Optimising payment performance in the Travel sector

Bartek van de Pavert, Director of Business Development Travel at Payplug, shares the payment trends in the travel sector and how businesses can turn payment into a revenue driver. Here is a summary of the interview done on the international news outlet The Paypers:

The main payment trends in the travel sector

These past years, travel businesses have had to continually adapt in order to meet consumer expectations, particularly in terms of payment: 

28% of tourism customers are considering using split payments¹

Even if the travel sector has seen a rebound in activity, the current inflationary context is pushing consumers to favour BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) payment solutions to purchase tourism products and services. 

Competitive digitisation of the customer journey

Online purchases are now a part of consumer habits and travel companies must offer impeccable customer service to stand out from the crowd. To achieve this, certain payment methods are becoming more differentiating: QR codes, digital wallets and Pay-by-Link.

A preference for purchasing in local currency. 

Businesses in the travel sector must provide consumers with the possibility of purchasing in the currency of their choice, in order to reassure them.

The benefits of payment orchestration that explain its popularity

With the increase in online sales and the international nature of the travel sector, many merchants have implemented a multi-PSP (payment service provider) strategy to benefit from the advantages of each: availability of payment methods and currencies, local acceptance performance, etc.

As a result, payment orchestration platforms (POPs) are becoming increasingly important, mainly because of their ability to: 

• Centralise the management of multiple acquirers and different payment methods
• Route payment flows to the most efficient route thanks to routing rules
• Simplify payment management by providing unified visibility of transactions

How does Payplug* support travel companies in their payment performance?

Today, it is essential to consider payment as a revenue driver and not as a cost centre. To achieve this, Payplug* offers its customers, payment performance levers throughout its value chain: 

• Checkout: Payment methods adapted to consumer preferences, which help combat cart abandonment and optimise conversion: split payment, deferred payment, holiday vouchers, AMEX...

• Authentication: A frictionless payment path in the PSD2 era, for small baskets in the travel sector, capitalising on the exemption of strong authentication thanks to TRA (Transaction Risk Analysis), insofar as the company respects the fraud rates defined by the RTS.

• Autorisation: Optimisation of payment performance in France and Europe, thanks to FastPass, a unique connection protocol set up with Groupe BPCE, which allows us to obtain up to 98% frictionless requests accepted on card flows linked to the banking group².

• Technology: To meet the constant flows generated, travel businesses must be able to rely on solid payment technology. Payplug* demonstrates this through its ability to process an increasing number of transactions per second (TPS): up to 250 TPS³.

Read the full interview given by Bartek van de Pavert to The Paypers. 

To find out more about payment performance levers in the travel sector:

1. Barometer conducted by Harris Interactive for Oney. Online survey from March 9 to 14, 2022, in France, Spain and Portugal

2. Payplug data

3. Payplug data - 2023

* The Payplug brand brings together the entities of Payplug and Payplug Enterprise