Despegar Embraces Crypto: First Travel Agency in LATAM to Accept Payments

• Despegar, one of Latin America’s leading travel agencies, has partnered with Binance Pay and Inswitch to enable clients to pay for tour packages in cryptocurrencies.
• Initially, this offering will only be available to customers in Argentina but may extend across other countries in the future.
• The new option will allow customers to settle hotel accommodation, flights, car rentals, and cruise trips using more than 70 cryptocurrencies.

Despegar Introduces Crypto Payments

Despegar – one of the leading travel agencies in Latin America – has recently announced its partnership with Binance Pay and Inswitch to enable its customers to pay for tour packages in cryptocurrency. For starters, this offering is available only for customers in Argentina but may extend across other countries in the future.

What Cryptocurrencies are Available?

The agreement between Despegar and Binance allows clients to settle hotel accommodation, flights, car rentals, and cruise trips using more than 70 cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Dogecoin (DOGE), Litecoin (LTC), and Ripple (XRP).

Benefits of Using Crypto Payments

Paula Cristi – General Manager of Despegar for Argentina and Uruguay – said that by introducing crypto payments they hope their customers can “approach this universe in a friendly way” adding that they are proud to “continue adding new alternatives and payment facilities” so people can fulfill their dreams of traveling. Maximiliano Hinz – Binance Director for Latam South/Central America also emphasized on how much faster transactions become when done with cryptocurrencies compared with traditional payment methods such as credit cards or bank transfers.

A Growing Trend

This is not the first time crypto payments have been enabled by a major company as there have been several examples throughout the world showing how more businesses are willing to accept digital assets as an alternative means of payment. This latest move from Despeagar is expected to further increase the adoption of cryptocurrencies across Latin America which could potentially lead other companies within the region as well as around the world considering doing something similar in order to stay competitive on today’s market.

Conclusion

It seems like we are slowly entering a world where cryptocurrency use is becoming increasingly popular which could ultimately result in many benefits such as lower transaction fees, faster processing times and more security when making payments online or over the counter. With that being said it will be interesting to see how this trend develops throughout 2021 as more companies follow suit from what Despeagar has just done by introducing crypto payments into their system