Executive Q&A: Reimagining Global Payments to Strengthen Travel’s Recovery


Skift Take

Virtually all industries have seen a rise in contactless payments due to new health and safety measures around Covid-19. For travel suppliers, supporting personalized touch-free payment experiences has increasingly become a benchmark for success.

Today, with a new mandate to keep customers safe from Covid-19, hotels, online travel agencies (OTAs) and other travel suppliers are expanding digital pre-payment options to bring peace of mind to their customers. In a marketplace where considerations around safety and hygiene have become more important than price, frictionless payment solutions are imperative. And as customers grow accustomed to the convenience of such transactions, they’ll expect to continue using them. SkiftX spoke with Eric Liebman, head of travel at Ingenico ePayments, about how travel businesses are responding to new customer demands by expanding contactless transactions beyond the airline industry, and how the global payments landscape will evolve as travel rebounds. SkiftX: How has the Covid-19 pandemic shifted the role of global payments when it comes to customer experience, trust, and safety in travel? Eric Liebman: Trust is everything in the travel industry. Against the backdrop of the pandemic, t