By Robert Hoffman, Guest Author
The
payments industry loves a clean narrative. Digital wallets are ascendant, contactless
is king, and cash is fading. If you spend your days reading fintech coverage,
that story holds up reasonably well.
But
I run a foreign currency exchange business. My view of the payments landscape
comes not from reports and roundtables, but from travelers embarking on
international trips and the travel professionals who send them our way because
they’ve learned, often the hard way, that their clients arrived underprepared.
What
I see every day tells a more complicated story than the one the industry keeps
telling itself.
The Data is Nuanced, the Traveler’s Reality is Not
Capgemini
projects that non-cash transactions will nearly double by 2029. Worldpay
asserts that digital wallets accounted for 56% of global e-commerce payment
volume in 2025. These trends are real, and they matter. But aggregate global
figures flatten the enormous variation that exists from one destination to the
next, and that variation is exactly what travel professionals must understand.
Consider
Japan, which Trip.com
Group named the top international travel destination for 2026.
Even under a revised methodology from Japan’s
Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, cashless
adoption measured against international benchmarks sits at roughly 46%. That
national figure still masks a meaningful split. Chain restaurants, department
stores, and transit systems in Tokyo and Osaka have broadly embraced card and
mobile payments. The long tail of family-run restaurants, rural ryokan, temple
admission counters, and street market vendors often
has not. The Japan
National Tourism Organization advises visitors to still carry
cash, particularly outside major cities. A traveler who arrives in Japan armed
only with a contactless card and a digital wallet will navigate most of their
trip fine — until they don’t.
That
gap between “most of the trip” and “all of it” is where travel professionals
earn their value. And it’s where cash does its most indispensable work.
Destinations Booked Right Now Are Cash-Meaningful
Japan
is not an outlier. Eastern Asia and Southeast Asia accounted for 31.7% of
international travel demand in the first half of 2026, according to Mabrian.
Across the region, the payment picture is fragmented. Vietnam, for example, sees
cash account for 70% of daily transactions, per 2025
Visual Capitalist data. Morocco, Africa’s
most visited destination, sits at 65% cash share. Colombia,
a fast-growing tourist destination in Latin America, comes in at 70% cash share
of daily transactions.
The
pattern holds across much of the world. Digital infrastructure is advancing in
city centers and tourist corridors, while cash remains essential in the places
that make international travel worth taking.
Even
within more digitally mature markets, cash serves a function that no wallet app
has managed to replace: It works when everything else fails. Connectivity
drops. Foreign cards get flagged. Payment terminals go offline. A traveler who
has exchanged currency before departure has a fallback. One who hasn’t is
stranded, calling their travel advisor from a taxi they can’t pay for.
Growing Segment Choosing Cash, Not Falling Back on It
Another
dimension to this conversation that the digital-first narrative tends to
overlook is the travelers who bring cash on purpose.
The
U.S.
Federal Reserve found that consumers’ steady cash
use (unchanged since 2020) is driven in part by its “unique characteristics,”
including anonymity, reliability, and the absence of transaction costs. More
than 90% of U.S. consumers said they intend to keep using cash even as non-cash
payment methods become widespread. The Reserve
Bank of Australia saw similar results, with privacy
and security concerns ranking among the top reasons people depend on cash. In
my experience, those preferences don’t get checked at the departure gate.
For
international travelers entering destinations with less transparent data
infrastructure, or those who prefer not to leave a digital trail across every
market, meal, and taxi ride, physical currency offers simplicity and
discretion. Others, especially frequent travelers to locations where bargaining
is part of the culture, know that cash is not just accepted but expected, and
that arriving with local currency signals respect and readiness.
What This Means for Travel Professionals
The
industry conversation about payments has tilted so far toward digital
innovation that physical currency has started to feel like a legacy concern — something
handled automatically, not something worth advising clients about. That’s a
service gap.
Travel
advisors and hospitality professionals who build foreign currency preparation
into their pre-departure conversations are doing something their clients
genuinely need and rarely receive. They’re also differentiating themselves in a
concrete, practical way. The traveler who arrives in Kyoto, Marrakech, or Ho
Chi Minh City with the right currency has a smoother experience from the start.
The one who didn’t is burning time at an airport kiosk or paying a premium at a
hotel desk.
Cash
hasn’t lost its relevance in international travel. It’s just stopped being
discussed. For travel professionals looking for a straightforward way to serve
clients better, picking up that conversation is the right place to start.
Robert Hoffmanhas
traveled to 33 countries and has worked in the travel industry for 16 years,
since founding his currency exchange business, Xchange of America, in 2007. His
writing has been featured in Forbes, American Express, and Entrepreneur.
For the latest travel news, updates and deals, subscribe to the daily TravelPulse newsletter.
Topics From This Article to Explore
