At a time of unprecedented upheaval in the global tourism industry, blockchain-based travel reservation service Travala and Swipe aim to improve the usability of crypto.

Announced on July 24, Travala’s native AVA token will now be added to the Swipe wallet service and Visa card platform, making it usable by 60 million merchants.

AVA will also be supported by Samsung Pay, Google Pay and Apple Pay through the integration of Swipe with these services. In addition, the AVA token will be available to the 500,000 users of Swipe’s multi-asset digital wallet.

The news follows shortly after the acquisition of Swipe by the main crypto exchange Binance and the trading platform issuing a Swipe-powered crypto debit card, Binance Card. Travala.com, for its part, migrated at Binance Chain in the fall of last year.

A network of partnerships bringing crypto to multiple platforms

In addition to the integration of AVA into the Swipe platform, Swipe’s native SXP token will be added to Travala.com as the preferred payment option for bookings at over 2 million hotels in 230 countries .

These include accommodation options listed on Expedia, Booking.com and Price line, all of which have already partnered with Swipe to enable crypto-enabled travel booking services.

Travala customers can pay with its proprietary AVA token and a large list of major crypto assets which include Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Dash (DASH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), EOS, Stellar (XLM), Cardano (ADA), Binance Chain (BNB), Monero (XMR), Tron (TRX), XRP and Dai (IAD).

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Travala CEO Juan Otero claimed that the two-way integration of native Travala and Swipe tokens would be “massive for adoption.”

When spent with Swipe’s Visa debit cards, cryptocurrencies like AVA are instantly converted into fiat currency, making them usable anywhere that accepts Visa or mobile payment services.

New strategies for the “new normal”

As previously reported, Travala recently announced that its monthly revenue rose 205% in May from April – a signal of a possible recovery after the major impact on bookings amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

In May, the company merged with TravelByBit, which provides flight booking services with more than 600 airlines. By offering token rewards and several crypto payment options, the two companies hope they can be more resilient than traditional alternatives during the global downturn.