“The idea that I have one credit card or corporate card and pay a lot of travel things with it, well, that system has had its day,” said Simon Barker, CEO of payments technology vendor Conferma Pay. “The travel industry must move to virtual cards, where a business traveler buys each thing with a separate virtual number.”
Virtual cards lend themselves much more readily to strong authentication. Happily, adapting to the world of digital payments brings a bonus: It also makes it much easier to work with next-generation mobile wallets, such as India’s Paytm and China’s WeChat Pay. Travel brands need to offer the widest array of payment options to buyers to maximize their revenue. Otherwise some travelers may abandon their bookings rather than complete them because their preferred payment method isn’t available.
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