Blockchain technology will seriously change the tourism market in five to ten years, head of Russia’s Federal Agency for Tourism Oleg Safonov said at the Kazan Tourism Forum 2017, per Russian news agency TASS.
According to the Russian official, the tourism industry will undergo major transformations in the upcoming years, thanks to the development of new digital technologies, blockchain in particular.
“We are absolutely convinced in our federal agency that blockchain will seriously change the tourism market, although, in our opinion, it will happen not in two years but in 5-10 years,” Safonov said.
Sofanov believes that blockchain technology will potentially have the effect of eliminating intermediaries between tourists and service providers, thus improving the quality of services altogether.
“Of course, the technologies that are being created now they allow tourists, consumers to work directly with providers (of services) removing all the intermediaries. This makes the product better in quality, less expensive and also increases the provider’s responsibility for the product,” Safonov explained.
The Russian official did not further elaborate on the specific blockchain tourism changes to be expected, adding only that “the nature of these changes is the topic of a separate discussion”.
On many occasions, Russia has proven rather circumspect when it comes to the use of cryptocurrencies. However, the country has maintained a favorable stance on blockchain technology.
Earlier this year, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev asked government officials and the state-owned development bank to analyze possible public sector blockchain applications.
As reported by state-owned news agency TASS, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich expressed a firm belief that “blockchain technologies will find broad use in state administration in the short term”.
Additionally, Russia is currently studying Japan’s experience in the field of blockchain technologies and has started testing a blockchain-based land registry system.
Blockchain tourism changes predicted by Russian official – Image source: Henry Benjamin/Flickr