Latvian carrier Air Baltic, Branson’s Virgin Galactic, and Airfare website Cheapair.com are among these companies. Lastly, in June, Berlin-based booking site GetYourGuide started to accept dogecoin following its expansion in the US.

GetYourGuide’s CEO and co-founder Johannes Reck stated that his firm would accept other coins in the following period and transactions via cryptocurrency “will matter for travel.” He added:

“People want to put their crypto back into the system [and] travel is one of the biggest categories there is,” he added. “We take dogecoin now into the real world; you can apply it and get a real-world, kinetic experience.”

Younger generations have always been one of the most significant categories of travelers and they “are looking for modern ways to plan and book trips,” as the CEO and co-founder of upcoming travel app Elude, Alex Simon, states:

“The ability to purchase your airline ticket or hotel through bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies is inevitable […] Though the travel industry is antiquated, the new generation of travelers, Gen Z and Gen Alpha, will demand new forms of payments and alternative ways to purchase travel.”

(Gen Z comprises those born after the last century, and those born after 2010 are named Gen Alpha.)

Among other tourism players allowing cryptocurrency transactions, there is Nevada-based Resorts World Las Vegas property. The company partners with crypto exchange firm Gemini and Bobby Hotel in Nashville. Thus, guests can book their stays and other activities with cryptocurrencies via BitPay.

Although Expedia, an online travel agency giant, no longer accepts bitcoin, more than 700.000 Expedia Group accommodations are available on a crypto-friendly booking platform called Travala.com.

Through its partnership with Tripadvisor-owned Viator and food delivery company Zomato, Travala.com also offers thousands of bookable activities that can be purchased with cryptocurrencies. Travala.com describes itself as “blockchain-based” since seventy percent of the bookings are made by digital coins of more than 50 types, as CEO Juan Otero states. The firm currently sees more than $1 million a week:

“These are massive partnerships with some of the world’s biggest online travel brands, all of whom are embracing crypto […] Altogether, Travala.com offers over 3 million travel products, making us not just the biggest crypto-friendly [online travel agency], but one of the largest overall.”

The entrance of cryptocurrency in the game is changing the travel industry as well. Travel, a decentralized home-sharing network, is entirely built on the blockchain model launched by Travala.com in June, as Otero said:

“There isn’t a single corporate board that makes all the decisions. Instead, this new home-sharing network is driven entirely by its community through its ‘Decentralized Autonomous Organization’ that any host or guest can partake in.”

Since cryptocurrency is still quite volatile in terms of value, both consumers and travel suppliers prefer third-party processors that convert the digital tokens to fiat money at the time of purchase. Otero also said: “We generally see more credit card payments for travel when crypto prices are down versus when they’re sky-high,” which can be interpreted as consumers reserving their options.