Recommendations for a smoother payment experience
70% of travelers say a good payments experience would make them choose one travel provider over another. This is one of the starting points for the study "Simple Travel Payments: From Complexity to Competitive Advantage," published by Amadeus, which also includes a list of recommendations for a smoother payment experience.
The study was developed with a worldwide survey of 5,665 travelers in 10 globally representative markets, conducted by Sapio Research on behalf of Amadeus. The study also draws on the results of a survey of payment leaders from 70 travel agencies and a wide range of interviews with Amadeus payment experts.
According to the analysis, travel and payments trends face off to drive a new behavior. For example, 74% of people book travel less than two months before departure, and millennials are more than twice as likely to do so than those 55 and older.
When it comes to meeting the payment expectations of this growing group of late bookers, they demand transparent pricing, a wide variety of payment methods and improved security.
Since millennials are more than twice as likely as those over 50 to abandon the shopping cart, payments represent a valuable opportunity for the industry.
66% of travelers confirm that they would be more willing to buy with an installment option, and 56% indicate that they would buy higher-value services if they could pay for them in installments.
Given that the average traveler relies on more than four different payment methods during their trip, it is clear why 38% of travelers cite their choice of payment method as their top requirement.
In any case, what matters most is transparency: 47% indicate that unexpected fees or charges, as well as foreign exchange rate surprises, are a major sticking point.
The study includes a number of recommendations for the industry aimed at delivering a seamless payments experience:
- Improve payment choice at purchase: regularly monitor traveler payment trends at the local market level and have a process in place that continuously and locally tests different payment methods.
- Drive transparency: integrate multi-currency conversion so travelers get “price security” in a currency they are familiar with and clearly display changes upfront.
- Promote trust: clearly communicate the steps you have taken to protect your customer data and establish a strong two-factor authentication process.
- Facilitate last-minute shoppers: use open APIs and cloud services to provide rich, fast and reliable payments, as well as customize the payment methods you offer the traveler during the trip.
- Reduce stress for travelers with advance and automated booking services: ensure that ancillary services such as baggage or lounge access are offered before travel, and offer “book now, pay later” options so people can enjoy the moment; as well as modernizing payments at places such as the airport.