Travala.com, the hotel booking service, has announced its strategic merger with TravelByBit, the flight booking website, which is backed by the leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance, to build one of the largest online travel agencies around the world, where users will get to book from over 2 million hotels and 600 airlines.
Today (on May 20), it has been reported that Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the CEO of Binance, praised the firms as he believes that they are able to provide a state-of-the-art travel booking service for the crypto community.
However, Travala.com currently supports payments in fiat and over 25 popular cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Binance Coin (BNB) and Binance Dollar (BUSD) and features the best price guarantee.
#Binance-Backed Crypto Travel Firms https://t.co/CL8FxAXFXS and https://t.co/W74L3AVA2l Mergehttps://t.co/6kHZvcwk95 — Travala.com ✈️ 🏨 (@travalacom) May 20, 2020
The platform also has its own AVA token which grants users access to bonuses and discounts that shortly will be available on TravelByBit as well.
A Travala spokesperson explained:
“As the native cryptocurrency of the Travala.com platform, AVA can now be used for payments, receiving loyalty rewards and accessing exclusive discounts and bonuses as part of our Smart Program. […] Every time a booking is completed on Travala.com, the traveller gets 2% of the total booking price back in AVA.”
Likewise, Juan Otero, the CEO of Travala.com, said:
“We couldn’t be more excited to join forces with TravelbyBit, which is backed by Binance and have constantly been achieving and pushing crypto adoption by providing blockchain-based online travel booking services. We share similar values with Binance and TravelbyBit and are fully aligned on our vision for the future of massive cryptocurrency adoption.”
Someone asked me, why would you back/invest in a travel business with COVID going on? Me: because I know we will beat COVID and it will pass. #Crypto will stay. Who wants to travel afterwards? ✈️🏨🔶 https://t.co/epOz399EWZ — CZ Binance 🔶🔶🔶 (@cz_binance) May 20, 2020
Caleb Yeoh, the CEO of TravelByBit, said:
“On behalf of everyone at TravelbyBit we are really excited to work with the team at Travala.com to advance the usage of blockchain and cryptocurrency within the travel space. The combined teams will make this goal more likely.”
Similarly, CZ said:
“Travala.com and TravelbyBit have proven their ability to build world-class travel booking platforms that the crypto community love. We are looking forward to supporting them in their journey and bringing more widespread crypto utility through travel.”
https://t.co/CL8FxAXFXS Merges with @Binance-backed @TravelbyBit#Travala’s native cryptocurrency $AVA will power the merged platform with the added utility of flight bookingshttps://t.co/X9fB5PRwyF — Travala.com ✈️ 🏨 (@travalacom) May 20, 2020
As per the report, a representative of the firms, said:
“The merged platform is forecasting next 12-month revenue levels in excess of US $10 million based on the existing growth traction in travel bookings prior to COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions being put in place.”
It has been analyzed that the firms claim that the merged platform will be better than traditional alternatives since it will offer tokenized rewards and more payment options.
Thus, the platform focuses on the underserved niche of blockchain and cryptocurrency enthusiasts.
Source: Cointelegraph | Binance