Smart contracts in tourism industry: a model with blockchain integration for post pandemic economy

Abstract

ABSTRACT This research aims to fill the gap in the existing methods related to the use of the Internet of Things (IoT) devices with smart contracts without a need for intermediaries for the reservations and services secured by Blockchain for the post-pandemic economy. Although there is a limited number of studies in the literature, which are mainly based on the reviews of the integration of smart contracts with the IoT devices, the questions about how to apply these methods in the tourism industry remain unanswered. Therefore, this present study contributes to the existing literature by creating a contract with a reservation system integrated with hotel services. The proposed method creates a booking system with a unique smart contract between customers and hotels. These contracts will include all kinds of services a customer may need during the stay and will be secured by a Blockchain structure. Besides, it might help eliminate commission fees and reception costs with the decentralized proof mechanism in the proposed method which combines smart services, IoT devices, decentralized proof methods, and interplanetary file systems with Blockchain-based smart contracts.