Tourists in a post-COVID world are mainly focused on two things: simplification and convenience, according to IATA’s 2022 Global Passenger Survey.

The survey, based on over 10,000 responses from 222 countries, revealed tourists’ top concerns for travel in the post-COVID-19 crisis period. It can be viewed here.

Planning and Booking 

Passengers want convenience when they plan their travel and when choosing where to depart from. Their preference is to fly from an airport close to home, have all booking options and services available in one single place, pay with their preferred payment method and easily offset their carbon emissions.

• Proximity to the airport was passengers’ main priority when choosing where to fly from (75%). This was more important than ticket price (39%)
• Tourists were satisfied being able to pay with their preferred payment method which was available for 82% of tourists. Having access to planning and booking information in one single place was identified as being top priority
• 18% of passengers said that they offset their carbon emissions, the main reason given by those that did not was not being aware of the option (36%)

Travel Facilitation 

Most tourists are willing to share their immigration information for more convenient processing.

• 37% of travelers said they have been discouraged from travelling to a particular destination because of the immigration requirements. Process complexity was highlighted as the main deterrent by 65% of tourists, 12% cited costs and 8% time
• Where visas are required, 66% of tourists want to obtain a visa online prior to travel, 20% prefer to go to the consulate or embassy and 14% at the airport
• 83% of tourists said they would share their immigration information to speed up the airport arrival process. While this is high, it is slightly down from the 88% recorded in 2021

Airport Processes  

Passengers are willing to take advantage of technology and re-thought processes to improve the convenience of their airport experience and manage their baggage.

• Passengers are willing to complete processing elements off-airport. 44% of tourists identified check-in as their top pick for off-airport processing. Immigration procedures were the second most popular “top-pick” at 32%, followed by baggage. And 93% of passengers are interested in a special program for trusted tourists (background checks) to expedite security screening
• Passengers are interested in more options for baggage handling. 67% would be interested in home pick-up and delivery and 73% in remote check-in options. 80% of passengers said that would be more likely to check a bag if they could monitor it throughout the journey. And 50% said that they have used or would be interested in using an electronic bag tag
• Passengers see value in biometric identification. 75% of passengers want to use biometric data instead of passports and boarding passes. Over a third have already experienced using biometric identification in their travels, with an 88% satisfaction rate. But data protection remains a concern for about half of tourists

The industry is ready to power airport processes with biometrics through IATA’s One ID initiative. COVID-19 has helped governments understand the potential for passengers to share their travel information with them directly and in advance of travel and the power of  biometric processes to improve security and facilitations processes and more efficiently use scarce resources. The proliferation of e-gates at airports is proving the efficiencies that can be gained. The priority is to support the OneID standards with regulation to allow its use to create a seamless experience across all parts of the passenger journey.

To read the entire survey, click here.