As digital assets become popular, the travel industry is starting to embrace them. Companies are now looking to attract crypto holders worldwide, and booking travel with cryptocurrency is on the rise. Now, it is time for the NFTs to get aquatinted within the tourism sector. The Atlanta-based EV Hotel, the first crypto and tech hotel brand, announced in late February that the brand is creating an exclusive NFT membership for its clients as part of a visionary business approach that aims to combine comfort and technology hospitality space, equipped to innovate the current hotel loyalty programs. This is the first hotel with an NFT rewards program.
NFTs, an acronym for “non-fungible tokens”, is a digital asset that represents real-world objects. They can be artwork, music, in-game items or even a video. For being no-fungible, NFTs are essentially one of a kind and have unique identifying codes. This new digital investment trend is also seen as a good opportunity for artists who struggle to profit through their work. As Coindesk reported recently, some African-American artists, in addition to helping them independently monetize their work, said that NFTs is opening up the typically exclusive art world to artists from diverse backgrounds.
“Hotel loyalty programs have not changed since their inception. It is time these outdated, restrictive rewards programs are disrupted, and we aim to do just that” says Ken Patel, Chairman & Founder of EV Hotel in a press release. “We are decentralizing the conventional hotel rewards program by empowering consumers to take control of the benefits they receive from being loyal customers with a highly exclusive offering,” he added.
Patel said that the company looks to revolutionize the hospitality industry with innovations through digital transformation. The initial EV Hotel will be the world’s first crypto and tech hotel brand, that will provide the full scale of automation that streamlines operations and guest experiences. According to EV Hotel, each of its facilities will feature IOT devices that lessen the burden on the task-heavy systems in hospitality and drive more focus on service and guest engagement with technology and crypto for the guests.
According to Brian J. Esposito CEO & Founder Esposito Intellectual Enterprises & Chief Strategy Officer of EV Hotel, that’s the current intense connection millions of people around the world are feeling when it comes to NFTs.
“NFT holders and lovers, around the world, will be able to experience as a community, a place to go to and be completely immersed in exceptional services, technologies, crypto, and NFT based experiences in both the physical world as well as in the Metaverse. The hospitality market is salivating over this, and we hope to create a model that other flags will want to replicate to properly cater to this amazing community.”
According to DappRadar, a data tracking website for blockchain-based investments, the NFTs holders invested US$ 25 billion in 2021. A significant growth compared to the previous year, in which the number of investments was only US$ 94.9 million.