Travel Reviews are broken, can Blockchain save them?

in #travel6 years ago (edited)

We rely on the opinions of our peers to make informed decisions. This holds true in our personal lives, and it extends to our social selves, creating a strong reliance on word-of-mouth advertising and online reviews.

Businesses caught onto this quirk of human nature and have started taking advantage of it. The internet made it easier than ever to push fake news or release biased opinions to sway consumers in a more profitable direction.

Censored and fake reviews seem harmless enough when it comes to trinkets in online stores. But when you're planning a vacation or looking for a lush travel destination, there's a lot more at stake than pocket change.

Travelers spend thousands of dollars on a single trip. And naturally, they want the best experience possible. Most turn to travel review sites such as TripAdvisor or Yelp when looking for points of interest or places to eat.

But with the increasing centralization of sites like these, those reviews have become unreliable at best, and outright lies at worst.

Many of the problems with the travel reviews industry can be addressed by taking a fresh look at the system from the ground-up. Decentralizing these services, for example, could eliminate many of the trust and reliability issues, all thanks to blockchain technology.

Traveling for Profit

Worldwide travel, tourism, and hospitality is a multi-trillion dollar industry. Its largest sub-sectors include accommodations, air travel, and food -- three essentials that make up over 45% of the industry's profits.

In a 2013 study released by the World Travel & Tourism Council, tourism in the U.S. generated more than 5.6 million jobs and $448 billion in GDP. To put that in perspective, travel and tourism brought in more earnings than the insurance or food and beverage industries.

These numbers have grown significantly in recent years. In 2016, travel and tourism in the U.S. generated $1.5 trillion in economic output, supporting over 7.6 million jobs. These numbers are expected to rise sharply over the next six years.


Source: World Travel & Tourism Council via Market Realist

Our tendency to prioritize peer opinions means that the deciding factor in where to stay, which airline to fly, and which restaurants to favor often comes down to online reviews. This gives popular review sites like TripAdvisor and Yelp a virtual monopoly on where people spend their money.

Travel is a big business, and few of the organizations involved are willing to take chances when it comes to profit. Preferential treatment, censoring user submissions, and paid-for reviews are not uncommon practices. This provides visitors with a list of businesses that bring the travel site more profits, not a collection of the best restaurants or most interesting destinations.

Centralization, Trust, and Control


Centralization has eroded the reliability of the travel information industry. When a single entity controls what opinions are displayed and which businesses visitors see, it clearly doesn't exist for the benefit of travelers.

Just take a look at TripAdvisor, one of the world's largest travel review destinations. The site has built its brand on trust and honesty, yet it operates with almost zero transparency. Businesses that pay extra get preferential treatment in site rankings and search results, and hotels are strong-armed into upgrading paid packages or face reduced visibility.

These practices do not benefit users, they only increase a single company's profits. They're toxic for small businesses and they hurt travelers in the long run.

Reliability of published reviews is another source of frustration. If a traveler had a bad experience at a destination, they should be allowed to share their thoughts. Unfortunately, centralized travel sites have a financial incentive to keep these to a minimum.

The average domestic trip costs a traveler about $144 per night. For international trips, that figure jumps to $271. Most people put a tremendous amount of research into their travel plans before stepping on a plane. If they form their opinions by reading pay-for-popularity travel sites, they're probably not getting the best experience possible.

No Incentive for Quality Content


The current market leaders in the travel reviews industry lack any systems that encourage accurate submissions. It's quantity over quality, which is great for web traffic but terrible for generating usable information.

The underlying problem is incentive. Users who share reviews for restaurants, hotels, and the like are offered nothing for their efforts. This directly impacts the travel community. Fewer people are able to spend time creating in-depth reviews, allowing inaccurate pieces and emotional rants to dominate the scene.

The incentive issue has a trickle-down problem, as well. With lower quality reviews pouring in on a massive scale, travel sites must hire quality control teams to check content for inaccuracies. These groups can catch obvious errors, but it's unlikely they possess intimate knowledge of every attraction on their site.

Many tourists, frequent travelers, and digital nomads do create high-quality reviews for the businesses they visit. The most prolific of these creators set up their own blogs.

But market leaders consistently dominate search rankings, so anyone sharing travel content on their personal site faces an uphill battle for visibility.

Making a difference with Blockchain


Centralized travel review platforms have led the industry into a sad state. Success is about quantity, content partnerships, and trending SEO -- not usable travel tips or insightful reviews.

This is where blockchain technology enters the picture.

By removing centralized sources from the reviews industry, users regain control. With the right systems in place, a blockchain platform could restore transparency to online travel reviews, reward travelers for sharing their knowledge, and provide a reliable resource for anyone feeling a bit of wanderlust.

Blockchain technology has already disrupted several major industries. New projects are already bringing decentralization to the travel scene, the most promising of which is Explorio.

Explorio's Unique Solution


Explorio is the world's first blockchain-based travel reviews platform. It was designed by travelers, for travelers, and it has a unique set of features that could make it an important player in the travel and tourism industry.


Explorio works through a decentralized and incentivized submissions model.

Users provide reviews, answer questions, and submit travel tips. These submissions are peer reviewed for accuracy, and published content is upvoted or downvoted by the community based on its usefulness.

Creators and curators are rewarded for their contributions with cryptocurrency payments using Explorio's spendable, exchangeable token.

The entire system is structured around overcoming the weaknesses in the centralized model of travel reviews. Explorio inspires high-quality reviews, is fully transparent, and encourages accurate and insightful submissions.

How Explorio Works


Explorio isn't just looking to return travel reviews to travelers. It seeks to build a multi-purpose travel platform that can inspire millions of people to start exploring the world.

Submitting Content


Engaging with Explorio begins with a submission. It can be a review of a museum or attraction, notes about a place of interest, information about a historical sight, or reviews for hotels, restaurants, and airlines.

Submitted content enters a peer review process before going live. This gives community members a chance to check for errors.

Unlike centralized sites, this isn't an invitation to censor submissions. It's a filter that prevents off-topic content, blatantly contradictory information, plagiarism, spam, and overtly slanderous language.

Peer reviewers are chosen by prioritizing users whose previously submitted content is in close proximity to the content in review. These users are more likely to be familiar with the attraction or business, which means they can spot errors standard quality control teams would likely miss.

Interacting with Reviews


Once a submission passes the peer review process, it goes live on Explorio's platform.

Community members can interact with published content by upvoting or downvoting based on overall helpfulness. This serves as a crowd-sourced indicator of quality, allowing the best submissions to naturally rise to the top.

The voting system is also how Explorio determines content creator rewards. The platform's algorithm weighs each vote by the amount of Explorio Honor tokens (XPLH) the voter holds, and how similar the action is to the overall voting pattern.

Payment Incentives


Everyone in the submissions process is incentivized to participate. XPLH is paid to peer reviewers and content creators based on the quality of their work.

Explorio will also reward users who take part in alternative earnings programs. This includes discovering new places and adding them to the platform, collecting bounties by reviewing boosted locations, selling goods on the digital marketplace, and upvoting or downvoting content.

Explorio tokens can be used to encourage review submissions, ask incentivized questions, or spent on digital goods offered by other travelers in the marketplace. They can also be exchanged for other cryptocurrencies, sold for fiat, or spent on travel-related goods from Explorio partners.

Getting Involved


Explorio's long-term goal is to inspire and empower millions of people to travel the world. It's not just a decentralized replacement for TripAdvisor or Yelp; it's an entire ecosystem where travelers can interact and inform each other about their travel experiences.

The Explorio public platform launch is scheduled for 2019. The network will go through two private releases before then, the first of which could launch by the end of 2018.

Explorio is running an ICO from August 1, 2018 until September 15, 2018. If you're interested in participating, be sure to read Explorio's whitepaper for a detailed breakdown of the services it will offer, along with full business and SWOT analyses.

Visit Explorio.com to learn more about the project. You can also follow Explorio's latest developments on Telegram and Twitter.

Original link: https://www.investinblockchain.com/travel-reviews-blockchain/
Author: John Bardinelli

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Trick question. Blockchain can fix anything. It's like the digital version of duct tape.

What is digital WD-40 then? :)

That's what you use when the market is too bearish and you're hoping to turn it to the bulls. :) It's useful, but not as magical as digital duct tape.

good question

They should partner with #Travelblock ICO. Together they will revolutionize the travel industry

This comparison just won you the internet.

Yes @marksheppard and @timsaid we all knows blockchain is a salutation of future problems but question is that when we will accept blockchain.

Yes Blockchain improves ALMOST everything but I mean databases and the internet also imprved everything and blockchainb is just distributed cryptographically signed database with transactions and yeah lo

now anyway this Travel reviews for steem idea...this is a serious idea especially as Expedia just dropped their Bitcoin as payment system ... travel reviews for steem, and i love the research to show how steem will help this happen
Here is a screenshot from https://smt.steem.io which shows this mockup of Disqus style comment widgets to take OVER the blogosphere!

https://finallycomments.com will allow SMTs to give us this steem travel review system @timsaid talks about here

Yes, I agree with you @marksheppard because blockchain is a revolution and it can be used in all fields. But one thing I didn't understand why you said "trick question" ??

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You got a 8.77% upvote from @emperorofnaps courtesy of @marksheppard!

Want to promote your posts too? Send 0.05+ SBD or STEEM to @emperorofnaps to receive a share of a full upvote every 2.4 hours...Then go relax and take a nap!

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I wouldn't say its necessarily ALL technology

Self-upvoting one liner comments 100% without anything for the author is not the future.

lol call them out - 17k SP delegated to this account too

but can't people do what they want with their own money?
There are whales who as i was made to understand by a steemitcleaner witness member who upvote their own posts and comments with over 10 different accounts they also own with full power.
He said the reason it is not a violation is that they are doing whatever they want with their own investments. one of the member has hundreds of thousands in SP in each account and if he downvotes or flags you with all his account you will be crashed right away and the post hidden.

In short i am saying if it is allowed for the whales to self vote each comment 10 times, what is wrong with a minnow upvoting his comment or the OP appreciating the first comment from her?

Too many of us are just salty about what others choose to do with their own investments lol
@steemmatt here is a link to a comment thread where a steemitcleaner upvoted a comment with just "lol hilarious" with his full power. Then the op had also upvoted himself too.

Guiltparty reply to why he gave an upvote on a "LOL" account when he also discourages mamebers from behaving like this

I gotcha. I appreciate your view and know what you mean. This person here may be a minnow, but they rented 17,000 SP and were doing this a few times today. The comments are similar to the "lol" level. It's more of good manners vs abuse from my view in this case. Anyone can vote on whatever, but writing one liners to just self-upvote, while not rewarding the post they're using to do so, makes me roll my eyes and feel inclined to say something.

If I do not get "hidden" comments on my posts now, I get the self upvoted ones. This is a new feature in the last couple of months and very discouraging. Especially when the person does not upvote the post or upvotes it for -0-.

@fitinfun Enjoy with your expression and dont expect others to provide you benefit. i will keep following your post and upvoting . let us encourage each other

does anyone know where i can find info on how much $ your steem power translates into? for instance, if someone has 10,000 sp and they upvote, how much $ would that blog receive?

First of all...what a nice ICO...it changes the world of traveling tourism and advertisement...

secondly, I do really believe that such a system (Steemit) should do some changes in its incentive based economy to prevent whales or above minnows, do self-feeding instead of really contributing with this society and supporting good contents...
there are some possible methods to do so..but right now ...what I see..is not that healthy..many accounts are fake and are just for self upvote...
that's not what we registered for...

Of course, you've got every right to do with your investment as you would.

But, the point is, this is Social Media. Not a business platform. The money that you earn here is not yours. It originates from the Rewards Pool which is currently owned by Steemit Inc. but is actually a part of the people since it has been created by the collective effort of all users on the platform.

It may be their money but is surely not their investment. What you're getting out of the system is not returns on your investment, but rather rewards from the community based on how people appreciate your words. Self-upvoting is a method of cheating around that system by looking to drain the rewards pool, which includes taking rewards for others for your own personal gain. STEEM isn't being grown on trees here. There is a limited amount of it remaining on the platform, and the only way to replenish it is to interact more and bring in new people to the platform.

The rewards pool is there because of the people. The rewards pool is there for the people. The rewards are gained by those who are worthy of it as deemed by all on Steemit. The rewards pool is not for people looking to make money and treating this platform as an investment.

@steemmatt

"Self-upvoting one liner comments 100% without anything for the author is not the future.

It might not be polite , but imo is def the future! I want the mass to buy steem and upvote their selfs. So that they actually are able to make some money out of their investment. What's wrong with that? Let them get a piece of the pie.

"Self-upvoting one liner comments 100% without anything for the author is not the future.

Who decides that? Is that in the whitepaper? I agree is not really polite. But shit happens.

I feel we should not scare those (potential) investors away.

Peace

Thanks for your thoughts. It's not in the white paper, but I feel that Steemit will probably do better in the long run if it's a give and take scenario, not promoted to be a sponge to justly squeeze ROI from. To each their own of course, but Steemit and Steem price appreciation probably will be aided more by sharing the wealth so authors and curators keep promoting the site with content and word of mouth. Earning rewards is part of the selling point and what drives growth best (for example upvoting your comment). Getting deep here, but Steemit is supposed to be a community. I personally prefer not to have those type of investors you mention.

Thank you 2.

I think i see your point. And a lot of folks think like that. IMO its def not realistic. Do you expect that the mass is sincere and a decent writer? What if you invested a few thousand and nobody votes back? Are they not welcome here? ( i think they are more then welcome) What would you expect them to do? They would be morons not to vote for them self. Self voting can be a last resort to protect your investment.

"To each their own of course

Amen

?

I like it but I think you are right

sir please please give me some best information how it work steemit

Well... I think it is the future, but not a very sustainable future.

Nice reply. But , is blockchain really the future of all technology?

May be banking sector?

Circle jerking is the future of Steem blockchain.

yes totally agree with you, everyone these days studying BLOCKCHAIN and lots of business already adopted it.

yes indeed!

yeah! right all business gradually adopted this technology.

Yeah! right all business
Gradually adopted
This technology.

                 - ajaygautam621


I'm a bot. I detect haiku.

haha I get u!

@jiohighfive Yes blockchain will control the transaction system.

You are right MAM ofcource!!!!!!!

really future of famous technology blockchain

yeah because now days every industry trying to use that because its expenses saving future of the world

Yeah... Blockchain is the world's secure wallet today

Yes , well said :)

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I think this kind of idea must run on top of Steem or SMT. I will be pretty optismistic if this comes not in other blockchain. Sticking on something works out is my plan and Steem is one of it. This is hard pass but I like the idea but not the new risky ICO blockchain like this.

Blockchain technology could impact the travel industry in huge ways! For vacation rental companies, like Airbnb, each blockchain could let guests check the authenticity of a host, and vice versa. Verification is one of the most problematic things for these communities as people can create fake profiles or delete one if it gets too many negative reviews. A blockchain would create a permanent record that would help ensure trustworthiness

That’s spot on! The Blockchain technology is about to disrupt many different fields. It’s a process that already began and will gain more momentum. I’m the end, we all benefit from it. As you said we can assure data to be authentic and fight against fake reviews/news

I’m sure there are more things that I am missing because blockchain technology is so cool, and could be used many different ways to impact the travel industry.

Blockchain technology the future and bitcoin What do you think

But wot if even decentralized platfirm can also be manipulated using multiple profiles or using some boots?

Stumbled here somewhat accidentally, but this sounds interesting; I travel fairly extensively giving workshops and use homestay/airbnb type places quite a lot.

To have a travel site/Yelp type venue that's more capable of truly "vetting" what you're getting into would be amazing, especially if two kinds of prominent "lies" could be controlled: Skewed reviews caused by venue owners who either create new profiles or use shills to bypass poor reviews/information... AND "fake negatives" caused by vengeful competitors who send all their friends off to give one-star reviews to others in order to improve their own rank.

Being the Devil's Advocate here for a moment, what will keep the site "honest" in the face of the same group of "money-for-nothing seekers" who have invaded Steemit? That is, loads of "faked" reviews from "Bob in Alabama" who has never left the trailer park, yet is glomming together "authentic sounding" reviews about resorts in BoraBora just by gathering bits and pieces of other reviews from around the web... "because I can make money."

Just hoping that peer-review process (of people close to the venue) gets a REALLY good testing/workout against a horde of test spammers/scammers/exploiters before this is launched!

All the best!

Hey! Thanks for your comment. May I ask for your background and skill set? Maybe we can work together. Feel free to join our explorio telegram and get in touch with us!

I'm an independent counselor/therapist/life coach and I give a lot of motivational and self-development workshops. Spent most of my earlier life in the hospitality industry (hotels/resorts/restaurant management).

Not really in a position to take on additional projects, but appreciate the offer and will certainly make an effort to keep up with developments.

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@transparencybot you're on the @abusereports naughty list for being a super douche!

Bad Steemian! Bad!

The blockchain is the future and We believe in it.

Very interesting looking forward to using this platform.

@eroche it is better to learn from all on this

Hi @timsaid!
First I want to thank you for bringing to us this interesting post.
Secondly, as I am expert in the travel industry and SEO, it makes me double interested into exploring the new blockchain platform, beside some new platforms I am already in.

Thumbs up for the well done work!

@yanipetkov It encourage when experienced person like you express the thoughts regarding posts .

Thanks @rajkarada for your comment! The most important thing I think is that thanks to the progressive people like you and all the blockchain community the World is on the right path. I never stop to think how innovative humankind can be!

Hi there! I just upvoted you using SteemBot JavaScript library!

@yanipetkov Thanks for encouraging. We together can bring good awareness to every society

Glad to have you here. Let us know what you think about explorio once the beta goes online

For sure, will keep you updated! The platform looks very promising, I am sure it will have a huge success. Will see might start promoting it, as I am really interested in it.

How do I get to be as successful as you Timsaid ?

I wating for this in future . Any other option u say me

Hi Tim, could I reach you somehow to promote my website which is based on crypto/ benchmarking and uses Steemit?

Its preety new concept worth exoloring

Decentralization is better than centralization, but it's still no silver bullet by itself. It's very difficult to design a system that is robust enough to withstand astroturf campaigns, bidbots, smear-campaigns of competitors, etc.

decentralization is better than centralization in some ways, but shitty in many others. Decentralization makes progress really hard, for example. In blockchain, it greatly reduces performance.

Exactly even that was my point..decentralization is not everything..

All of the above are what makes me worried about the future of this technology. I travel a lot now and have very good results with reviews on the traditional sites. I mostly use tripadvisor and bookingdotcom for reviews and find what I was expecting when I get there.

@fitinfun dont fear of anything while you travel. your confidence and transperancy will support you from anything. every technology to provide good support

Hi there! I just upvoted you using SteemBot JavaScript library!

@trustpay I will keep upvoting you. let us encourage each other to grow here. Thanks