DECIPHERING THE CRYPTOCURRENCY IMPACT ON TOURISM DYNAMICS: LEGAL INSIGHTS FROM SPAIN, FRANCE, CROATIA, AND THE NETHERLANDS
Publication Name: Geojournal of Tourism and Geosites
Publication Date: 2025-01-01
Volume: 58
Issue: 1
Page Range: 422-432
Description:
The research delves into the nexus between cryptocurrencies and touristic activity, with a special focus on the facet of legal regulations. The study's objective is to fathom how cryptocurrencies influence the tourism sector, how legal standards bear on transactions involving cryptocurrencies within the tourism industry, and to what extent they render the adoption of cryptocurrencies in tourism feasible. The principal aim is to unravel the interconnection between the employment of cryptocurrencies in tourist services and its concurrent legal governance in four handpicked countries: Spain, France, Croatia, the Netherlands The investigation encompasses, on the one hand, the exploration of legal case studies and, on the other, the evaluation of hypotheses using clustering neural networks to dissect the interrelation between cryptocurrencies and tourism. Clustering was achieved through SOM and PCA methodologies, which, in unison, proffer profound insights into the data's architecture and interconnectedness. The data was collected by scraping with an API key, allowing us to examine all cryptocurrency acceptance points by category in each country. During this process, we employed a big data setup. The research underscores that blockchain technologies, including but not limited to Ethereum's advancements that extend beyond just Bitcoin, are steadily gaining a more influential role in tourism. Furthermore, legal guidelines, especially within the EU, have a significant influence on transactions and operations associated with these digital assets. This becomes paramount as, in the scrutinised region, the count of cryptocurrency and blockchain acceptance venues correlates with the vigour of tourism. Blockchain technologies, which transcend just the realm of Bitcoin and encompass advances like Ethereum, are progressively playing a pivotal role in tourism sector. Legal regulations emerge as a cardinal determinant in the governance of blockchain and cryptocurrency-related transactions and operations. The interplay between tourism and these technologies calls for further investigation, especially against the backdrop of a mutable legal environment. However, a conclusion can be drawn regarding its multiplicative impact on the economic pulse of the tourism sector.
Open Access: Yes