Permission and Usage Control for Virtual Tourism using Blockchain-based Smart Contracts

Tourism (VT) is a booming business with potential perspectives in the entertainment and financial industry. Due to travel restrictions, safety concerns, and expensive travelling the younger generation is showing interest in virtual tourism instead of traditional tourism. However, virtual tourism does not financially benefit the service providers as compared to traditional tourism stakeholders. An online system is essential to provide a central point of access to various tourism sites along with usage, permission, and payment control. In this paper, a secure blockchain-based broker service for users and content providers is proposed, which allows tourism sites to announce their virtual tours and provide accessibility and accountability. Meanwhile, it enables users to register, subscribe, access, and be billed according to their usage. The permission control module ensures authentication and authorization, while the usage control provides accountability to the predefined service level agreement. The transactions are stored on the blockchain to ensure the integrity of data and smart contracts are used to ensure automatic usage and permission control. An implementation on Hyperledger Fabric is provided as a proof of concept with performance measurements as a case study.

Automated summary

Virtual tourism has gained popularity among the younger generation due to travel restrictions, safety concerns, and expensive travelling. However, service providers in virtual tourism do not financially benefit as compared to traditional tourism stakeholders. A blockchain-based broker service is proposed to address this issue, allowing tourism sites to offer virtual tours while providing accessibility and accountability. Users can register, subscribe, access, and be billed according to their usage through an online system that includes permission and payment control. The proposed system ensures authentication, authorization, and accountability through permission and usage control modules. Transactions are stored on the blockchain to guarantee data integrity, and smart contracts are used for automatic usage and permission control. An implementation on Hyperledger Fabric is provided as proof of concept, with performance measurements as a case study.