Unlocking liquidity: how travel merchants can transform payments in an experience-driven era
Learn how travel brands can improve cash flow, reduce reserves, and optimize payments through orchestration and safeguarding solutions.
As the travel industry rebounds into an era of workcations, set-jetting, and wellness retreats, operators must reinvest revenue quickly to capture emerging opportunities. Yet many airlines, hotels, and tour operators still wait weeks or even months for settlements, as acquirer holdbacks lock up a chunk of their revenue.
Revenue from travel and tourism is projected to reach US $955.94 billion this year, and grow 3.91 % annually to reach US $1.11 trillion by 2029, underscoring the cash flow that is at stake. In our whitepaper, Fueling Travel Growth in 2025, we reveal how payment orchestration and trust-based safeguarding unlock predictable working capital, empowering you to reinvest in the seamless experiences that modern travelers demand.
Download the complete whitepaper to discover how payment innovation can empower travel businesses in the experience-driven era.
The holdback challenge in travel
Travel merchants face a distinctive risk profile. Bookings often occur weeks or months before service delivery, which makes them vulnerable to cancellations. Various unexpected events can result in lost bookings and chargebacks, from global shocks like pandemics and geopolitical unrest to someone falling unwell. To protect themselves, acquirers typically impose rolling reserves that withhold 10–20% of revenue for 90–180 days or require fixed collateral upfront. These holdbacks deprive businesses of the cash they need to fund growth-enabling initiatives, whether last-minute promotions on flights and hotel stays, loyalty partnerships with credit card issuers and local tour operators, or marketing campaigns in emerging regions.
The value of payment orchestration
Payment orchestration combines multiple acquirers, PSPs, and payment methods—cards, digital wallets, bank transfers, and regional payment options—intoa single, seamless platform. It uses dynamic routing to send each transaction to the partner best positioned for speed, cost, and success so funds arrive in your account faster. If one provider declines, the system instantly switches to another, reducing failed payments and abandoned checkouts. Built-in fee comparison then selects the most economical path for every transaction, cutting processing costs.
As you shift volume toward acquirers with lower reserve requirements, the share of revenue held back falls, unlocking cash for strategic investment. Travel brands that adopt orchestration typically see a marked rise in authorization rates, a drop in declines, and a reduction in overall transaction fees.
How Paysafe empowers travel businesses
Paysafe’s travel-focused platform blends intelligent payment orchestration with specialist services tailored to the industry’s unique challenges. Transactions are automatically routed based on your chosen priorities — whether that’s cost, settlement speed, or approval rate — so you maximize revenue from every payment.
Paysafe offers safeguarding accounts that hold reserve funds in a regulated trust structure to support cash flow. Unlike traditional holdbacks, these funds can be released on a fixed, predictable schedule, empowering operators with more reliable access to working capital. The platform also supports multi-currency processing and competitive FX rates for international operators.
To enhance the guest experience, Paysafe enables mobile wallet acceptance and contactless transactions. Meanwhile, Paysafe’s insights dashboard helps operators analyze payment data, monitor reserve trends, and optimize their acquirer strategy to improve margins over time.
Turning liquidity into growth
In today’s experience-driven travel economy, where travelers seamlessly blend work, wellness, and adventure, predictable cash flow is a necessity, not a luxury. Paysafe helps you convert restrictive holdbacks into reliable working capital by pairing payment orchestration with trust-based safeguarding. The result is the freedom to launch targeted marketing campaigns, invest in digital innovations like self-service kiosks and mobile apps, and forge partnerships that deliver immersive, personalized guest experiences. Stay ahead of shifting travel trends by ensuring your payment infrastructure provides the speed and flexibility your customers expect.
Download the complete Fueling Traveling Growth in 2025 whitepaper to discover how payment innovation can empower travel businesses in the experience-driven era.
