Bitcoin users spend more on travel, OTA says
Saturday, 27 Sep, 2015
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Bitcoin savvy shoppers spend more than their credit card wielding contemporaries when booking travel, says Spanish online travel agency Destinia.
The OTA first began accepting the cryptocurrency back in 2014 and says customers using Bitcoin spend €16 ($18) more on average per transaction.
It reporetd an average spend of €361 ($400) for credit card transactions while Bitcoin users spent €377 ($477).
Despite this the volume of Bitcoin transactions has softened in recent months, Destinia said.
It puts this down to increased competition in the online travel space for Bitcoin, such as the likes of OTA heavyweight Expedia.
More significantly, Bitcoin’s value has halved since Destinia launched the payment option, and Expedia also reported cooling demand for Bitcoin bookings recently for the same reason.
"Despite all of this, we are delighted with the way in which this payment method [bitcoin] is performing and we foresee a lot of potential," a Destinia spokesperson said.
"Last year bitcoin was mostly used for paying for hotel reservations, this year we have noted a significant increase in bitcoin payments for flight bookings and currently, sales for both are pretty level."
Last month Destinia expanded the payment option to include flight bookings for low cost airlines, extending the number of global airlines to 600 that can be booked with Bitcoin on Destinia’s website.
The company also accepts the cryptocurrency for rail bookings.
"For us, the client is the most important and our clients want two things: price and service. Therefore, we make every effort to constantly innovate in both areas", said Destinia CEO Amuda Gouell.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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