New benchmark research highlights how travel industry leaders are looking to proactive financial innovation and AI-driven operations to help secure long-term enterprise growth, amidst growing pressure on traditional operational infrastructures
A new international survey of 300 travel industry executives conducted by FT Longitude, a division of the Financial Times, in partnership with WEX, a global leader in intelligent payment solutions, highlights a landscape vulnerable to geopolitical volatility amidst compressing performance forecasts. However, the study also reveals strong resilience, showing that many travel intermediaries are adopting modernized payment strategies to overcome these external pressures and achieve their 2026 growth expectations.
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The study, “Avoiding Payment Jet Lag,” offers comprehensive insights into how travel intermediaries are optimizing their back-office financial operations. While 74% of travel intermediaries still forecast growth this year despite conflict in the Middle East lowering initial expectations, the research highlights a widespread push to modernize legacy payment systems. Industry leaders recognize that updating these tools is critical, noting that system limitations during market disruptions can impact customer loyalty (79%) and limit an organization’s ability to provide crucial 24/7 payment support (57%) to travelers.
Despite these backend pressures, travel leaders can see a path forward. Transitioning away from passive, legacy financial systems is recognized as a business mandate, with 59% of executives predicting that long-term enterprise growth will come directly from proactively innovating their corporate payment strategies.
“Operational resilience in 2026 depends as much on an organization’s digital payment architecture as it does on traditional infrastructure and frontline logistics,” said Jason Hancock, managing director of Global Travel at WEX. “The report highlights how travel intermediaries are no longer just playing defense against escalating market volatility or supplier insolvencies. Instead, they are transforming their own modern payment architecture into proactive tools for risk protection, cash flow flexibility, and sustainable growth.”
Additional findings from the global survey include:
- Premium travel services can help stabilize margins: Despite adverse events, consumer spending remains fairly resilient, with 61% reporting steady demand. Crucially, luxury travel can offer a reliable path to near-term growth, as 86% of executives state that premium packages stabilize their margins during times of crisis.
- The chargeback security imperative: Currently, 84% of executives say the risk of financial loss from supplier insolvency feels higher than it did just 12 months ago. 82% of leaders state that better frameworks for chargebacks could save their organization money by improving supplier payment recovery rates.
- The dawn of agentic automation: Travel intermediaries are leaning into automation to boost day-to-day efficiency. The survey found that 59% of travel organizations plan to scale AI-driven tools for customer assistance, while 54% intend to deploy agentic AI for discovery efforts, all while maintaining centralized human control over booking decisions.
With decades of expertise managing complex B2B data and financial flows, WEX helps travel organizations implement flexible, API-driven payment platforms, integrated automated data networks, and secure virtual card infrastructure. Transitioning to these modern frameworks helps insulate travel leaders from their three top-cited mid-term risks – supplier insolvency, volatile currency exchange rates, and sophisticated payment fraud – while building the structural flexibility required to confidently unlock new revenue streams.
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