Queensland to fund cryptocurrency start-up for tourism promotion
Queensland, second largest state of the Australian province, is planning to issue a grant to a crypto start-up as part of their innovation funding.
As per the government statement, the state government will grant over $8.3 million to TravelbyBit digital currency payments platform for the travel and tourism industry. It is part of their Advance Queensland Ignite Ideas funding, which supports entrepreneurs in Queensland in developing their businesses.
“The role of the company will be to enhance the number of inbound tourists to Central Queensland through selling travel offers with cryptocurrencies and creating more jobs,” said Kate Jones, Innovation Minister.
“TravelbyBit has devised a clever way to make it easier for visitors to our state to pay for their purchases with a growing number of local businesses accepting cryptocurrency payments,” she added.
Caleb Yeoh, Co-founder and CEO of TravelbyBit said that the company has associated with Brisbane Airport Corporation to launch the “world’s first digital currency friendly airport” and has already implemented a block chain-backed point-of-sale system in regional tourist towns. Travellers can pay with Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin, Dash, Ethereum, XEM and soon BNB.
“There are more than 150 merchants across Australia, who use our system and this funding, to develop a purpose-built platform that will accept digital currencies from anywhere in the world, will allow us to add jobs not only directly to our team but also across the broader tourism industry,” said Yeoh.
Australia is not the first country to integrate digital currencies into the tourism sector. Earlier this spring, the German National Tourist Board (GNTB) announced that it started to accept BTC and other cryptocurrencies as a form of payment for its services. Ireland is the other country, authorized their cryptocurrency, IrishCoin to use in the tourism sector.