"Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world." -Gustav Flaubert.

The spirit of adventure and exploration lies deep within our souls. But beyond our exploration needs travel is a necessity of existence. Be it visiting a foreign tourist destination, taking a business trip or simple family related travels, we all crave for convenience in our travels. And that is exactly what Tripio is offering its users.

Tripio is a decentralized marketplace for hospitality services, based on blockchain technology. Tripio will connect customers and service providers globally in a peer to peer network. After the successful launch of the HADAX 2.0 Regime, Tripio is one of the projects that qualified for listing on Huobi HADAX having completed a rigorous listing process that involved cross evaluation by reputable institutions and a democratic community vote. To all Tripio community members and interested investors, this is great news as they can now maximize on the convenience and global reach that the Huobi Global platform offers to traders.

Unlike most blockchain startups, TRIPIO has already made inroads into the travel industry and currently provides access to over 450, 000 hotels globally. The average booking through the Tripio platform tops 300 daily. In essence, Tripio aims to become the blockchain version of Airbnb, but with better ecological construction. At present, the growth of the sharing economy does not reflect equally to its ecological contributors. The majority of the value created through the peer to peer transactions is hogged by the centralized platforms which host these services. To achieve a fair redistribution of all ecological benefits to contributors, Tripio will restructure the existing incentive mechanism through the TRIO token.

First, let's look at the challenges the travel industry currently faces.

🔸 Credit risk between suppliers and users

The negative effect of centralization is that entities seek to keep their competitive advantage and therefore they lack the motivation to share their data among all players. As such, the intermediaries charged with establishing trust between service providers and customers have no way of ensuring the creditworthiness of both service providers and customers.

This system is inherently flawed since beyond viewing the previous ratings of a given service provider, the customer has no way of ensuring the terms of the deal will be upheld once payment is made. For example, if a customer paid for two advertised rooms, but on arrival finds that one of the rooms is not available, the discrepancy will reflect negatively on the booking platform. This situation is further complicated by the fact that most service providers demand payments upfront. A system for providing real-time updates on the capacity of suppliers to meet the demands of customers is paramount in building a credible sharing economy platform.

🔸 Fake comments/reviews

Almost all first-time purchases are influenced by recommendations; as such reviews play a major role in the performance of a product in the market. To attain more profits, some merchants engage in faking reviews of their products in order to attract more clients. The global travel industry is especially susceptible to this type of fraud, as customer preferences are more subjective. As such, some service providers use dubious means to present positive reviews of their services. The net effect is that the more deserving service providers lose clients to the unscrupulous players. Additionally, since the ill players do not live up to their fake reviews, they hurt the travel industry since customers lose trust in the whole system. There is a need for a credible rating system which provides customers with the true insight before they commit to their choice travel service providers. Such a system is vital to the growth of a healthy and sustainable sharing economy ecosystem.

🔸 High middleman fees

The current model of operation for sharing economy hospitality industry comes in two levels. The first level is the platform fees commission. The average market commission for using platforms are in the upward of 10 percent of the cost. The second level of costs come from cross-border transaction charges which are represented by foreign exchange fees and payment platforms such as VISA which constitute upwards of 3% of transaction costs. These costs add up to squeeze the profits of the service provider while synchronously increasing the costs to the customer.

TRIPIO SOLUTIONS

The feature that will make Tripio transcend competitors lies in their intuitive solutions which address the challenges of the existing travel industry.

🔹 Decentralized data on suppliers and users

Tripio has in place a robust credit rating system which is based on the reviews from each entities trade history. All the reviews are transparent and tamperproof as they are stored on the blockchain. These reviews will form the basis of the reputation score of everyone
The most significant aspect of TRIPIO's mode of operation is that each step of the trade will be monitored and enforced by smart contracts to ensure every one holds up their end of the deal. Any dispute arising along the way will be resolved through an autonomous arbitration system.

🔹 Anti-cheating facility based on AI

Artificial mechanisms to fight false reviews exist, however, these systems are not effective due to the fact that there is little or no data sharing between centralized platforms. As such, deep learning is constrained to the fragmented and limited data available between the platforms. TRIPIO will rely on the decentralized data storage on the blockchain to complete user's behavior chain through Intact Footprint Records. Users who are identified as false reviewers will have punished by reducing their reputation score. Consequently, users with low credit score will have little influence on the credit rating of others.

🔹 No commissions Fees

On Tripio, there will be no commission fees, thanks to the decentralized network based on blockchain technology. Service providers will be able to publish offers from anywhere in the world and benefit from a global customer base on the TRIPIO network. Since Tripio also supports fiat payments for services, users will only be charged 1–3% for currency conversion.

Strategic Partnerships

Tripio is also in partnership with established institutions in the Fintech industry which will be crucial in achieving its development goals. These include;

BlockVc

BlockVc is a financial firm that mainly focuses on blockchain investments. BlockVC services encompass investment banking, venture funding, asset management and providing research and advisory services. Tripio will gain a lot from the experience and connections of Block VC within the blockchain space. Block VC also stands to gain by including TRIO, a token with significant upside potential in its investment portfolio.

TRON

TRON is one of the giants of the blockchain industry and has the thirteenth largest cryptocurrency by market cap as of writing this article. TRON is a platform built for content creators which provides an avenue for creatives to publish and manage their contents based on blockchain based distributed storage technology. Travel industry and entertainment industry go hand in hand; hence the two can mutually provide each other with competitive advantages in their respective industries. In a sample scenario, TRON will provide entertainment services to complement users' travel experiences. On the other hand, entertainment fans can enjoy TRIPIO services when going to their favorite concert.

Take Away

The global travel industry keeps growing thanks to the increasing technological advancements and the better transportation networks. According to a report by Reserchnester, investment in the global travel and tourism industry is projected to have a year on year growth rate of 4.7% from a total valuation of USD 814 Billion in 2014 to USD 1,336 Billion in 2025. Additionally, the sharing economy model, backed by the internet and smart devices, has opened up new economic opportunities in the hospitality industry which were previously not available. Consumer insights also reveal that there is a higher expectation for value and personalization. TRIPIO can tap into this booming market by leveraging blockchain technology in addressing the operational inefficiencies of the travel industry to provide value while relying on the dynamism of the sharing economy markets to provide personalization.

As far as blockchain projects go, there aren't many competitors that have specifically narrowed down to travel industry services. There are a number of existing blockchain platforms which serve the sharing industry in the broader sense. In my opinion, blockchain startups face cutthroat competition, mostly from newer models which offer the same product but packaged in a different technology. Success is therefore reliant on focus, especially by targeting a niche market and establishing a dominant position in that sector. In this regard, TRIPIO's first mover advantage and profitable area of focus should provide investor confidence.

Tripio will be listed on Huobi Hadax this week. You can sign up on Huobi Global here to start trading TRIO tokens.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended as investment advice. It is for informational purposes. You should always do your own research.