Skift Take

By 2024, Asia’s travel and tourism revenue is projected to hit a whopping $326 billion. To cash in on this boom, travel providers need to tackle Asia’s patchwork of payment options.

Peden Doma Bhutia

Pelago, the travel experiences arm of Singapore Airlines Group, on Monday announced a partnership with Primer, a global payments-infrastructure provider.

Payments are an important piece of Pelago’s expansion strategy as it hopes to provide access to local payment methods, which reduces processing costs, and have better fraud prevention.

“As a platform offering activities and tours in over 150 countries, we need a payment system that can cater to the varied preferences of travelers across Asia and beyond,” Chief Product Officer Altaf Dhamani told Skift. “The rise of digital wallets and real-time payments in this region has made it crucial for us to offer these options.”

Dhamani said that Singapore alone boasts of numerous alternative payment options, including PayNow, Kris+, GrabPay, ShopBack, and Atome. “This variety is typical across Asia. Our goal is to build a robust payment setup that can navigate the complexities of cross-border transactions and adapt to the different payment ecosystems across various Asian markets.”

Projections indicate that revenue from travel and tourism in Asia will hit $326 billion by 2024, with an annual growth rate of over 5% between 2024 and 2028. But travel providers must address Asia’s diverse and fragmented payments landscape.

McKinsey & Company estimates that Asia’s digital payments will reach 65% of total payments in 2024 (versus an average of 52% globally).

How Primer Can Step Up to Help Pelago

Kailash Madan, head of global sales at Primer, noted the importance of cross-border transaction security. “The diverse and fragmented payments landscape in Asia can be a challenge. We can support Pelago’s smooth transition to tap into multiple payment systems, hence reducing processing costs and improving operational efficiency through safety nets with fraud prevention integrations.”

Primer has been enabling payments for Pelago through a new processor and is testing performance with U.S. dollar and euro transactions. The company has also developed tools like UpliftAI, which uses AI to predict the ideal payment route for each transaction, in real-time.

Dhamani said Primer is instrumental in preparing Pelago for this expansion. “Their unified infrastructure allows us to quickly integrate with multiple payment methods, which is essential as we enter new markets. This solution helps us achieve efficient scaling without significantly expanding our team size. Consequently, we can focus on our core business while Primer handles the complexities of our expanding payment needs.”

An earlier Skift article had reported that Southeast Asia’s experiences sector is decades behind the hotel industry in terms of technology adoption.

The shift to multiple payment systems through Primer has been helpful for Pelago’s operations. “We’ve seen a significant reduction in costs, particularly for the currencies we’ve launched. Our goal is to implement local acquiring setups in specific markets, which can further lower our transaction fees.,” said Dhamani.