With a diverse portfolio of niche tourism products (adventure, sports, or religious), travel and tourism is one of the largest industries in India. As per the Economic Report by WTTC, the GDP contribution of this industry grew by 4.9% in 2019 – the third-highest mark next to China and Philippines. In terms of quantitative statistics, its total contribution was over US$ 268.29 in the GDP in 2019 with projections to reach US$512 billion by 2029.
Whether it is a weekend trip with friends or a family trip to popular tourist destinations in the country, it all contributes to our travel and tourism sector. To fulfill such growing demands, there are travel agencies scattered across the length and breadth of the country. Consumers can book travel tickets or accommodation either online or through local travel agencies.
If you run a travel agency or have plans to start one, there is one thing you cannot undermine – online payment acceptance.
Giving your customers a way to pay you online for bookings is crucial for your travel business. The best way to collect payments online through your business website is to integrate a suitable payment gateway for travel businesses. It will also simplify the process of reconciling payments received from multiple customers you deal with.
With so many payment solutions available in the market, you might find it difficult to find the best payment gateway for a travel agency. Before we help you in the payment gateway selection process, let’s highlight some of the payment-related challenges.
Challenges related to travel-related payment acceptance
Unavailability of payment options
While booking flights or hotels on your travel business website, customers would want to pay via their preferred payment options. While some of them want to pay via UPI, others may prefer digital wallets to complete the transaction.
If the travelers do not find their preferred payment option available on your website, they may choose to get the travel bookings done by your competitors.
Payment failures
While the shift from cash to digital payments has made things easier, many consumers still feel skeptical about paying online because of frequent payment failures. In fact, a high payment failure rate of a payment gateway for travel agencies may bounce your clients from choosing your services again.
Furthermore, payment failure on your website can also be the result of limited transaction handling capacity of the integrated payment gateway.
Delayed settlements
A common concern related to a payment gateway for travel websites is delayed settlement. While your customers have made the booking today and paid you online, you want that money to reach your bank account timely to maintain the cash flow. With some payment gateways, this delay can get extended to three-four days or even a week, thus leading to cash flow problems on the business side.
No support for international payments
If you have International clients who make travel bookings on your website, you want to ensure a hassle-free payment experience for them. However, handling international currencies also requires an integrated payment solution to provide real-time currency conversion facility. This is something you cannot expect from every payment gateway for travel businesses.
High payment gateway charges
While selecting a payment gateway for a travel agency, you might have realized that free payment gateway is a myth. You need to pay certain charges for every transaction that gets processed through the gateway. But things become difficult to handle when payment gateway providers ask for high charges pertaining to the travel and tourism industry.
Checklist to selecting a payment gateway for travel business
Whether it is about managing bookings of hundreds of your clients or maintaining the related business operations, you already have a lot of tasks in your court. That is why, it becomes important to leave the payment processing needs to a reliable payment gateway.
Wondering how to get started with selecting the best payment gateway? Follow this eight-step checklist:
- Check for the list of payment options supported by different payment gateways meant for travel businesses
- Ask about the payment success rate
- Consider the settlement policy related to payments received online via the payment gateway
- Check if it supports international payments and the related currency conversion
- Look at the payment gateway pricing structure
- Look at the features of different payment gateways before selecting any of them
- Consider your travel business needs and how a payment gateway can fulfill them all
- Look at the list of existing clients who rely on the chosen payment gateway for your travel agency
Also Read: Payment Gateway for Website: Selection, Integration, Benefits, and More
What makes Paytm Payment Gateway the best for your travel business?
All the challenges you face while accepting payments online for travel bookings for your clients can be best handled by selecting Paytm Payment Gateway for your business needs. With this all-inclusive payment solution by your side, you need not look further to find a way to accept digital payments.
Given below are some of the benefits of integrating Paytm Payment Gateway on your travel business website:
- 100+ payment options supported – including credit cards, debit cards, UPI, Paytm Wallet, and Paytm PostPaid
- Next day settlements with no delays related to bank holidays
- 0% MDR on UPI and RuPay transactions
- International payments supported
- 99.99% payment success rate
Recommended Read: What Makes Paytm Payment Gateway the Best in India?
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