# The Impact of Blockchain Technology Adoption on Tourism Industry: A Systematic Literature Review
## 3 Results and Discussion
### The Advantage of BC Technology Adoption in the Tourism Industry
#### 3.2.4 Smart Contracts and Cryptocurrencies  
The tourism industry consists of various activities, stakeholders, and their heterogeneous interactions between each other. Therefore, it comprises numerous contracts and negotiations among different actors, which increases: the risks related to security, misunderstanding, or regret among stakeholders; delays in the accomplishment of obligations; and high costs [7]. The establishment of smart contracts significantly affects the abovementioned challenges by removing intermediaries from the market and making direct links between customers and service providers. Consequently, it reduces the costs of services, improves the efficiency of the overall processes, and minimizes the time needed to meet travelers' demands [36]. [PERSON] et al. [37], by analyzing the literature regarding BC application in the tourism industry, confirmed this evidence and state that this technology leads to improvement in the service quality, the acceleration of the processes, and cost reduction. In line with this, [PERSON] et al. [38], in their study, propose a BC technology and smart-contract-based system, including integrated reservations and hotel services. The projected system makes it simple for customers to obtain all kinds of services in a secure way, and it also discards some of the commission fees related to the intermediaries. Smart contracts, together with cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, or others, have the ability to support the tourism industry. Precisely, the use of smart contracts for advancing interactions between stakeholders and shifting traditional payment methods towards accepting cryptocurrencies results in removing the extra charges related to the intermediary services. [PERSON] et al. [39] and [PERSON] and [PERSON] [40] argue that BC technology application has huge potential for the significant transformation of the tourism sector through the presence of cryptocurrency as a payment method. According to the authors, the advantages include excluding intermediaries, reducing transaction fees, and simplifying the payment method for tourists. Moreover, [PERSON] et al. [30] state that, by excluding intermediaries and using cryptocurrency, BC technology reduces or eliminates the costs of some operations. However, in spite of the documented benefits of cryptocurrencies for travel and their acceptance by many tourism operators, there is still a lack of understanding of travelers' attitudes. Investigating the positive and negative perceptual antecedents of 161 travelers from the Asia-Pacific region, [PERSON] et al. [39] propose further research directions for using cryptocurrencies in the travel and tourism contexts. Moreover, [PERSON] et al. [41] argue that different internal and external factors affect the companies' decisions regarding cryptocurrency adoption as an alternative payment method. These can be: (a) the attitude of the companies' manager/owner that depends on his/her personal characteristics; (b) the perceived simplicity of use; and (3) the recognized benefit of this payment method. Recently, more and more tourists worldwide are using cryptocurrencies for buying products or services [42]. An example in the tourism industry that uses blockchain and accepts cryptocurrency as a payment method is mentioned by [PERSON] [4]. Tourism Union International (TUI) is a German-based travel company that has implemented a process for their clientele that allows them to book and pay for reservations or obtain additional services. Moreover, the smart contract exploited by TUI provides transparent information regarding the capacity of the hotel, a unique ranking system, automated communications, and information security [7]. In addition, other private companies, such as Travelflex, Tripago, Roomdao, CryptoBnB application by AirBnB, UBER, Singapore Airlines (KrisPay project), and Aeron are currently introducing BC technology with smart contracts [7; 11; 36].