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Centralised System
The highly-concentrated nature of the travel industry -run by ‘big guys’ that have most of the market power- hasn’t been creating an atmosphere for innovative solutions and has been setting high barriers for new platforms for years.
This centralised state of the industry adds extra costs to customers- and the industry itself- with high distribution, transaction and settlement fees, and commissions between the involved parties. Well, that is problem #1.
Data Management: Too Many Service Providers, Too Many Processes to Handle
The travel industry has many contributors such as Airline Companies, Hotels, Car Rental Companies, Travel Agencies, Tour Operators, Ground Services, Security Services etc. And all of them are involved with reservation details, travel/accommodation arrangements, customer information, cancellations, loyalty programmes and security within their own systems as well as interacting with each others’ systems.
Just to give you an idea; let’s take a look at some information that airlines track about their customers;
Departure & Arrival date and time
Destination & Departure city
Search & Purchase history
Credit card points earned
Miles/loyalty points used
Cancellations
Luggage
In-flight sales/duty free spend
In-flight meal choices
Rental car and hotel connections
Number of travelers they fly with
Influence over other people through social media
And don’t forget, this is just the customer information of the airlines! The remaining contributors also hold, process, track and share similar data as well as settling payments among themselves. So another significant problem the industry faces is data management among all the service providers.
Security Vulnerability
Data protection and preserving the brand trust in today’s digital world is crucial. Because the travel industry is centralized and its ecosystem has many service providers and 3rd parties collecting and sharing customer, employee, or inhouse data; it is inevitable for the industry having security breaches in the current technology. In fact in May 2018, the digital security company Dashlane has tested how secure the password requirements of 55 airline websites were and declared that only 6 of the 55 airlines scored a perfect ranking where most of the airlines received an average score.
And we have also seen one of the biggest travel companies Sabre being hacked in 2017 which was quite surprising for the industry; but not for us.
Billing, Settlement and Payment Problems
In the current system, billing settlements between airlines and agencies are managed by the 3rd parties that do not disclose the exact amount of their margins. And when the purchase is made internationally, it gets more complicated.
For instance; any airline ticket can be sold anywhere in the world; through any agency. And the money transaction at this point is a pain in the neck. The transaction process starts with the passenger, and then respectively transfers to the agency, to the airline, and passes through payment gateways, credit card networks and international borders along the way.
This process takes between 15 to 45 days, and that’s not the only drawback. Just to give you an idea; the costs that airlines undertake to use these system are*;
Application fees (RM400-RM4,000)
Participation deposits (RM20,000)
Membership fees (825 per month)
Annual fees (0.03% + RM80,000 for billings over RM80 million)
And don’t get us started with the redundant efforts spent in the industry on these settlements.
It is very clear that the current technology (that is still based on a 40 year-old system) cannot meet neither the customers’ nor the organisations’ needs in the travel industry.
Enters Further Network
Most of our team working at significant roles in the aviation industry; at Further Network, we believe every challenge is an opportunity. Therefore we wanted to disrupt the travel- especially aviation- industry with a Blockchain-based payment and settlement platform.
We aim to provide a solution to Airlines, Agencies, Hotels and travel service providers to solve their Billing, Settlement, and Payment (BSP) issues while removing the 3rd parties and completing BSP in real-time through our Autonomous Smart Travel Ecosystem.
Decentralised Process: Our decentralised real-time (BSP) process; will reduce the waiting time and the security deposits that agencies are facing in the current system. From the travelers’ side, by tokenizing the tickets through Smart Travel Record (STR); this technology will also allow customers to customise their flight tickets or even change and sell them.
Reduced Operational Costs: As the settlements and transactions are done autonomously by eliminating the 3rd parties; the effort spent will be significantly reduced. As a matter of fact; this means a minimum of a 40% increase in profits of the airlines. Needless to say; travelers will also benefit from the cost reduction.
Reduced Disputes: As mentioned before; the settlement process between multiple parties is error-prone and it causes disputes which also costs time and money for the organisations. Blockchain technology will reduce the number of disputes and allow a better resolution time. In addition to this; Crypto payments will allow the parties to protect themselves in the sensitive economic regions.
Security: Blockchain technology provides a less risky technology when it comes to storing and sharing data since it is highly resilient to hacking. Thanks to its shared ledger system, it offers a closed decentralised cloud system for a secure data management.
Open Network Standards and P2P Exchange Market: All of the contributors in the market and stakeholders will be able to use use Further Network’s Blockchain technology. This will enable them to build their own technology and enhance their systems.
It is now the time to realise Blockchain is inevitable. With its tremendous potential, and promising future, we should realise that it will be the technology of the future.