Singapore – A widening “commerce digitalisation gap” is shaping global travel spending, with consumers increasingly expecting seamless mobile payments and intelligent digital assistance even as friction, from inconsistent merchant acceptance to lingering distrust of AI, continues to define their experience, according to a new report by Alipay+, the unified wallet gateway of Ant International, in partnership with S&P Global.
Its findings, the companies say, point to a broader shift in global commerce, with e-wallets, AI and interoperable digital ecosystems becoming foundational to how consumers discover, transact and engage across borders.
Payment infrastructure gaps persist despite mobile shift
On the infrastructure side, the report found that travel continues to expose gaps in payment systems worldwide.
More than half of respondents cited uncertainty around merchant acceptance (53%) or a lack of access to preferred payment methods (54%) while travelling, prompting one in four consumers to still carry cash as a fallback.
At the same time, spending patterns are shifting towards hyper-local, high-frequency transactions.
Food and beverage (67%) and local attractions (66%) recorded the largest increases in traveller spending, while 54% of consumers said they now spend more at local shops and eateries than at malls or chain restaurants.
This shift, the report notes, underscores a growing need for localised payment acceptance in markets that have traditionally catered to larger merchants. Consumers are also asking payment apps to do more than facilitate transactions.
Restaurant reservations (61%), all-in-one travel booking (58%) and attraction access (57%) emerged as the most in-demand in-app services globally, according to the survey.
Turning to interoperability, the report found that consumers are moving fluidly between e-wallets, cards, QR codes and NFC-based payment ecosystems when travelling abroad.
However, the travel journey remains fragmented across local payment environments, creating friction between rising consumer expectations and existing infrastructure.
Mobile payments have become the preferred method for everyday, in-destination spending on food, shopping and local attractions, the report states, while cards continue to dominate pre-trip bookings, particularly among consumers in Germany and the United States.
Mobile payment usage, spanning both QR and NFC formats, is also rising quickly, with 63% of consumers saying they already use these methods for most transactions while travelling.
Preferences diverge by market, the report adds, with consumers in China, Malaysia and Thailand favouring QR payments, while those in the US, UK and Germany lean towards NFC-based, card-linked wallets.
Notably, non-users of digital payments expressed a clear intent to adopt them, with 49% saying they are “very likely” and 51% “somewhat likely” to use such methods on future trips.
Despite this appetite, divergence in payment preferences is generating friction across the travel journey.
More than half of consumers flagged concerns around transaction security (62%), exchange rates and fees (56%), unfamiliar payment terminal steps (56%) and merchant acceptance (53%) when using mobile payments abroad.
Friction reportedly begins even before departure, with 54% of respondents citing challenges using preferred payment methods during pre-trip bookings. As a result, the report found that one in four consumers still carry cash as a fallback, a trend more pronounced among older travellers and in markets perceived as less interoperable.
Consumers consolidating around integrated wallet ecosystems
Beyond payments infrastructure, the report points to a broader consolidation around integrated wallet ecosystems.
Travel, it says, is accelerating a shift from single-purpose payment apps towards global-native wallet ecosystems that combine discovery, booking, payments, rewards and in-destination services within a single experience.
This shift is being driven by growing complexity across the travel journey itself, with consumers increasingly citing overwhelming choice, fragmented booking platforms and a lack of destination-specific guidance as key frustrations.
Meanwhile, rewards and cashback (52%), better foreign exchange rates (51%) and expense tracking (50%) rank among the strongest drivers of wallet usage globally, according to the findings.
Demand for integrated in-app travel services is similarly accelerating, with consumers expressing strong interest in restaurant reservations and payments (61%), all-in-one travel booking (58%), attraction tickets and passes (57%), and local transportation booking (54%).
Expectations, however, vary by market. Consumers in China, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore show stronger demand for all-in-one app experiences, whereas those in Japan and Germany prioritise security, transparency and predictable payment experiences, the report notes.
AI trusted to plan, not to pay
On artificial intelligence, the report found that adoption is accelerating for exploration but remains far more cautious when it comes to action. As many as 81.3% of consumers said they already use AI-powered tools to explore destinations and experiences.
That confidence narrows considerably further down the booking funnel. While 73.2% of consumers said they are open to using AI for hotel or flight bookings over the next 12 months, only 26% expressed interest in using AI for payments and autonomous decision-making.
Even so, openness towards AI-enabled commerce remains comparatively strong in markets such as China, Malaysia and Thailand, the report states.
When asked specifically about using an AI travel assistant during a trip, 87.7% of global consumers said they value AI-supported bookings and re-bookings, followed by AI-assisted payments and refunds (86.9%) and real-time travel guidance and support (84.6%).
According to the report, the gap between AI discovery and AI execution ultimately comes down to trust and control.
Privacy concerns remain high globally, at 43%, while a similar proportion of consumers (43%) said they hesitate to use AI assistants because they prefer planning travel themselves. A further third (32%) cited a preference for human advice over AI recommendations.
Commenting on the findings, Douglas Feagin, President of Ant International, said the pace of infrastructure development would determine how commerce evolves from here.
“The world has already become mobile-first and borderless, and the challenge now is whether commerce infrastructure can evolve quickly enough to keep pace with consumer expectations,” said Feagin.
“The next phase of global commerce will not be defined by whether payments are digital, but whether ecosystems are intelligent, interoperable and globally connected,” he added.
Feagin further said that embedding AI within trusted ecosystems would be central to closing the gap between consumer intent and consumer confidence.
“The opportunity lies in embedding AI securely within trusted ecosystems, allowing consumers to act on intent more seamlessly while retaining trust and user control across the commerce journey,” he concluded.
The company says Alipay+ connects 2 billion user accounts across 50 global payment partners to merchants in more than 220 destination markets, supporting both QR and NFC payment methods.
Alipay+ also partners with more than 10 national payment schemes across Asia and beyond, according to Ant International, with the stated aim of supporting inclusive payments and growth for small local merchants.
To support further development in this space, Ant International has introduced a suite of interoperable, AI-powered tools intended to help wallet partners evolve into integrated mobile ecosystems.
These include the Alipay+ Agentic Mobile Protocol (AMP), described by the company as the world’s first open-source framework for agentic payments on mobile devices, alongside the Alipay+ Super App Engine (ASAP 2.0), GenAI Cockpit and the Voyager AI travel agent.
