Bitcoin tourism - a question

[otsaku]

With the apparent difficulty of pushing Bitcoin into the mainstream, I was wondering if Bitcoin tourism would be a possible way of increasing public awareness?

Now I know lots of people are going to throw Overstock, Ebay UK etc. at me, BUT the truth of the matter is that only Bitcoin believers are in a position where they have the currency to use at these places.

If we want a decentralized currency to be the future we need too increase awareness - stating the obvious...


Don't know about the rest of the world but in northern europe people flee to warmer climes in the autumn / winter ( and the wet summers ) and in the summer, even the wet ones, tourists flood in.

I've mentioned in another post that I live on a little island in Denmark, population 3400 but in the summer our population rises to 20000 - we have a total of 150000 tourists passing through the island during the season.

There must be other similar places in the world where the population and amount of business owners is low and hopefully the conversion process would be a little easier.

Maybe I should have entitled this the mission of bitcoin or missionary positions waiting to be filled.

Thoughts, comments, flames, criticisms; welcomed, required and needed. 

[qfdev]

It's a good idea! I definitely think that while the Bitcoin ecosystem remains patchy, there's opportunity to use this as a means to drive tourism.

[otsaku]

Admittedly the porn payments are going to raise awareness for those who want a certain level of anonymity.

But real mainstream acceptance, in my opinion is going to be with more mundane and everyday things. Avoiding currency conversion costs could be a major incentive.

[Frost000]

I was actually thinking of Bitcoin's applications to the world of traveling but realistically, I think we're a long way off from being able to sustain our tourist endeavors solely with Bitcoin.

I do plan on advertising it during my own travels, though. I'll most likely be spending three months next Summer traveling along the Mediterranean coast. If I see merchants accepting BTC, I'll definitely go say hi!

[otsaku]

I'm going to be having a meet with our head of tourism, local business and the mayor in a couple of weeks.

Think I'll try and sell the publicity value of accepting Bitcoin, rather than the advantages of Bitcoin.

[inge]

Well, for traveling people a global currency as Bitcoin can be a positive development. It could be a good idea for Danish people to own some Bitcoins for the times they are traveling to Euro zone...

[otsaku]

Well, for traveling people a global currency as Bitcoin can be a positive development. It could be a good idea for Danish people to own some Bitcoins for the times they are traveling to Euro zone...

Unfortunately I think denmark will be in the euro soon.

[Johnny Bitcoinseed]

Here in the north country, during our cold winters the tourists from the warmer south visit by the thousands to get in on the great skiing, snowboarding, snowmobiling, and other winter sports.

Sounds like a great opportunity to market to the youthful bitcoiners

[gortonc]

I have a very rustic 24 acre goat farm in the mountains of Costa Rica, 45 min. from the Surf mecca of Dominical. Located at 1100 meters, 24 degrees C, year round. Great views, toucans, howler monkeys, and primary forest, hiking to incredible waterfalls. Micro-hydro, off grid 120VAC, all the goatmilk and feta you can drink/eat. Will rent for bitcoin. PM me if interested. :-)

[EvilPanda]

Admittedly the porn payments are going to raise awareness for those who want a certain level of anonymity.

But real mainstream acceptance, in my opinion is going to be with more mundane and everyday things. Avoiding currency conversion costs could be a major incentive.

When you mentioned "missionary positions" in the first post I knew we will eventually end up mentioning porn  

As for tourism, more and more people rent their guest rooms. If you want to visit a country and really get to know it, you have to spend some time with the people, preferably in their own home, eat some homemade food and allow them to show you places. With bitcoin you don't have to worry about the prices or exchange rates, you just take your phone and have fun.

[Sutters Mill]

I don't have the stats to back this, but it seems as though the people who would like to see this happen, me included, are not that into spending BTC at the moment. Everyone seems to be hoarding in the hope that the value will increase (like me). Maybe this is just me and my mentality, but seeing a sign at a store giving me the option to pay in BTC or fiat, knowinf the volatility of BTC, i'm choosing fiat everytime.

Paying for a coffee with 0.0005 BTC could be a LOT of money one day (here's hoping).

Feel free to rip this apart as it's just my $0.02

[Johnny Bitcoinseed]

Maybe like "hoarding" stocks on the market.  But eventually you have to cash them in to enjoy the fruits of your wise investment - otherwise what's the point, unless you want to hand them down to someone you love or donate them to charity.

If you never spend your bitcoins, then that guy who bought a pizza with hundreds of bitcoins several years ago is way ahead of you!

[nodroids]

Admittedly the porn payments are going to raise awareness for those who want a certain level of anonymity.

But real mainstream acceptance, in my opinion is going to be with more mundane and everyday things. Avoiding currency conversion costs could be a major incentive.

I flee to warmer climes, and transaction costs across borders in fiat kill me. I try to get everyone to accept bitcoin for major purchases and if they did, it would make my wintering abroad so much better. Tourism is exactly 'the mundane way to reduce transaction costs' because a foreign currency zone is exactly where bitcoin can shine most in reducting transaction costs.

[spin]

What about counters in airports like the forex ones that accept bitcoin?  

This is where the wait for confirmations might be a problem though?

I'd run it like this:  
1. Arrive at bitcoin desk.  You get a printed voucher with a new deposit address QR and a simple reference/order number.  
2. You transfer bitcoin to this address and hang around waiting for the transaction to get confirmed.  
3. Once the transfer is confirmed you get a call out that order/ref number is ready.
4. You approach counter and provide your printed voucher and QR is scanned to act as confirmation that it is you who made the deposit to that deposit address.
5. You get foreign currency = bitcoin deposite - fees.

Any payments that are recieved that are too small, too large or not collected within 30 minutes get returned to originating address?
Obviously while you wait you need to keep the voucher safe.

From writing this out there seems to be no reason for this not to be like an atm machine.  

(you may need to provide a free wifi password on the voucher as well as many times mobile data plans do not work or are too expensive to use when travelling).

[pinguino]

I just came back from Africa, where I used bitcoin to buy part of my trip. A friend did his and his gf's entire trip in bitcoin. We kept running out of cash, and the ATMs kept blocking our cards, and using money in general was a giant pain in the ass. When we switched countries, our existing cash was semi-useless and we had to use the other country's currency, or be screwed on the exchange rates.

However, everyone had phones. We kept wishing we could just use bitcoin instead. Especially since we were mostly using the cash to buy tickets to national parks and gift shops. If you could get a government to accept bitcoin for their nation attractions, it would take some of the "do I have enough cash for this trip" pressure off tourists.

[Sutters Mill]

I just came back from Africa, where I used bitcoin to buy part of my trip. A friend did his and his gf's entire trip in bitcoin. We kept running out of cash, and the ATMs kept blocking our cards, and using money in general was a giant pain in the ass. When we switched countries, our existing cash was semi-useless and we had to use the other country's currency, or be screwed on the exchange rates.

However, everyone had phones. We kept wishing we could just use bitcoin instead. Especially since we were mostly using the cash to buy tickets to national parks and gift shops. If you could get a government to accept bitcoin for their nation attractions, it would take some of the "do I have enough cash for this trip" pressure off tourists.

How did your friend manage to do the whole trip using Bitcoin?

[spin]

I just came back from Africa, where I used bitcoin to buy part of my trip. A friend did his and his gf's entire trip in bitcoin. We kept running out of cash, and the ATMs kept blocking our cards, and using money in general was a giant pain in the ass. When we switched countries, our existing cash was semi-useless and we had to use the other country's currency, or be screwed on the exchange rates.

However, everyone had phones. We kept wishing we could just use bitcoin instead. Especially since we were mostly using the cash to buy tickets to national parks and gift shops. If you could get a government to accept bitcoin for their nation attractions, it would take some of the "do I have enough cash for this trip" pressure off tourists.

I've travelled in Mozambique recently.  I was roughing it (a little).  As soon as you do so you are stuck wiht the issue of cash.  ATMs are often broken when you get to them and/or need refilling.  Or there are horrible queues.  Few places accept credit cards as the banks are terrible at supporting them. 

You also have the security issue assoicated with carrying cash on you.

I was stuck on one island where the only ATM was out of order and the place I was staying in didn't accept credit cards.  They applied to get it but had been waiting for a machine for years.   Had to pay him with paypal for my accomodation and some extra cash. 

Despite that I did a similar trip in the late 1990s and it was way easier now than then...

Bitcoin would have been useful.  But you have to properly think in terms of USSD rather than mobile data.  From my experience most guys have Nokia 1100s or similar feature phones (not smartphones).  For this kind of country in Africa to accept bitcoin you need ot get USSD based wallets.  And you need the address to be a mobile number, not a funny string of characters.

Think mpesa or similar.

[Sutters Mill]

I just came back from Africa, where I used bitcoin to buy part of my trip. A friend did his and his gf's entire trip in bitcoin. We kept running out of cash, and the ATMs kept blocking our cards, and using money in general was a giant pain in the ass. When we switched countries, our existing cash was semi-useless and we had to use the other country's currency, or be screwed on the exchange rates.

However, everyone had phones. We kept wishing we could just use bitcoin instead. Especially since we were mostly using the cash to buy tickets to national parks and gift shops. If you could get a government to accept bitcoin for their nation attractions, it would take some of the "do I have enough cash for this trip" pressure off tourists.

I've travelled in Mozambique recently.  I was roughing it (a little).  As soon as you do so you are stuck wiht the issue of cash.  ATMs are often broken when you get to them and/or need refilling.  Or there are horrible queues.  Few places accept credit cards as the banks are terrible at supporting them. 

You also have the security issue assoicated with carrying cash on you.

I was stuck on one island where the only ATM was out of order and the place I was staying in didn't accept credit cards.  They applied to get it but had been waiting for a machine for years.   Had to pay him with paypal for my accomodation and some extra cash. 

Despite that I did a similar trip in the late 1990s and it was way easier now than then...

Bitcoin would have been useful.  But you have to properly think in terms of USSD rather than mobile data.  From my experience most guys have Nokia 1100s or similar feature phones (not smartphones).  For this kind of country in Africa to accept bitcoin you need ot get USSD based wallets.  And you need the address to be a mobile number, not a funny string of characters.

Think mpesa or similar.

Like Barclays Pingit, you might say...

[spin]

Like Barclays Pingit, you might say...

Actually, pingit is like mpesa.  Mpesa came first...
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/feb/16/pingit-mobile-phone-payment

[Sutters Mill]

Like Barclays Pingit, you might say...

Actually, pingit is like mpesa.  Mpesa came first...
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/feb/16/pingit-mobile-phone-payment

Got ya, I never heard of Mpesa before. I have my business bank account with Barclay's and use the PingIt thing sometimes. Good for sending/receiving quick payments.