Tourists are increasingly seeking to visit destinations offering unique experiences. They prefer to have greater autonomy over their travel booking experience and to visit digitally enabled destinations. They prioritize value for money and are increasingly purpose-driven, showing care and concern for the communities and the environments they visit.
There are also, simply, more people traveling once again. After a broad-based recovery in the global travel and tourism sectors in 2022 and an acceleration of activity in 2023, 2024 will witness a return to — or, in some markets and segments, will surpass — pre-pandemic levels in terms of visitor arrivals, spending and global economic contribution.1
The Mastercard Economics Institute’s 2024 Travel Trends Report analyzed data from the first quarter of 2024 to reveal that consumer spending on travel remains robust while passenger traffic is on the rise.2 UN Tourism data for the same period showed international tourist arrivals reached 97% of pre-pandemic levels, with more than 285 million travelers on the move.3 And not only are they traveling again, but they are prioritizing leisure for longer — Mastercard’s analysis revealed that the average traveler extended their trip by one extra day compared to the same period in 2019.4
Source: Mastercard Economics Institute Travel Trends 2024: Breaking Boundaries Q1 2024
The World Economic Forum’s Travel & Tourism Development Index 2024 expects the sector’s continued growth to be driven by sustained pent-up demand and the lifting of Asian markets’ travel restrictions, a knock-on effect from the delay compared to other regions around the world.5 Against a backdrop of global economic and geopolitical uncertainty, consumers’ desire to travel remains strong.
At Mastercard, we partner with organizations across the global travel and tourism sectors to cultivate rich insights from aggregated, anonymized data to understand what travelers want and expect, and we provide expertise and guidance around how destinations can and should respond. By enabling seamless payments experiences anywhere in the world, we help tourists in nearly every corner of the globe to pay like a local.
With an unparalleled view on global consumer spending on travel and experiences, as well as the vast resources of our global network and technological expertise across AI, identity, cybersecurity and mobility, we collaborate with destinations across the world to help them to refine and improve destination strategies, while strengthening resilience with sustainable solutions.
As the travel and tourism sectors rapidly transform to meet and adapt to the evolving needs of tourists, communities and the environment, this white paper will seek to illustrate how tourism destinations are tailoring their offerings to tap into travelers’ desire for rich experiences, how they are harnessing data and insights to improve marketing and planning strategies, and how they are adopting cutting-edge technologies to enhance the traveler experience.
More than ever, tourism organizations need to optimize their marketing strategies to effectively manage over-tourism, capture the opportunities presented by an eventful economy and prioritize sustainability to mitigate environmental risks while ensuring inclusive economic development for communities and small businesses. The future success of the industry, and of our treasured destinations, depends on it.
Turespaña, Spain’s destination marketing organization, has upended its marketing strategy in recent years to prioritize sustainability. As global traveler interest in Spain touches new highs, the world’s second most-visited country is seeking to reinforce its commitment to environmental protection and incorporate sustainable procedures across its tourism value chain while facilitating more genuine connections between tourists and local Spanish culture.22
To support this objective, Mastercard performed an analysis exploring international tourists’ attitudes visiting Spain, while analyzing the potential spend propensity for sustainable experiences in the country. The findings demonstrated nearly 70% of tourists interviewed would pay a 5% premium for a more sustainable trip. Yet, nearly a third of travelers reported that the main barrier to making more sustainable choices was due to insufficient data around which travel options were most sustainable.23
Insights can similarly inform destination strategy and marketing campaigns to better monitor and mirror evolving tourism corridors. The first quarter of 2024 witnessed a robust recovery in China’s inbound and outbound tourism economy, reaching 141 million travelers, or 83% of the total volume in the same period in 2019.24
Like travelers across the world, the outbound consumption behavior and preferences of Chinese tourists have evolved. A Mastercard analysis of aggregated, anonymized spending data across the top 10 destinations for Chinese outbound travelers revealed high-spending tourists were the first to resume outbound travel, with expenditures on flights and hotels coming in significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels.25 Equipped with granular data produced by anonymized and aggregated spending data, tourism authorities can make informed decisions about marketing strategies, with greater precision in identifying target travelers, and therefore deliver a greater return on investment.
Buoyed by passion-driven travel and the desire for experiences, destinations can also leverage data to measure the impact of major events, including sports, exhibitions, festivals and more. Spending data can help destinations to assess key dimensions across geography and time with embedded granularity, addressing both the macro and the micro. Aggregated, anonymized spend data can help destinations to answer questions including “What is the cumulative economic impact of a major event?” and “What are the relative contributions of residents versus international and domestic tourists during this period?”
The Mastercard Economics Institute analyzed the “The Swift Lift” to dissect the economic impact of pop star Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour” to provide better visibility on the local economic boost across the tour’s 20 stops in the United States in 2023. The findings showed spending at restaurants, accommodation and retailers saw a major boost.26
By deploying a “synthetical control” methodology using machine learning to create a simulation where the event never took place, tourism organizations can measure impact and ultimately improve future decision-making around major events.
Data and insights are also critical tools when optimizing visitor flows. With support from the private sector, destinations are empowered to build and manage comprehensive data monitoring and forecasting systems. With inputs from governments, online travel agencies, social media platforms and payment networks, anonymized and aggregated data can be gathered and analyzed, safely and securely, from multiple sources in near real time.
Subject to intense overcrowding in its dense center, Prague’s municipal government wanted to better understand visitor behavior to effectively manage and ease congestion. Prague City Tourism collaborated with Mastercard to conduct a microanalysis analyzing spending, visitor activities, movement and concentration to inform the city’s tourism recovery. The study established a new data framework to avoid overcrowding in Prague’s 300x300m city center, empowering the city government to inform strategic and operational decision-making, while providing better visibility into tourist behaviors and preferences.27
Similarly, in Amsterdam, the city’s tourism organization harnesses data gathered from social media and tracks traveler behavior through the tourist-friendly Amsterdam City Card. It deploys marketing tactics to promote lesser-known areas of the city with the goal of routing tourists away from some of the more crowded neighborhoods.28 As over-crowding continues to pose challenges for destination management organizations, data providing visibility into traveler behaviors will be crucial in attracting desired travelers at appropriate intervals and in off-peak seasons.
The Travel Foundation, an NGO, sustainable tourism organization and early member of the Hub, partners with destinations and the private sector to advocate for and enable a different model of tourism that is in balance with community needs and the environment. Together, we are working with tourism organizations to develop an end-to-end strategy to decarbonize the tourism value chain, while deploying solutions to SMEs to help them cut carbon emissions.
Another ambitious and pioneering initiative is the Smart Destination Platform, a project developed by Spain’s State Secretary of Tourism through SEGITTUR. The digital public infrastructure platform aims to merge, gather and unify public and private data to enhance competitive intelligence for interoperability across the ecosystems of Spanish destinations, while seeking to also foster continuous innovation, connect and address the needs of all stakeholders in the tourism value chain: tourists, destinations and businesses.29
At Mastercard, we’re committed to leveraging our technology and data expertise to bridge the digital divide by providing MSMEs across the world with tailored guidance and tools to support their growth. Policies and investments that encourage the use of digital solutions, enhance digital skills development and improve access to credit can significantly benefit tourism-focused MSMEs.
In Costa Rica, the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo, a member of Mastercard’s Tourism Innovation Hub, is advocating for such measures to ensure that increased tourist traffic translates into better opportunities for MSMEs. In 2023, the institute launched Tico Treasures, a platform that connects tourists with Costa Rica’s Crafts with Identity program, which supports more than 300 artisans from 17 collectives across the country.30
The platform enables visitors to discover local Costa Rican products, learn about artisan communities, and purchase and ship goods back to their home countries, all within a single digital platform. In collaboration with Mastercard, Correos de Costa Rica and Banco de Costa Rica, the initiative provides tourists with more authentic experiences, expanding citizens’ access to the digital economy and strengthening the resilience of MSMEs.
A: AI may be the defining tech of our time, heralding a new era of innovation. AI tools have democratized access to vast amounts of data, allowing for governments, businesses and people to synthesize information at the speed tourists and tourism businesses demand. Use cases for generative AI in the tourism sector are still emerging, but we know that the only AI is responsible AI — ethical, transparent, reliable and beneficial for all tourism stakeholders.
A: Today, travelers are confronted with a confusing, often multi-channel experience when trying to plan and manage a trip. Increasingly, destination platforms, or super apps, provide an opportunity to streamline the traveler journey and provide a greater level of personalization. Super apps and destination platforms, including the Visit Greece app and SEGITTUR’s Smart Destination Platform, can enhance the traveler experience while delivering benefits to the local economy. A more seamless visitor experience consolidating multiple services into one platform can encourage longer stays and repeat visits, while integrated payment systems encourage tourists to explore and provide a continuous spending experience within a destination.
A: As tourism destinations seek to enhance the traveler experience while improving environmental sustainability, seamless transportation options must be established to help tourists get from A to B. Integrated transportation networks that combine many different modes, including flights, trains, buses and micromobility options, can allow seamless transitions between transportation networks with a single ticket. Furthermore, tap and ride will become ubiquitous, as contactless payment networks expand, facilitating the use of mobile wallets and super apps allowing travelers to pay for transit seamlessly.
A: In recent years, various technologies have helped the tourism and travel industries to optimize the management of facilities and infrastructure by enabling access to greener energy, reducing resource consumption and emissions, and improving waste management. However, these efforts alone are insufficient to achieve net-zero emissions. Mastercard’s Tourism Innovation Hub recognizes the potential of AI to move the needle on developing more sustainable tourism. Our experiences and insights from sustainability research highlight that one of the main barriers preventing SMEs and travelers from adopting more sustainable behaviors is the lack of trustworthy information or the ability to navigate through it effectively. With the advent of generative Al tools, both SMEs and travelers can be empowered to make better, more informed consumption decisions in real time. We are collaborating with Hub partners to integrate new solutions to support destinations in the promotion of sustainability across the value chain.
By offering unique, memorable experiences that resonate on a personal level, destinations can differentiate themselves in a crowded market. Harnessing the power of data insights allows destinations to understand and predict traveler behaviors, informing and improving campaigns. Embracing new technologies enhances the visitor experience, creating seamless, personalized journeys that begin long before arrival and continue long after departure.
As destinations embark on a journey to tomorrow, Mastercard’s Tourism Innovation Hub stands ready to partner and seize the opportunities presented by the industry’s transformation, co-creating innovative solutions that benefit travelers, communities and economies. Through collaboration with industry stakeholders, the Hub is pioneering new approaches to elevate the traveler experience and create a more sustainable, inclusive and resilient tourism sector.
Together, we can create a future where destinations not only meet but exceed the expectations of the modern traveler, driving long-term success for all.
1. World Economic Forum. Tourism is Back to Pre-Pandemic Levels, but Challenges Remain. May 21, 2024. ↩
2. Mastercard Economics Institute. Travel Trends 2024: Breaking Boundaries. May 14, 2024. ↩
3. UN Tourism. International tourism reached 97% of pre-pandemic levels in the first quarter of 2024. May 21, 2024. ↩
4. Mastercard Economics Institute. Travel Trends 2024: Breaking Boundaries. May 14, 2024. ↩
5. World Economic Forum. Travel & Tourism Development Index 2024. May 21, 2024. ↩
6. Mastercard Economics Institute. Travel Trends 2024: Breaking Boundaries. May 14, 2024. ↩
7. Mastercard Economics Institute. Travel Trends 2024: Breaking Boundaries. May 14, 2024. ↩
8. Mastercard. Europe’s experience economy set to spring forward. Mastercard. March 26, 2024. ↩
9. Mastercard. Europe’s experience economy set to spring forward. Mastercard. March 26, 2024. ↩
10. McKinsey & Company. The way we travel now. May 29, 2024. ↩
11. Dept. Agency. Digital Trends shaping the travel industry in 2024. March 28, 2024. Hilton. The 2023 Traveler: Emerging Trends that are Innovating the Travel Experience. November 2022. ↩
12. Mastercard Economics Institute. Travel Trends 2024: Breaking Boundaries. May 14, 2024. ↩
13. Booking.com. Travel Predictions 2024. ↩
14. UN Tourism. Global and regional tourism performance. July 22, 2024. ↩
15. Mastercard Economics Institute. Did you know? Where travelers go to splurge, save and party on European summer vacations. 2024. ↩
16. Booking.com. Sustainable Travel Data Reveals Ongoing Challenges for Consumers & Highlights a Heightened Opportunity for Cross-Industry Collaboration. April 22, 2024. ↩
17. Booking.com. Sustainable Travel Data Reveals Ongoing Challenges for Consumers & Highlights a Heightened Opportunity for Cross-Industry Collaboration. April 22, 2024. ↩
18. Expedia Group. 2023 Traveler Value Index. ↩
19. Forbes. Gen Z Fuels the Experience Economy: Tourism & Attractions Brands Take Heed. May 8, 2023. ↩
20. VisitScotland. International Tourism Performance. ↩
21. Mastercard. Mastercard and Invest India redefine experiential travel: unveil enhanced priceless.com in India for immersive cultural experiences. September 12, 2023. ↩
22. Skift. Q&A: Spain Launches Global Dialogue on Sustainable Tourism with New Series. July 12, 2024. ↩
23. Mastercard. España, considerada uno de los mejores destinos turísticos para los viajeros sensibles con la sostenibilidad. June 5, 2023. ↩
24. World Tourism Alliance, Mastercard, trip.com, Alipay. Cross-border Tourism Consumption Trends Report. July 2024. ↩
25. World Tourism Alliance, Mastercard, trip.com, Alipay. Cross-border Tourism Consumption Trends Report. July 2024. ↩
26. Mastercard Economics Institute. Eventful Economy: The Swift Lift. February 2024. ↩
27. Mastercard Tourism Innovation Hub. Propelling Prague’s tourism revival through data insights. ↩
28. McKinsey & Company. The state of tourism and hospitality 2024. May 2024. ↩
29. SEGITTUR. Smart Destinations Platform. ↩
30. Instituto Costariccense de turismo. Mipymes turísticas ahora podrán vender sus productos en línea a través de la plataforma tico treasures. December 14, 2023. ↩