Blockchain and Cybersecurity: Applications in Tourism and Transportation

This research explores the impacts of blockchain technology within the tourism and transportation sector. It discusses the current progress, benefits, and challenges, including cyber security issues. The research also highlights the future implications and potential advancements of blockchain technology in the sector.

Running head: BLOCKCHAIN AND CYBERSECURITY: APPLICATIONS IN TOURISM AND TRANSPORTATION
Blockchain and Cyber security: Applications in Tourism and Transportation
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s note

1BLOCKCHAIN AND CYBERSECURITY: APPLICATIONS IN TOURISM AND TRANSPORTATION
Abstract
The research discusses on the impacts of blockchain technology within the tourism and
transportation sector. The research discusses about the present situation of blockchain technology
in the tourism and transportation. From the discussion, it has been discussed the technology has
proved several benefits for the customers involved. However, with the inclusion of the
technology, there has been several problems based on cyber security issues. The discussion
further puts emphasis on the future impacts of the technology, which could be implemented
within the sector. The inclusion of such technologies would lead to higher business benefits and
attract more customers.

2BLOCKCHAIN AND CYBERSECURITY: APPLICATIONS IN TOURISM AND TRANSPORTATION
Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
2. Discussion....................................................................................................................................3
2.1 The Research Questions........................................................................................................3
2.2 The Impact and Current Progress of Blockchain within Tourism and Transportation Sector
.....................................................................................................................................................3
2.3 Cyber Security Aspects within the Blockchain technology..................................................4
2.4 Future Implications of Blockchain technology within Tourism sector.................................5
3. Conclusion...................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................7

3BLOCKCHAIN AND CYBERSECURITY: APPLICATIONS IN TOURISM AND TRANSPORTATION
1. Introduction
The blockchain technology has brought about different kind of revolutionary changes in
many parts of the daily lives of individuals. The technology has the potential to turn into an
advantageous combination. This is due to the reason that this technology helps in providing
security and imparts transparency within the entire transactional process. Cyber security is also
another major concern with the impact of blockchain technology (Önder & Treiblmaier, 2018).
In the travel agency, booking of hotels and flights is a major aspect that stores the records of
customers. Hence, the aspect of security and encryption techniques is a major concern. The
blockchain technology would thus be able to make the operations to be performed in a secure
manner.
2. Discussion
2.1 The Research Questions
1. What are the present progress of blockchain within the transportation and tourism
sector?
2. What are the security aspects that are followed within the sector?
3. What could be the future implications of blockchain technology within the sector?
2.2 The Impact and Current Progress of Blockchain within Tourism and Transportation
Sector
The blockchain technology has been considered as the backbone within the digital
currency. They have extended their valued services in various areas such as data security,
process simplification and logistics. The travel executives face major challenges in their varied
efforts in order to secure the data of customers (Longhi, Mariani & Rochhia, 2016). With the

4BLOCKCHAIN AND CYBERSECURITY: APPLICATIONS IN TOURISM AND TRANSPORTATION
impact of underlying processes of blockchain, it provides an additional authentication layer for
wearable devices and biometric-equipped mobile. This further enhances the experience for
passengers and provides them with high satisfaction.
In the recent times, blockchain has extended their services towards some of the sectors of
tourism. The main advantage with the inception of this technology is the payments made within
the sector are made with cryptocurrency, which provides highly secure and traceable services
(Kwok & Koh, 2018). Each of the transactions remains registered within the chain and cannot be
further modified. The flow of information during the booking of hotels or transport remains
highly secure. This technology further reduces the time of management and thus also provides a
wide access to information.
Blockchain would also be able to provide tracking services for the luggage of tourists.
Customers would be able to keep a track of their baggage and thus report any incident of crime.
Blockchain would also be able to provide loyalty programs to their customers. This would
mainly be intended to attract lots of customers and also provide with rich services. Some of the
recent tourism services that have been affected with the blockchain technology are ShoCard,
Winding Tree and Trippki.
2.3 Cyber Security Aspects within the Blockchain technology
The tourism sector and the involved companies are the most attracting target for different
cybercriminals and hackers. This is due to the reason that the tourism department deals with
several kind of business transactions. With the rise of blockchain technology, the tourism sector
is progressing towards prescriptive and predictive models in order to support the activities of
real-time decision making (Liu, 2016). The blockchain technology has a huge opportunity for
growth within the tourism sector. In the recent times, it has been further seen that hackers have

5BLOCKCHAIN AND CYBERSECURITY: APPLICATIONS IN TOURISM AND TRANSPORTATION
turned their attention from retail business sectors towards the tourism sector. The tourism sector
supports rich consumer data that becomes a valuable and strategic asset of the organisation. With
the huge growth and progress in technological aspects within the tourism sector, hence this
sector should need to plan for a strategy to mitigate the several vulnerabilities and thus also
enhance the cyber risks.
The impact of AI and forensics could be brought within the - market to leverage secure
ecosystems and also offer end-to-end solutions based on security. Some of the critical
technologies that could put an impact over the security of the tourism sector are endpoint
security, surveillance, cloud security, behavioral analytics, email security and post-breach
consultancy services (Yli-Huumo et al., 2016). The inclusion of such high security services
within the business aspects of the tourism sector would ensure the business owners and the
customers that their data remains entirely secure during the time of transaction.
2.4 Future Implications of Blockchain technology within Tourism sector
With each passing day, the blockchain technology has developed more kind of useful
solutions for the various sectors of application. The blockchain revolution has incurred more
kind of success in the tourism sector. The transport sector holds important customer data such as
credit card information, passport information and various other pieces of photo identification
(Friedlmaier, Tumasjan & Welpe, 2017). With the help of blockchain technology, a customer
would be able to book their tickets directly. This would also eliminate the need of an
intermediary such as different travel websites to book the desired hotel spots.
The present technology that is available could enable a smartphone to leverage the
blockchain within the next five years. This kind of innovation within the provided services
would simplify the experiences for travellers. Smart contracts could also be designed and coded

6BLOCKCHAIN AND CYBERSECURITY: APPLICATIONS IN TOURISM AND TRANSPORTATION
in order to create processes. This would simplify the data of traveller as the data would be
scanned whenever a traveller would enter within an airport (Hawlitschek, Notheisen & Teubner,
2018). Real-time algorithmic checks would also be included within the technology in order to
complete the smart contract. This would also ensure a successful documentation of the entire
processes and also ensures that the tickets and security of payment are valid. Blockchain
technology would also be able to provide an ability for the creation of seamless tracking of
inventory and systems of supply chain. This technology would also provide facility to customers
to avoid overbooking (Risius & Spohrer, 2017). Hence, with the use of technology and the
impacts made in the present situations, it could be understood that the technology would prove to
be the backbone support system of the tourism and transportation sector.
3. Conclusion
From the conclusions drawn from the above discussion, it could be concluded that with
the impact of blockchain in the tourism sector, it would help to prove major kind of benefits for
the sector. Various popular airlines are in the process of installing universally acceptable
standards of blockchain ID in order to help in simplifying the travel experience for customers.
The International Air Transport Association are rethinking about the ways in which blockchain
The inclusion of blockchain technology in the travel sector would require a huge amount of
cyber security measures that would secure the confidentiality of the airline sector. From the
current situation, it has been understood that the travel companies and airlines carriers should
rethink about their business models. Hence, it could be concluded that blockchain technologies
and the several capabilities would be able to bring endless number of possibilities towards the
transportation business. Although the changes within the industry would take certain time to
settle but still this the industry would reap greater profits for the business.

7BLOCKCHAIN AND CYBERSECURITY: APPLICATIONS IN TOURISM AND TRANSPORTATION

8BLOCKCHAIN AND CYBERSECURITY: APPLICATIONS IN TOURISM AND TRANSPORTATION
References
Friedlmaier, M., Tumasjan, A., & Welpe, I. M. (2017). Disrupting industries with blockchain:
The industry, venture capital funding, and regional distribution of blockchain ventures.
Hawlitschek, F., Notheisen, B., & Teubner, T. (2018). The limits of trust-free systems: A
literature review on blockchain technology and trust in the sharing economy. Electronic
commerce research and applications, 29, 50-63.
Kwok, A. O., & Koh, S. G. (2018). Is blockchain technology a watershed for tourism
development?. Current Issues in Tourism, 1-6.
Liu, P. T. S. (2016, November). Medical record system using blockchain, big data and
tokenization. In International conference on information and communications
security (pp. 254-261). Springer, Cham.
Longhi, C., Mariani, M. M., & Rochhia, S. (2016). Sharing and tourism: The rise of new markets
in transport. Documents de travail GREDEG—working paper series, (01).
Önder, I., & Treiblmaier, H. (2018). Blockchain and tourism: Three research
propositions. Annals of Tourism Research, 72(C), 180-182.
Risius, M., & Spohrer, K. (2017). A blockchain research framework. Business & Information
Systems Engineering, 59(6), 385-409.
Yli-Huumo, J., Ko, D., Choi, S., Park, S., & Smolander, K. (2016). Where is current research on
blockchain technology?—a systematic review. PloS one, 11(10), e0163477.

9BLOCKCHAIN AND CYBERSECURITY: APPLICATIONS IN TOURISM AND TRANSPORTATION