AirPlus International has published the second part of its International Management Study (ITMS) for 2017, and it shows that business travellers are adopting mobile and personalised payments over traditional methods.
The study revealed almost half of business travellers worldwide have already made mobile payments (44 per cent) and business travellers in the Asia Pacific region are even further ahead with 62 per cent of all business travellers using this technology.
However, although 44 per cent have paid with a mobile device significantly more have made those payments for personal use (50 per cent) rather than for business trips (12 per cent) although 38 per cent said they had used the method for both business and personal, showing there is an opportunity for corporates to capitalise on this payment method.
“We know that Australia is the biggest user of contactless payments technology so it make absolute sense that the future method of travel payments will be mobile as highlighted in the research,” Country Manager Australia for AirPlus International, David Newington said.
The business travel industry will need to keep up with this as well as the emerging shift towards personalised payments on offer from companies such as Apple and Paypal.
Despite the rise in popularity for using mobile as a payment option when travelling for business, international travel managers still prefer plastic as the choice of payment during a business trip. Corporate credit cards are the firm favourites worldwide (52 per cent) followed by personal credit cards (45 per cent), just ahead of cash (42 per cent).
In Australia this gap is even bigger with a huge 90 per cent of travel managers using corporate credit cards to pay for corporate travel, whereas in direct comparison 56 per cent of business travellers are using corporate cards, followed closely by cash (45 per cent), personal cards (42 per cent) and virtual cards (21 per cent).
There is one subject both Travel Managers and Business Travellers agree on. When it asked if they would consider offers from new players such as Apple, Google and Paypal, the majority in both groups in Australia (70 per cent and 71 per cent) said they would be open to using new payment technology for business travel in the future.
“Our statistics show that business travellers are early adopters of this technology but corporates are lagging behind,” Newington added.
“When it comes to business travel, our advice is for companies to get up to speed with these new methods of payment as they’re not going away!
“With increased visibility over compliance, spend and transaction history, AirPlus offers a simple way for corporates to navigate this ever changing landscape.”
