By Alice Orlova, project manager @ Smart Trip Platform

First things first: we are launching our Airdrop! At this point, the readers will be automatically divided into two camps. The first will remember the largest airdrop in the U.S. military history in 1944 in the Netherlands — or the Cuban one that never happened — and say, “Wait, what? We thought this was a travel project?” The other camp will nod wisely and say, “Ok, so where do we register?”

A quick explanation for those who are not yet familiar with the intricacies of the crypto world: a blockchain startup may choose to distribute a certain number of its tokens for free as a promotional tactics. To participate, people have to sign up, providing their email and ETH wallet address. In our case, we are distributing up to a $20-worth of our TripCash (TASH) tokens to the first 1500 people who register and complete a set of simple tasks. In the (very recent) past, many airdrops were completely random and people basically woke up to find a bunch of tokens in their wallets — tokens of a project they had never heard about.

The idea was that recipients would get curious and check out the project’s website, join the community, perhaps even buy more tokens. This kind of worked for a while, but as any system, airdrops have evolved — and now they are used in a smarter way.

The tasks that we ask our airdrop participants to do are really basic: you have to follow us on Facebook and Twitter, join our official Telegram channel and, of course, sign up on our website https://smarttripplatform.io/ (click on Participate in the ICO). For full details and rules, join our dedicated airdrop channel on Telegram: https://t.me/tashairdrop . Once again, only the first 1500 participants will be accepted, so act fast!

Now that we’ve got the Airdrop covered, let me pass to a subject that has been bothering me for the last couple of days. If you follow travel industry news, perhaps you’ve read that Booking.com has just bought a startup called FareHarbor, which provides software for online bookings of tours and activities. Do you know that the activities segment of the market is growing faster than the rest of travel? It is a huge business!

Just think about it: trekking, excursions, sightseeing and cultural visits of all sorts, horse-riding, birdwatching, rafting, mountaineering, safaris, boat trips, wine-tasting, diving, paragliding, motorbike tours, climbing, caving, cycling… And the list goes on and on. All this wildly diverse stuff — from tracking tigers in India to sipping champagne in a chateau — falls under the tours & activities label.

Perhaps it is this diversity that keeps this segment back. Indeed, take hotels — they have Booking.com, Expedia and others; hostels have Hostelworld; private room owners have AirBnB. For plane tickets, there innumerable Kayaks, Edreams, and so on. But what about tours and activities? Sure, for guides there is GetYourGuide, and for safaris there is Safari Bookings, but I’m sure you can see my point — these sites are not household names, they are strictly niche. Tours and activities don’t have a big and famous platform. In fact, 50% of service providers in this sphere don’t even accept online bookings — you have to book via email and then send a deposit with a bank transfer or Western Union or credit card.

Now, about FareHarbor that Booking.com has just bought. Are they such a platform — or one in the making? No, sirs, they aren’t. What FareHarbor, Rezgo and other similar companies offer is online booking software that a company can integrate into its website. A big step forward, surely, but not one that would propel the tours & activities market into the 21st century suddenly. Each of these thousands of businesses will still be out there all alone, struggling to attract customers and spread the awareness of its existence.

I am convinced that the activities market needs a unifying platform, a resource where everyone — from boat owners to drivers to jungle guides — can enjoy an equal playing field. As you can imagine, Smart Trip Platform will be that resource! Of course, we will also have accommodation and tickets, but activities will be a huge part of our ecosystem.

Would you like to help us built that ecosystem? Then start by joining the airdrop!

Visit our Bitcointalk airdrop thread right now https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3378506.new#new and sign up — remember, only the first 1500 participants will get in!