Do you work in travel or tourism? Looking for information about how to launch an NFT travel project for your destination?
NFTs, or Non-Fungible Tokens, represent an exciting possibility for the travel industry. And yet, they are still very little known in the tourism space. You can still count the number of active NFT travel and tourism projects on two hands.
Still, there is a lot to be excited about, especially in the way they can affect seasonality, promote conservation, and connect travelers and tourists to a destination before and after their adventure.
To help you figure out whether an NFT travel project is right for your destination and to start building one, we’ve put together this brief guide.
What are NFTs?
Let’s start with what you need to know about NFTs and travel. Non-Fungible Tokens refer to what is known as a digital asset.
As opposed to other assets, like stocks, this digital asset is unique. It is not duplicable and only exists on a blockchain network. This one-of-a-kind digital item may include audio files, photographs, or artwork to be sold.
And it’s worth keeping in mind that this is still very early in their development. Many other use cases will be implemented over the coming years, which is why we’re so optimistic about the use for travel space.
There are many advantages to starting NFT projects, such as improving marketing and brand awareness. As we discussed with an NFT project in Slovenia, you can also use it to tap into new tourist markets.
Start With Defining Your Business Goals
When starting any NFT project, it is important to have clearly defined business goals. Whether you are working with a hotel or as a destination, you likely have goals already.
This travel NFT project, then, should serve those goals. Though the conversations about NFTs in the past have been about how much they’ve sold for, these are rare outcomes. It’s much better to focus on your business and how they can enhance what you are already doing.
Lately, we’ve seen an increase in NFT travel opportunities in the digital travel industry. The use of NFT for customer relations management and marketing services is among the digital trends to watch out for. If you are looking for ways to reduce seasonality in your destination, travel NFTs can also be an interesting tool.
While there are a number of businesses that just want to be “the first hotel to use NFTs” or “the first destination to use NFTs”, that has limited staying power. What digital travel marketing needs to keep in mind is what happens after that initial press coverage happens. How will you continue to incorporate NFTs? How will you have conversations with your future customers about them? How will this make their travel experience better?
Go beyond NFTs as a travel market trend and use the technology intelligently and smartly.
In a quick note about technology, this article will not touch on the differences or benefits of each blockchain for NFT travel projects. Just keep in mind that a strong NFT travel project will consult with other experienced NFT agencies or thought leaders to understand which platform is best for them, including determining the specific kind of token you intend to use.
How Travel NFT Projects Can Enhance Destination Marketing
If you’re looking for ways to promote your destination, there are a few key ways that NFT travel projects can help.
- Collaborations and partnerships with digital artists – Just like you’re used to working with influencers to help get your hotel or destination in the eyes of excited travelers, digital artists are another great partner to open up your destination to a new audience. The result is the production of distinct digital artwork, which can be given away in competitions or sold.
- Enhanced customer loyalty – The most innovative customer-powered travel uses have been on NFT-powered reward programs. Many businesses are already running schemes for customer loyalty, they reward customers who frequent, The NFT technology is then used to create a reward program for customers. or make referrals to family and friends. By issuing a customer with an NFT, which encompasses all their data and records. It is key since it helps create a unique key for each customer, with all the important data securely stored. The customer can then use the digital file to claim loyalty points on transactions checked into restaurants and hotels.
- Fundraising opportunities – The new models for fundraising and ownerships through NFT is a new exciting NFT travel opportunity whose main focus is on new ownership creation models and fundraising using technology enabled by NFT’S. An example is how cafes, hotels, and restaurants sell a part of their premises or shares of ownership, and the symbolism of the sale is recorded via an NFT.
Organizations might find it better to sell NFT shares, giving a chance to local communities to be attached to assets that make them more successful. On the other hand, selling other NFT content is a way of acquiring wealth, which is applicable in restaurants, hotels, and the air industry.
Examples Of Travel Brands Using NFTs for Travel Marketing
The idea of better serving your customers and promoting your destination sounds great in theory.
What does it look like in practice, though? Let’s take a look at a few current use cases – and if you’d like more NFT travel project use cases, click here.
Travala
Travala is one of the larger online booking platforms globally. It is also a blockchain-based online travel platform. This platform is well known for selling and marketing travel products from customers of an estimated 90,000 destinations looking forward to paying with cryptocurrency cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoins.
Their Travel Tigers NFT, which is based on the Ethereum blockchain, extends benefits to travelers like:
- Loyalty rewards – users can get up to 10% rewards for bookings made on the platform once the trip is completed
- Pay with AVA – Using the AVA token can reduce booking prices an extra 3%
- Proof of Travel – Prove you traveled with claim stamps and badges
- Concierge Access – Bookings over $20,000 in value will get access to a specialized concierge service
- Travel metaverse – Members get exclusive access to events in the real world and in digital metaverses
- Travel drops – Members get a chance to be rewarded with travel experiences
AirBaltic and NFT Planies
AirBaltic is an airline based in Latvian, which became famous when it launched its NFT travel awareness campaign called Planies. This was the most important way of uplifting Latvia’s cities as tourist destinations.
By participating in Planies, travelers can expect “various travel-related benefits of the airBaltic Club loyalty programme, including loyalty points, vouchers and other surprising privileges.”
Dream Hollywood Hotel
The Dream Hollywood Hotel, in Los Angeles, California, is launching their own NFT-driven Social Club at Dream Hollywood. Their NFT features Perry Cooper NFT artwork
Benefits of this NFT travel project include:
- Gallery event access
- Recreation hotel area access, including cabanas, pool, and lounge
- Digital access to their metaverse
- Discounts on rooms, meeting + event spaces
Flyfish Club
The Flyfish Club, known as the world’s first NFT restaurant, is a private club accessible only through NFT ownership. What makes it strategic is that it is found in New York City and has benefitted from being the first NFT restaurant. The Flyfish Club members will have access to a private dining room, cocktail lounge, upscale restaurant, omakase room, and outdoor space.
Conservation-based WildEarth NFTs
One of the top broadcasters of Livestream nature and animal experiences, WildEarth, recently released an NFT collection that gave nature enthusiasts and fans a chance to give more support to conservation.
The WildEarth advertising, which was aired live from the popular Djuma Game Reserve in South Africa for more than ten years, is going into a new venture of making non-fungible tokens (NFTs). This collection will showcase some of the most interesting animals they have been broadcasting since the start of the organization.
Collectors will follow up on each animal’s life on WildEarth TV, but some of these NFTs from this moment into the future are gathered by the wildlife conservancies where it is home to animals and is also an incentive to make them stay safe.
Disadvantages of Starting An NFT Travel Project
While the advantages of starting an NFT travel project can include tapping into new travel markets, creating unique experiences and connections with travelers, and improving seasonality, there are also disadvantages, too.
The primary disadvantage of NFT travel projects include:
- Heavy use of technology – Given that launching an NFT travel project requires knowledge of the blockchain, internet communities, social media, and more, not every destination or company will have the resources to launch and then manage their NFT collection for the long-term.
- Trustworthiness of cryptocurrency – One issue is the reluctance of certain governments and certain tourists to embrace blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. While some are quite encouraging, others are skeptical, so depending on where in the world you are – and where your tourists are coming from – you may find your project is received in different ways.
- Long-term investment – Unlike paid advertising, which might get you clicks and visitors to your site today, NFT projects are designed to be longer-term. You should be thinking in terms of months for building up to a launch, and years for the usability and engagement in the project. While the benefits of NFT travel projects could be huge, it might not be right for every business.
What To Keep In Mind With Your NFT Travel Project
The most important thing you should do when launching an NFT project is to understand your goals first. You should also find out what type of tokens you need to use because there are different types of tokens used in different businesses.
The NFT model we have created above was meant to give a hint for customers to have a clear picture when making an NFT tourist collection while applying the points mentioned earlier in the article.
We hope you have now known a few of the opportunities and risks to launching your own NFT travel project. Want to chat about the best ways to launch your project, or to promote your existing NFT travel project? Feel free to get in touch with us.