Travala in Crypto Transactions Boost, Bitcoin Outstrips Credit Card Sales

Travel booking website Travala said it is enjoying healthy growth, despite the coronavirus pandemic – and its recent decision to green-light crypto payments appears to be playing a very large part.

Per data unveiled in a blog post, the firm said that its revenues grew to some USD 920,000 in November, up 76% month-on-month, for a robust 503% year-on-year.

The platform’s operators said Travala is now prepared “to address the biggest rebound in travel demand history post-COVID-19, due to the pent-up demand.” As reported, in July, Travala integrated hotels offered by booking giant Expedia on its site.

The platform’s decision to embrace crypto appears to have done much to drive its sales growth, with a staggering 72% of bookings made on Travala in November paid in crypto.

Travala data reveals that users favor bitcoin (BTC), which was used to pay for 22% of bookings. Its own token AVA followed in second with a 20% share, while 7% chose to pay in ethereum (ETH), 6% in litecoin (LTC), and two groups of 3% each choosing XRP and USDC. Other tokens made up for the remaining 11%.

Travala’s data suggests that BTC even pipped credit cards in the popularity stakes, with the latter responsible for 17% of the bookings made in November. Travel credits represented a further 11%.

While Travala did not indicate where most of its crypto customers came from, it did disclose a list of the top seven visitors by country, with the USA in the top spot, followed by Vietnam, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, India, and Australia at number 7.

AVA can be used to pay for trips on the website, and part of its appeal stems from the fact that its users are eligible for discounts, bonuses and loyalty program points and more.

At the time of writing (14:22 UTC), AVA, ranked 211th by market capitalization on Coinpaprika.com, trades at USD 0.787 and is up by almost 4% in a day, trimming its weekly losses to less than 9%. The price is up by 2% in a month and it rallied by 732% in a year.

In May this year, Travala announced a merger with the Binance-backed flight booking portal TravelbyBit.
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