Travel tech entrepreneur Ralf Usbeck will present his vision of what the future of travel looks like in the next era of the internet at next month’s Travolution European Summit.
The Travel Weekly sister brand will hold its annual conference in London on February 28 with 300 delegates expected to attend to hear about how they can prepare for the future.
Usbeck will join an expert line-up of speakers from the travel and technology sectors, to talk about his latest venture Chain4Travel, a new operating system for travel based on blockchain.
The founder of Traveltainment, which was sold to Amadeus, and Peakwork, Usbeck has established an unrivalled reputation in his native Germany as a leading technology pioneer in the travel sector.
Chain4Travel is building a new technological foundation for travel for the coming Web 3.0 era based on a bespoke Camino blockchain platform.
The firm has attracted a ‘Who’s Who’ of supporters from the travel sector including senior executives from Lufthansa, Kuoni parent Der Touristik, Tui Group, Eurowings and FTI Group.
Usbeck believes the internet is on the cusp of a revolution every bit as fundamental as when the web first emerged in the late 1990s and travel must take its future in its own hands.
“When we started this, we knew only 5% of people have a real idea about this technology, but feedback about what we are doing has been better than expected,” he said.
“We compare it to what it was like in 1997 before the internet really took off. I remember speaking to a regional travel industry group and asked who is online. Only 5% were.
“This is the same. Back then, we knew the internet was coming, but only a few people knew what to do with it.
“In 1997, a lot of people said you will never sell travel on the internet. We have the same potential to completely change the way we do business today with blockchain.”
“If we as an industry family don’t create our own network, we will have to accept one from a big company, maybe from the US again. Therefore, we said let’s do it.”
As well as Usbeck the Travolution European Summit will features senior speakers from Hotelbeds, Egencia and Facebook parent Meta.
The conference will culminate with a presentation by author and tech guru Graham Cooke, who’s book Web3 The End Of Business As Usual was published last November.
Delegates from travel brands can register to attend the Summit for free by agreeing to organise one-to-one meetings with supplier partners.
More: Chain4Travel bids to be the travel operator system for the Web 3.0 revolution