Travelers today care a lot about how safe their payments are. A recent Amadeus Outpayce study – gathered from 4,500 people across France, Brazil, the UK, the US, and Singapore – shows that payment security influences their buying habits.
Most folks (around 72%) lean toward companies known for solid cybersecurity, while about one in three admit they just don’t trust travel companies to keep their payment details secure. Concerns about fraud and data breaches keep growing, and it seems that every other traveler is watching closely for any sign that their money isn’t safe.
There’s also a buzz of worry about fraud – roughly 64% of travelers now feel that payment scams are on the rise. In some places, like Brazil, this worry turns into harsh reality, with nearly 89% saying they've encountered fraud, whereas in France and Singapore only about 37% mention such issues. An analysis by Juniper Research notes that almost 46% of payment fraud tends to happen in the airline sector – a reminder of just how hard it is for companies to balance quick, easy transactions with tight security controls. On top of it all, many payment security measures seem to misfire; for instance, about two-thirds of travelers have seen legitimate purchases decline, which fuels more frustration and erodes trust, trust that companies are desperately trying to rebuild.
In response, travel companies are scrambling to restore confidence while keeping the checkout process as smooth as possible. One clever trick being rolled out is tokenization – a method that swaps out sensitive credit card info for secure tokens, meaning merchants don’t have to hold onto actual banking details.
Experts generally say that because of high-profile breaches, people are now extra cautious; this caution even makes one-click payments a challenge to implement. New systems that blend tokenization with fraud detection models, specifically tailored to travel-related transactions, are starting to make a difference.
Meanwhile, the roll-out of Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) under PSD2 has changed the game too. Even though about 75% of travelers admit that two-factor authentication is straightforward to use, close to half say they end up abandoning a purchase when they hit that extra step – quite a bit more than in other sectors. In most cases, this situation pushes companies to rethink how they can secure payments without making the buying experience painfully clunky.