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Bernard Marr

Bernard Marr is a world-renowned futurist, influencer and thought leader in the fields of business and technology, with a passion for using technology for the good of humanity. He is a best-selling author of over 20 books, writes a regular column for Forbes and advises and coaches many of the world’s best-known organisations. He has a combined following of 4 million people across his social media channels and newsletters and was ranked by LinkedIn as one of the top 5 business influencers in the world.

Bernard’s latest books are ‘Future Skills’, ‘The Future Internet’, ‘Business Trends in Practice’ and ‘Generative AI in Practice’.

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Bernard Marr ist ein weltbekannter Futurist, Influencer und Vordenker in den Bereichen Wirtschaft und Technologie mit einer Leidenschaft für den Einsatz von Technologie zum Wohle der Menschheit. Er ist Bestsellerautor von 20 Büchern, schreibt eine regelmäßige Kolumne für Forbes und berät und coacht viele der weltweit bekanntesten Organisationen. Er hat über 2 Millionen Social-Media-Follower, 1 Million Newsletter-Abonnenten und wurde von LinkedIn als einer der Top-5-Business-Influencer der Welt und von Xing als Top Mind 2021 ausgezeichnet.

Bernards neueste Bücher sind ‘Künstliche Intelligenz im Unternehmen: Innovative Anwendungen in 50 Erfolgreichen Unternehmen’

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The Awesome Ways TUI Uses Blockchain To Revolutionize The Travel Industry

2 July 2021

Blockchain is the latest innovation to take over vacation planning. It’s expected to disrupt the industry as much as when Expedia, Airbnb, and Priceline took vacation planning online. German company TUI Group, the world’s largest tourism company, is also the world’s pioneer to integrate blockchain into the travel industry. In fact, the company’s chief executive, Friedrich Joussen, has such belief in the technology and its probability of replacing the services of companies such as Expedia, that TUI Group sold Hotelbeds in 2016 for $1.6 billion to get the company out of the travel aggregator business.

TUI Group With 1,600 travel agencies, six airlines, more than 380 hotels, 16 cruise liners, and other tourism-related ventures, TUI Group is an international tourism group that serves approximately 20 million customers. It currently houses all of its contracts on a private blockchain; however, company leaders believe their blockchain platform could be made public so that agents and customers could access it to book travel. Joussen said, “If you want to address 20 million customers individually, you need the most modern IT technology. So, the blockchain is not the internet, the blockchain is the next internet.”

How blockchain can manage travel inventory

Blockchain is an open, distributed database that is highly secure and is the underlying technology behind cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. Basically, it’s a computer file used for storing data that is duplicated entirely across many computers. Not one person or company controls the file. The data in the blockchain is encoded, and the only way to edit it is if you have the “key” to the block of chain you wish to edit or read. Historic data on the chain cannot be lost or corrupted. In addition to its uses in the financial world, blockchains are used whenever transactions need to be recorded securely such as in supply chains, shipping details, for government records, ownership rights, patient files, charitable contributions and more.

While TUI Group manages its internal smart contracts that can execute automatically with blockchain they eventually see how blockchain could be the foundation for a system that maintains real-time records as needed in the travel industry. For example, hotels that have extra inventory to sell could update the blockchain with that inventory and everyone could see the price and engage directly with the hotelier. Joussen was quoted in the Skift newspaper, as saying, “It’s cheaper, has a higher performance, and is accessible from everywhere – it’s a pure cost equation.”

The company’s BedSwap project uses a blockchain-enabled system to maintain records of hotel bed inventories in real-time. That bed inventory can then be offered across markets within seconds, and there is no need for an intermediary such as Expedia to manage the information. If this technology is rolled out to the industry, and anyone can view real-time availability of rooms or flights, Joussen predicts there will be millions in savings over the next several years.

While TUI has been busy building its own internal system to manage its bed inventory and toying with the idea of making it public, Winding Tree is another company working to develop a public decentralized travel ecosystem to distribute travel inventory. The two companies have had conversations, but Winding Tree believes its public version is more secure and its goal is to make a solution for the entire industry. If they succeed, anyone would be able to secure rooms on the blockchain without the intermediaries setting the rates. In this reality, it would be up to hotels and airlines to set commissions (how high or if any) rather than a third-party setting them.

Benefits of blockchain in the travel industry

As blockchain gets tested and trialed, there will be advantages to the travel industry. Here are just a few of them:

  • A decentralized marketplace equals a democratized market.
  • A blockchain system is controlled by all involved and cannot be manipulated.
  • Cost savings and increased efficiencies will be realized since intermediaries are no longer part of the process.
  • Blockchain provides an immutable and secure payment and data transfer platform.
  • The cost to set up a blockchain system is minor compared to setting up and maintaining a system such as Expedia.
  • Blockchain could enable an easy-to-implement loyalty rewards program.

Will you be transacting on the blockchain the next time you travel? Only time will tell. It’s certainly an intriguing possibility.


Business Trends In Practice | Bernard Marr
Business Trends In Practice | Bernard Marr

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Bernard Marr is a world-renowned futurist, influencer and thought leader in the fields of business and technology, with a passion for using technology for the good of humanity.

He is a best-selling author of over 20 books, writes a regular column for Forbes and advises and coaches many of the world’s best-known organisations.

He has a combined following of 4 million people across his social media channels and newsletters and was ranked by LinkedIn as one of the top 5 business influencers in the world.

Bernard’s latest book is ‘Generative AI in Practice’.

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