Dubai Tourism to Launch Blockchain Encrypted Virtual Market Ecosystem as 10X Global First Innovation

Dubai will be the first city to embark on the journey of democratizing travel through the use of emerging technologies as it adds an additional distribution channel for hotels in its first phase, as its recently announced 10X initiative.

Launched at the World Government Summit by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai Government as one of the ‘Dubai 10X’ projects, Dubai Tourism (DTCM) is set to implement this ground-breaking programme within the next 24 months, enabling Dubai to enhance distribution of its tourism inventory through a future-proofed virtual B2B (business-to-business) marketplace for the travel industry.

Explaining the objective of 10X, HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed said: “Success of governments is determined by their ability and flexibility to re-invent themselves, and upgrade their services to cater to the evolving needs of the community.”

Guided by this principle, the tourism initiative goes beyond providing broader access to the global consumer, and opens up the domestic travel industry to new participants and innovative start-ups into the ecosystem – thus delivering value to Dubai in terms of higher and faster visitor conversion, and greater GDP impact.

The initiative will deliver a sophisticated Blockchain solution with smart contracting across multiple parties involved in the fulfilment of a travel itinerary, to enable the global travel sales ecosystem live access to Dubai’s growing inventory with transparent pricing, providing

travelers the ability to create more tailored journeys, with full confidence that information is authenticated, tamper-proof and hence credible. Designed to make Dubai’s tourism proposition available at right time to the broadest relevant audience in every market – travelers will have enhanced visibility of the most updated data pertaining to the emirate’s diverse offerings, addressing the industry challenge of limited permeation of their varied assets across the year at globally competitive rates, adversely impacting yield especially during shoulder periods, by reducing reliance on third party intermediaries that currently dominate the supply chain.

DTCM will be in close contact with all relevant regulatory authorities in Dubai and partners across government entities as their ongoing support is critical to ensuring the project achieves a successful outcome.

Additionally, the project will involve collaboration with stakeholders in the hospitality and the wider travel and tourism sector in Dubai, particularly in planning and the implementation phases to ensure execution of the programme has factored in all practical considerations to ensure smooth roll out with optimal uptake, and widest adoption. Longer-term, the solution is planned to cover the wider tourism ecosystem, e.g. attraction and event providers, tour-op packages, etc., and enable incremental tourism asset owners and operators to distribute their inventory through the platform.