Beyond the Buzz: How Blockchain can fix Travel Distribution
Summary
Anke Hsu, Chief Growth Officer of Chain4Travel Association, delivered a pragmatic session at ITB 2026 arguing that blockchain is no longer hype but essential infrastructure for the coming era of agentic AI travel commerce. The session opened by reframing the urgency: Brian Chesky of Airbnb predicted the agentic travel era is only three years away, and Peter Steinberger of Clawbot (now part of OpenAI) noted that 80% of smartphone apps are 'practically dead' as conversational AI interfaces replace click-based funnels. Hsu argued that as AI agents begin searching, recommending, and ultimately booking travel autonomously, the industry needs a trust foundation — and blockchain provides it.
Hsu structured the case around four programmable rails that blockchain enables for agentic commerce: (1) Verified Identity, (2) Deterministic Communication, (3) Payment and Settlement, and (4) Programmable Loyalty.
On identity, Hsu highlighted that the EU Digital Identity Wallet mandate requires member states to provide wallets to citizens by end of 2025/2026, enabling travelers to carry verified credentials and selectively share them across suppliers. Chain4Travel is a member of the APTITUDE large-scale pilot (alongside Camino Network), which focuses on travel flows; a parallel pilot called AMAZON focuses on agentic identities, where a verified AI agent could act on a delegated identity from an EU wallet. Google's AP2 (Agent Payments Protocol) is also moving in the same direction.
On communication, the Camino Network — operated by more than 100 travel companies — offers a network-based alternative to point-to-point API integration. The Camino Messenger bridges legacy systems to the network using a native travel communication standard. Lufthansa ran a hackathon with 13 distribution partners and found that distribution via Camino Messenger is 98% cheaper than current GDS-based channels (cited as 3 cents vs. 160 via GDS). Communication is also 50% greener and 25% faster than traditional channels.
On payment, Hsu described stable coins as digital representations of fiat currency (euro, dollar) available 24/7, cross-border, and reportedly 80% cheaper than traditional transfer channels. MTS, a large DMC with 60 intra-company entities, tested stable coin payments and reduced workload by 95%, with transfer times under 5 seconds at a fraction of a cent per transaction and 100% reliability. Startup Transio addresses the hotel commission payment problem: today 40% of commission invoices result in disputes, settlement cycles average 90 days, and write-offs of 10–15% are common. Some regions are excluded entirely because SWIFT charges would exceed the commission value. Transio provides a coordination layer with a stable coin corridor to solve this. Chain4Travel is also exploring integration with Cubalis, a new European banking consortium including ING and other banks, which will issue its own stable coin.
On loyalty, Travel Token Marketplace (which recently acquired Chain4Travel) offers a plug-and-play digital voucher platform. Vouchers are minted on-chain, making them unique, non-copyable, and personalizable. A live demo was conducted with Holiday Extras and TTM (Travel Token Marketplace): a surprise voucher was created for 100 recipients, sent to Hsu's email, and redeemed on stage via a scanner — at which point the voucher was 'burned' on-chain. The session closed with a Q&A where Hsu confirmed the acquisition by Travel Token Marketplace and that the Camino Network will remain an industry-operated network, but the new ownership will shift focus from infrastructure to solution-level storytelling for travel companies.
Key Takeaways
- •Brian Chesky of Airbnb predicted the agentic travel booking era is approximately three years away, making blockchain trust infrastructure an urgent near-term priority rather than a distant future concern.
- •Peter Steinberger (Clawbot / OpenAI) stated that 80% of smartphone apps are 'practically dead' as AI conversational interfaces displace click-based funnels — the travel industry must shift from being click-optimized to being machine-readable and API-accessible for LLMs.
- •Blockchain provides four programmable rails for agentic commerce: (1) verified identity ('know your agent'), (2) deterministic communication to counter probabilistic AI outputs, (3) secure and auditable payment/settlement, and (4) programmable loyalty at the wallet level.
- •Lufthansa ran a hackathon with 13 distribution partners using Camino Messenger and found distribution costs 98% cheaper than traditional GDS channels — cited explicitly as 3 cents per transaction versus 160 via GDS — plus 50% greener and 25% faster communication.
- •MTS, a large European DMC with 60 intra-company entities, tested stable coin payments and achieved 95% workload reduction, transfer times under 5 seconds, cost of a fraction of a cent, and 100% reliability.
- •Stable coins reduce cross-border transfer costs by approximately 80% compared to traditional channels and operate 24/7 without banking hours or SWIFT dependency, enabling atomic micropayment programming.
- •Startup Transio is addressing hotel commission payment dysfunction: currently 40% of invoices result in disputes, settlement cycles average 90 days, write-off rates of 10–15% are common, and some regions are entirely excluded because SWIFT fees exceed the commission value.
- •The EU Digital Identity Wallet is mandatory for member states to provide to citizens by end of year, enabling verified traveler credentials to be selectively shared across suppliers — for example, sharing frequent flyer status from Lufthansa when booking with British Airways to receive personalized offers.
Transcript
And as promised ladies and gentlemen for the for the final one and a half hours we really dive into travel tech. We do it seriously. We start with blockchain. We go into the travel tech backbones afterwards. And um yeah as I said blockchain is a is the next topic we have. uh had been challenging times I would say for the whole blockchain industry when you look at the exchange causes and the exchange rate rates and uh but on the other hand we are I think we all feel there are use cases and there ...
