Queensland beach community hopes to lure more tourists as first ‘digital currency town’
Little known beach town Agnes Water is hoping to put itself on the map and boost tourism as Australia’s first ‘digital currency town.’
Despite having a population of only 1,770, the town is touting its crypto-friendly economy with 30 local businesses now adopting digital currencies.
Visitors can use bitcoin, bitcoin cash, litecoin and ethereum for purchses at accommodations, to pay for local tours, eating at restaurants and at the local pub.
"We started from the ground up, shared it with a couple of businesses and they were straight on board … I guess they were international travellers themselves and had heard of these types of payments," said local real estate agent Gordon Christian, who was instrumental in getting local businesses on the bitcoin bandwagon.
The town is working with Queensland-based crypto payments provider TravelbyBit.
"The town has made a very strategic move in trying to appeal to a niche market to take perhaps some of those tourists. If you travel around the world you have to deal with multiple currencies, the exchange rate can be confusing, sometimes you struggle to find ATMs, and sometimes you get swindled by money changers. Travelling with one global currency like Bitcoin, it makes sense," said TravelbyBit CEO Caleb Yeoh.
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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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