🇧🇷Brazil
Excess processing costs from inefficient, complex payment ecosystems
3 verified sources
Definition
The complexity of managing multiple payment providers, acquirers, and rails increases direct processing costs for both inbound and outbound travel payments. These costs include higher acquiring fees, gateway charges, and operational overhead to maintain disparate systems.
Key Findings
- Financial Impact: Airline payment transactions alone cost $20.3B annually (2.2% of transaction value); broader travel merchants report payment system complexity as a major issue impacting profitability.[4]
- Frequency: Daily
- Root Cause: Reliance on a patchwork of legacy and specialist providers for cards, bank transfers, wallets, and local payment methods; lack of consolidated volume to negotiate better rates; and resistance to adopting newer, more efficient payment solutions despite clear pain points.[4][7][8]
Why This Matters
This pain point represents a significant opportunity for B2B solutions targeting Travel Arrangements.
Affected Stakeholders
CFO, Head of Payments, Procurement for Payment Services, Treasury Manager
Action Plan
Run AI-powered research on this problem. Each action generates a detailed report with sources.
Methodology & Sources
Data collected via OSINT from regulatory filings, industry audits, and verified case studies.
Evidence Sources:
- https://www.electronicpaymentsinternational.com/comment/navigating-payment-challenges-in-travel-the-road-ahead-in-2025/
- https://www.phocuswright.com/Travel-Research/Research-Updates/2024/the-travel-industry-payment-gap
- https://thepaymentsassociation.org/article/the-travel-payment-revolution-finding-opportunity-in-pain-points/
Related Business Risks
Labor cost overruns from manual supplier payment processing and reconciliation
60% of large travel firms lose more than 1.5 hours per employee per week to manual payment processing; at scale this translates into significant additional FTE cost that could otherwise be avoided.[3]
Compliance risk and potential penalties from manual, error‑prone cross‑border supplier payments
Industry commentary highlights that manual reconciliation and fragmented systems "increase compliance and audit risks" for travel operators handling global payments, implying potential for costly audit failures and remediation programs even when individual fines are not always publicized.[2]
Payment errors causing supplier disputes, rework, and service disruption
Manual reconciliations and errors for operators running multiple tours each season can “snowball into major delays and lost productivity,” indicating recurring operational and service‑recovery costs, even if not always quantified as direct refunds.[2][3]
Suboptimal purchasing and settlement strategies due to poor payment data visibility
66% of travel companies report their profit margins are impacted by outdated or complicated payment and financial operations systems, indicating significant decision‑quality and optimization losses.[1]
Cross‑border payment delays straining supplier relationships and inventory access
45% of travel businesses report cross‑border payment delays exceeding three days, directly eroding liquidity and potentially causing lost sales or higher prepayment demands from wary suppliers.[8]
Payment complexity driving booking abandonment and lost sales
Payment processing in airlines alone costs $20.3B (2.2% of transaction value) and complexity is linked to higher cart abandonment; over 20% of consumers say travel bookings are more complicated than retail, while 25% are frustrated by hidden fees and unclear pricing.[4]