Trust in Tourism via Blockchain Technology: Results from a Systematic Review

Trust-free and trust-regulated systems based on blockchain technology (BCT) are currently experiencing the maximum hype and promise to revolutionise entire domains. Tourism products (intangible services) are highly dependent on trust and reputation management that is traditionally centralised and delegated to "expected" reliable third-parties (e.g., TripAdvisor). Although BCT has only recently started approaching the tourism industry and being employed in real-world applications, the scientific community has already been extensively exploring the promises of BCT. Therefore, there is an impending need for organising and understanding current knowledge and formalise societal, scientific, and technological challenges of applying BCT in the tourism industry. This paper moves the first step, presenting a systematic scientific literature review of studies involving BCT for tourism purposes. Providing a comprehensive overview, actors, assumptions, requirements, strengths, and limitations characterising the state of the art are analysed. Finally, advantages and future challenges of applying BCT in the tourism area are discussed.