Technology assessment: Enabling Blockchain in hospitality and tourism sectors

The tourism and hospitality sector's inequitable environment demands an unassailable and disruptive technology that optimizes its operational efficiencies. Thus, this paper aims to explore the nature of blockchain technology under varying conditions for consumer benefits. Academic and press articles followed by interviews from industry experts were used to explore the nature of blockchain technology (BCT) for the hospitality and tourism sector (HTS). A hybrid research methodology is proposed to investigate the criticality of factors, their hierarchical model, and cause & effect relationships. 35 Employees from two geographies, namely India (N=17) and Netherlands (N=18) in hospitality and tourism firms, were interviewed. In the next step, the expert opinions were collected using the Analytic hierarchy process - Interpretive Structural Modeling- Decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (AHP-ISM-DEMATEL) technique. A forward-looking approach was adopted by considering the implications of barriers and drivers on the adoption of BCT and thereby benefiting HTS. The results suggest that ‘low cost’ and ‘risk management’ are the key drivers with driving power of 1 and 10 in Indian and the Netherlands, respectively. They are placed at I and VI hierarchy levels and fall under the cause effect group. ‘Lack of Government Regulation/ Policy’ and ‘Market Uncertainty’ are the critical barriers with driving power 9 and 10 in the Indian and Netherlands context, respectively. They are placed at V and III hierarchy levels and fall under the cause effect group.