Travel companies are again faced with complications and costs of doing cross-border and foreign currency transactions
The increasing in bookings for international travel is undoubtedly good news for the tourism sector. However, an investigation made by Nium, the B2B travel payments specialized company, put the complications and headaches that FX payments bring on the agenda once again.
According to the study, in first half of 2022 travel companies’ B2B foreign currency payments increased by almost 500 percent compared to the same period in 2021. The expected reestablishment of the international market and the increase in reservations led to the return of a problem that, according to Nium’s travel director, Spencer Hanlon, had been left in the background during the pandemic period.
For Spencer, having overcome the need to survive to a period of declining operations, the problem of the high costs, delays, risks and time spended that B2B FX payments supposed (and suppose) goes back. Something that costs a lot to the vast majority of travel companies and could slow down their recovery process.
However, today there are many modern tech solutions that can solve the problem and massively reduce the transaction fee, access fairer rates, speed up payments and streamline administrative issues. For the Nium manager, the key is to find the right solution.
“At a time when inflation is raging, interest rates are rising, and many companies are clearly in debt from the COVID period, resolving your currency issues could make a significant difference in the health of your business,” Spencer said.
Source: Belvera Partners