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Keeping up with traveler demands to pay in new ways
Another challenge travel companies face when accepting payments in multiple markets is the wide variety and changing nature of how travelers choose to pay.
The Travel Technology Investment Trends survey asked payments leaders how well they feel their company keeps up with the changing ways travelers choose to pay.
Only a third of respondents say their organization does a good job of keeping up with new payments methods across the markets they serve. By contrast, 46% say they don’t do a good job of enabling new ways to pay and keeping up with the pace of change.
When probed more deeply, respondents said high costs, technical workloads and a lack of understanding about which new payments methods are popular, all contributed to difficulties delivering on traveler payments needs. Just 6% of respondents said they faced no challenges in trying to keep up with new ways to pay.
Top challenges when keeping up with how travelers choose to pay:
%
The cost of integrating
different payment
methods
%
Building technical
connections to different
payment methods
%
Lack of resources to
manage growth in
payment methods
%
Understanding which
payment methods to
focus on
%
Maintaining connections
with different
payment methods
Even the best resourced payments teams are going to struggle to keep up with all the new methods emerging around the world. Fortunately, aggregators do this already and that’s why we’ve linked to several alternative payment method aggregators, so travel companies can easily decide to accept any payment method based on traveler demand and their business strategy.”
Jean-Christophe Lacour
SVP, Global Head of Products and Delivery
Outpayce from Amadeus
This study also asked travel payments leaders for their views on cryptocurrencies.
Here the research doesn’t offer conclusive views on the future, with a huge 55% of respondents saying it is still ‘too soon to tell’ if crypto will be a suitable payment method for travel. Some 25% felt cryptocurrencies would never be suitable, but 10% disagreed and believe crypto is already suitable for prime time.
Respondents were slightly more positive on the potential of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) as a payment method for travel. Some 18% said CBDCs are a promising payment method of the future, with 4% saying they’re already an option today. Only 8% felt they were never likely to be suitable, with 53% saying ‘it’s too soon to tell’.
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