How Flexible Payments Can Unlock Conscious Travel

Covid threw pretty much everything up in the air, except for aeroplanes, of course. But a successful vaccine rollout looks like it could mean we’re allowed to holiday again sooner rather than later, which is great news for travellers and travel brands.

When holidays do resume, however, the landscape will be somewhat different – at least in the short term. People are likely to take advantage of longer holidays when they can go away again, in order to make their first post-coronavirus trips really count.

As a travel company, you’ll want to be well prepared for the demand that comes with longer, more expensive holidays. One way to ensure you don’t miss out is by offering flexible travel payments at checkout for holidaymakers. Here’s why flexible financing options can help you offer longer, more adventurous holidays to customers.

Why longer holidays? 🏖️

After Covid, we can expect a rise in conscious travellers. These are people who are happy to be away from home for longer periods and less reckless with their spending. With most of the world remote working for the last 12 months, people will be eager to get away and experience something new – and they’ll take their laptop with them.

Enter the conscious traveller, who is made up of younger demographics between 20-35 keen to find somewhere to stay for between three and six months. These traveller types are also more appreciative of their surroundings and local people, happy to blend in with the local life, wherever they end up.

This new travel mentality will likely coincide with “workcations”, where people are again spending longer periods away from home and turning their trip into more of an adventure. However, this type of travel requires longer stays away, which tends to be more expensive than shorter breaks.

The problem faced by travel brands 💳

As a travel brand, your goal is to convert and get as many people booking holidays as possible. Yet, the checkout stage is one of the areas where there is the most friction. Younger generations are becoming more averse to getting themselves in debt, which means a reluctance to long-term borrowing even if it is to fund a holiday.

The digital economy is becoming more important in the transaction process, and customers have come to expect a seamless process with options catered to their needs. In the travel world, that means being able to book the holidays they want to experience without any barriers.

However, if conscious travellers and those looking for workcations are presented with high costs and too few options for how to pay for it, they’ll look for solutions elsewhere. That’s potentially a missed opportunity for travel brands who will want to maximise holiday bookings post-Covid.

How flexible payments can help 🤝

Using buy now, pay later methods at checkout can solve many of the pain points customers face. They allow anyone going on holiday to spread the cost of their trips without the need to use credit cards, thus avoiding building up high amounts of debt.

Millennials and Generation Z have become particularly reliant on the buy now, pay later industry, which could account for 10 per cent of all e-commerce by 2024. As it grows in popularity, today and tomorrow’s travellers will come to expect it as an option when they checkout.

Offering flexible payment options provides holidaymakers with greater choice to spread high travel costs over a specific period of time. And they won’t accumulate the high interest rates typically found with credit cards. It’s ideal for the conscious traveller who is thinking about going away for months rather than weeks but needs to think about flight, accommodation and living costs.

It’s not all about longer travel 🧳

While longer trips away are a particularly good fit with buy now, pay later methods, it’s not the only holiday type that benefits from the service. Essentially, every form of a holiday is ripe for buy now, pay later to smooth over the checkout process and help more people experience a trip away.

There’s lots of pent-up demand for holidays, and many travellers will be looking for ways to finance their trip once restrictions are lifted. Whether they’re going away for three days or three months, the need to be flexible with payments will become a necessity.

Buy now, pay later offers travellers more freedom to enjoy their holidays. They don’t need to miss out on an all-important trip, nor do they need to burden themselves with extensive and rigid debt in their search for a holiday.

The future of travel 🛫

Travel will change post-Covid. Whether it’s a drastic shift or more subtle is yet to be seen, but finance will be one of the topics everyone is talking about. Having the ability to offer flexible payments at checkout broadens the number of people who can book holidays and increases the chances of a sale. And that’s a win for everyone involved, from the brand to the customer.

Discover how Fly Now Pay Later allows you to offer flexible finance options at checkout to your customers and increase the ways they pay for trips away.