conducted an airdrop of a % of their token supply to $AVA stakers in 2021.

This app positions itself as a decentralized version of Airbnb or Booking.com, connecting rental vacation owners with travelers without the high fees charged by centralized parties and the possibility of being de-platformed.

DTravel is built on Base chain and has its own token, $TRVL, with some traction and usage for its product (in the picture below, you can see that there were 5 offerings around NYC for mid-April).

If we look at Dubai in mid-May we find 11 rental properties:

Currently, it’s a very early product with limited network effect, but it has much potential to grow in the coming years. I recommend having a look at this post for a deeper introduction to the product and the solution DTravel is trying to be.

The crypto x travel is an early space, but Travala has good traction at the moment, with different protocols building around it for the creation of an ecosystem of services for travelers. This should be watched closely as one of the most interesting intersections between crypto and real life.

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