Mere weeks after announcing its partnership with Booking.com, crypto travel booking platform Travala has teamed up with crypto exchange Huobi Global.
Announced on Wednesday, the new partnership will enable users to use Huobi Token (HT) to pay for bookings on the platform and help further the companies’ goal of bringing cryptocurrency adoption to the masses.
https://t.co/CL8FxAXFXS Joins Forces with @HuobiGlobal to add the Huobi Token
Book your next hotel using $HT on https://t.co/CL8FxAXFXS & get the best prices on +2M hotels & accommodations worldwide#Travala #Huobi @HuobiWallet @hlhl12321 @ross_zhang https://t.co/8yfJ98arO8
— Travala.com ✈️ ???? (@travalacom) January 8, 2020
According Travala’s official blog post, this partnership with Huobi “consolidates and strengthens” its position as the “world’s premier blockchain-based travel booking platform.” In addition to the discounts, users can also avail rewards via its native AVA token.
By “taking the friction out of travel,” and providing its customers over 2,000,000 accommodations to choose from in 230 countries across the globe, Travala aims to “further the continuation of the increasingly prolific trend of crypto tourism.”
Speaking about the partnership, Chief of Staff and Head of Global Business Development & Partnerships at Huobi Group, Ciara Sun, said:
Huobi Token as a preferred payment option within Travala.com demonstrates the increasing utility of the Huobi Token and makes it more accessible to the general public…
Huobi Group’s head of marketing, Ross Zhang, expressed his delight at the partnership as well, tweeting “Travala with Huobi Token. The future of hotel bookings.”
Bookings soar following Booking.com partnership
Travala recently released its December report, which detailed the sales that month and how cryptocurrencies were a preferred method of payment.
The Travala-Booking.com collaboration, which was announced in November, boosted Travala’s sales by 33%, marking considerable growth in terms of the number of bookings and the cryptocurrencies used for payments.
The majority (60%) of the bookings were made using cryptocurrency, with 28% of them made with Bitcoin (BTC). Travala reported 1,528 total nights booked in December – a 15.2 % increase over November’s bookings.
The report also stated that the top seven visitors were from the United States, the U.K., Italy, Germany, France, Poland, and Australia.
In addition to its native AVA token, Travala accepts over 20 cryptocurrencies including Tron (TRX), XRP, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Dash, Monero (XMR), and Binance Coin (BNB).
Tourism industry crypto adoption on the rise
Cryptocurrency adoption within the travel and tourism industry experienced significant growth last year.
In September 2019, Norway’s Norwegian Air announced plans to add cryptocurrency as a payment option by launching its own cryptocurrency exchange, the Norwegian Block Exchange [NBX].
On January 3, Travala‘s competitor, TravelbyBit, announced a reward of 300,000 satoshis on account of Bitcoin’s 11th birthday. Users booking a Virgin Airlines flight will be eligible for the rewards.
However, in December, TravelbyBit disabled BTC and BCH payments due to a problem in the app that led to double spending operations.
In addition to airlines and travel platforms, on December 30, 2019, payments processing company i2c announced the launch of a multi-currency travel card in partnership with Wirex.
Currently available for use in the Asia Pacific region, the travel card is said to enhance the travel experience and support over 150 currencies, both fiat and crypto.
While avoiding costly exchange fees, users are also offered up to 1.5% crypto rewards. Wirex launched its native WXT token in June 2019 to reward its customers in crypto.