DER Touristik Online, Lufthansa Group, and Chain4Travel join forces to organize the travel industry’s first-ever hackathon centered on web3 technologies, delivering innovative prototypes in less than four days.
In a novel event last week, a trio of industry leaders—DER Touristik Online, Lufthansa Group, and Chain4Travel—held the first-ever hackathon combining travel and web3 technologies. The participating coders from DER Touristik Online were tasked with creating a platform for tokenizing Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) consumption. Their prototypes were built on Camino Network, an emerging web3 ecosystem for the travel sector.
Lufthansa Group, a behemoth in the European airline industry, boasting revenues of over 32 billion Euros and a workforce exceeding 100,000, partnered with DER Touristik Online, an independent offshoot of the DER Touristik Group. Employing about 9,200 people globally, DER Touristik Online is the digital arm of DER Touristik in Central Europe, specializing in online travel sales and technology strategies.
This collaboration came on the heels of a pioneering move by DER Touristik, which recently became the world’s first major tour operator to buy SAF from the Lufthansa Group. This acquisition could cut the carbon footprint of some of its travel products by up to 80%, offering a more eco-friendly option for travelers.
The hackathon aimed to further sustainability in the global travel industry, a market worth billions. Teams worked to simplify how travelers can earn SAF credits and track their carbon savings. They also explored gamification elements to make the process more engaging.
Among the standout features in the hackathon’s winning entry was a unique loyalty program. This program used “Dertorium,” a new green token, to facilitate interactions among stakeholders, including DER Touristik, Lufthansa Group, travelers, and other partners. Ralf Usbeck, Chain4Travel’s CEO, praised the winning approach: “At Chain4Travel, we loved the approach as it zeroes on what makes a use case compelling on blockchain, and on Camino Network especially,”
Interestingly, despite the participating developers having no prior experience with web3 technology, they could present functional prototypes in less than four days. They were aided in this by BytePitch, a seasoned member of the Camino community. The event jury comprised top executives from the collaborating organizations: Ingo Burmester of DER Touristik Central Europe, Jan Lieske from Lufthansa Group’s Leisure Sales in Germany, and Chain4Travel’s Ralf Usbeck.
About the Camino Network Foundation:
This Swiss-based non-profit organization operates out of Zug and is committed to advancing a blockchain-centric ecosystem in the global travel market. Camino Network, developed by travel tech experts, is the industry’s inaugural Layer 1 blockchain.
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