Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have been making inroads into the world of travel for a while. In March, online travel company MakeMyTrip had launched NFTs of popular destinations in India. The idea was for travellers to own digital collectibles of their favourite destinations, the company had said.
Several entities in the hospitality space have forayed into the world of NFTs. For instance, Singapore-based LynKey is digitising their luxury tourism properties using a token system that will be powered by blockchain. Then there are the customer rewards programmes wherein individuals are issued an NFT which contains their customer records, and creates a unique entry with secure storage of data. This can then be used in hotels and restaurants, or for loyalty points on transactions.
Now, an airplane ticket has been issued in the form of an NFT, and it is probably the most valuable ticket sold in commercial aviation history. The ticket (being labelled as ‘NFTicket’) sold at auction for all of $1 million.
The ‘NFTicket’ is a collaboration between the Spanish airline Air Europa and TravelX, a Spanish company building a blockchain-based distribution protocol for the travel industry.