The tourism sector has always relied on multiple intermediaries to operate efficiently. From hotel and airline reservations to car rentals, all these transactions involve contracts, rules, and policies that require the consumer’s trust in third parties. With the rise of decentralized technologies, a new paradigm emerges: the possibility that these contracts become self-executing — removing intermediaries and ensuring that all agreed-upon conditions are automatically fulfilled.
The use of programmable payments increases efficiency in transactions that traditionally depend on centralized operators, reducing costs, eliminating disputes, and enabling greater transparency in commercial relationships.
When a traveler books a hotel room or rents a car, they accept a series of terms and conditions defined by the service provider. In the traditional model, any breach of those rules requires manual resolution — whether through customer support, financial disputes between banks and card issuers, or even legal action.
With smart programmed contracts, these interactions can be fully automated. The payment flow is only completed when the booking is fulfilled as agreed. If the guest is a no-show, the hotel may retain a percentage of the payment according to a cancellation policy previously defined and registered in the digital contract. If the hotel cancels the booking unilaterally, the refund is issued automatically — with no need for customer intervention.
This model can also apply to airline tickets. With a smart contract, if a flight is canceled or delayed beyond a predefined limit, a partial or full refund can be triggered automatically, without the passenger needing to contact the airline.
Vehicle rental also stands to benefit from this technology. When renting a car, the payment can be held in a programmable contract until the vehicle is returned. In case of any damage, the predefined rules ensure that the necessary amount is retained. If there’s no contract breach, the remaining balance is released automatically — with no manual interaction between the rental agency and the customer.
The key difference in this DREX-based and smart contract-enabled model lies in how trust is distributed. Today, when making a reservation, the consumer must trust that the other party will honor the agreement. In the new model, trust shifts to the technology — to the code and the blockchain network that guarantees automatic execution of the predefined rules.
This model reduces disputes and makes the entire process more efficient for all parties. Companies lower operational costs, while consumers gain greater predictability and security in their transactions.
All contract rules are visible and immutable from the moment the booking is made. This reduces ambiguity and ensures that both parties’ expectations are managed from the start, leaving no room for arbitrary changes or improper charges.
Tourism — always an industry of experiences — could be one of the sectors to most practically explore the opportunities of Web3, starting with something simple: turning each destination into a unique digital asset.