The global travel industry ground to a standstill after governments worldwide announced strict lockdowns to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
At the Unitize virtual blockchain conference on July 6, Juan Otero, the co-founder and CEO of the Binance-backed online crypto travel agency Travala, said that the platform experienced a steep drop in booking volumes.
Otero stated that till February, Travala was seeing exponential growth with a consistent rise in booking volumes. But as the coronavirus pandemic reached crisis levels, the firm saw an 80–90% drop in total bookings within a few weeks.
Recovery around the corner?
However, it appears that Travala could already be set to bounce back. Otero specified that in May, the firm witnessed 200% month-on-month growth while last month, they recorded a 160% growth in hotel bookings by domestic travelers. This, Otero mentioned, was almost two times more than the business they were bringing in during the same time last year.
He estimated that it will be no sooner than September or October that they finally see a recovery of international bookings on Travala.
Making cryptos mainstream in the travel industry
In a recent announcement, Travala revealed its partnership with leading travel booking platform Expedia that will allow users to pay for any of the 700,000 hotels listed on the platform in over 30 cryptocurrencies. Travala also has a partnership with the Booking.com.
According to Otero, the platform currently allows its users to book from more than two million properties across 230 countries.
Travala has also signed a deal with TravelByBit, a crypto flight booking service, to further expand its travel services.