I think what OP says can happen in the future, as we see that new technology is invented by many people every day.
They want to use robots and other automation to makes their life simple.
That can impact the cryptocurrency, and we don't need to use fiat to pay, and we can only scan the barcode from the wallet to pay something.
Right now, you can use crypto to pay something, but well, we can not see many offline or online stores that will accept crypto as a new option in payment method.
But to see cryptocurrency can be used as a secondary payment system will need time.
It's inevitable for new technologies to develope and expand and take more and more important place in our lives. However, I think that such progress isn't so visible in case of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general. Still very smal people use Bitcoin as a payment, many see it purely as asset and still very limited number of merchants accept Bitcoin or crypto as a payment method. That includes travel agencies too so I don't expect major progress to happen over night. Also, there is lack of regulation for cryptocurrencies especialy in financial world.
In the future we'll might see some improvement, especialy if such pandemics or something even worse become our reality for longer period of time but nothing will happen over night.
Yes, you are right. The progress can only run if the mass adoption happens in all countries, but I guess the progress is happening since 2017 when the crypto market gets skyrocket.
I guess many people aware of that and make them curious, and finally, some of them have invested in crypto.
But sooner or later, we will see an explosion in the crypto world when the crypto market can back to recover.
The travel agencies will try to use bitcoin because I see that many of them offer their services via the internet or use an app for the mobile phone, which can lead them to learn about the new payment system.
The improvement itself will always get better because we are still using the newest technology to have a better life too.