Turn Summer Travel Connectivity into Lasting Customer Loyalty

To most people, summer provides a degree of respite from the daily grind, offering a chance to get away and unwind.

In addition to longer vacations, surveys have shown that US workers typically work less during the warmer months.

Anyone working in the travel or tourism industry, however, will be preparing for the exact opposite. In the northern hemisphere, the tourism industry is highly seasonal, with the May-September period accounting for most international visitors – a number that’s continually rising. Nearly 8 million US visitors traveled to Europe last year, or 6% more than in 2024.

This may seem surprising. The rising environmental toll of air travel and overtourism have created headlines in recent years, while a global cost-of-living crisis has left millions struggling to afford groceries, let alone a foreign trip. A recent booking.com survey found 85% of tourists now consider sustainability “very important” to their travels.

Amidst this upheaval, tourists are increasingly traveling smarter, using new tech to save money abroad and minimize the environmental and financial impacts of their stay.

eSIMs are one example. These tiny microchips have transformed how people use their phones abroad, creating a lucrative travel eSIM industry in the process.

Here, we explore how the eSIM has upended the travel sector and how digital brands from a variety of industries are entering the market.

The travel eSIM and embedded telco landscape

Today's travelers have come to expect mobile internet as a key element of any international journey.

Using mobile data abroad used to be unthinkable, fuelled by nightmarish anecdotes about tourists running up thousands of dollars in fees for a one-minute call. While steep roaming fees and “bill shock” are still prevalent, wireless internet abroad is more accessible and affordable than ever, thanks to eSIMs. The same shift has made a mobile data connection practically a requirement, used for essential tasks like navigation, translation, and organizing transport.

Last year, low-cost carrier Ryanair stopped accepting printed boarding passes, insisting that only passengers with the Ryanair app would be eligible to fly. As anyone who’s struggled to connect to airport Wi-Fi will quickly attest, this means organizing a viable mobile data connection before traveling.

As digital journeys evolve, connectivity is becoming a natural extension of the travel experience.

While specialist travel eSIM providers like BetterRoaming already exist to serve this market, eSIMs' digital nature means they can theoretically be included in any existing digital platform, from banking apps to online travel websites.

• Customers increasingly expect to be connected immediately upon arrival without searching for local SIM cards or expensive roaming options.

• Digital-first travel experiences now include connectivity alongside flights, hotels, insurance, and transport.

Any brand with a digital presence and a well-traveled customer base can serve this need.

Simplicity creates better customer experiences

Aside from their environmental credibility and cost-effectiveness, the major draw for travel eSIMs is their convenience. Brands that understand this can offer their customers a genuinely valuable digital service. Incorporating travel eSIMs into a service they already use, like a banking app or booking website, further reduces friction – an aspect that’s especially valued during the stresses of international travel.

This is something the travel industry has been doing for years. Car rental, accommodation, and sightseeing tours are frequently bundled together on booking platforms and airline websites — and travel eSIMs are the next step.

In 2024, the mobile industry body the GSMA identified public awareness as a major barrier to eSIM adoption. By nearly every other metric – pricing, coverage, convenience – eSIMs had SIM cards beat. The trouble was that not enough people had heard of them yet.

Only a couple of years later, the situation has reversed. The eSIM is on track to become the most common SIM format worldwide by 2030,

One of the main advantages travel eSIMs have over SIM cards is their ease of use: by incorporating travel eSIM services into a platform that their customers already use, rather than a third-party travel eSIM supplier, brands can further simplify this process and provide their base with a genuinely valuable service. The easiest customer experience is often the most valuable.

International brands understand this simplicity implicitly, and have already begun implementing it into their products. While the American Express credit card is synonymous with a jetset lifestyle, it’s still a financial services company, and not a travel brand. The eSIM has allowed Amex to bridge this gap, offering their well-traveled clientele a highly relevant new service and further positioning the company as a traveler’s ideal card provider.

Amex's travel eSIM service has taken the user experience one step further by using the travel eSIM not as a purchasable add-on but as a loyalty reward. Cardholders who upgrade to the highest-tier Platinum and Gold tiers receive exclusive discounts and perks on their travel data.

The same principle can be seen in the digital bank Revolut’s built-in travel eSIM service: while all Revolut customers can purchase mobile plans in the app, loyalty members receive them as part of the Revolut Ultra package, intentionally bundled with other travel perks like airport lounge access. Even non-members have the option to purchase plans with loyalty points (“RevPoints”) instead of cash.

It’s common wisdom in consumer-facing circles that customer retention beats acquisition nearly every time – the rewards-based model reveals how eSIMs are utilized as a customer engagement strategy as much as a source of profit.

Entering the mobile market

Travel eSIMs create additional touchpoints beyond the original booking, increasing engagement while providing genuine value throughout the trip.

In telecoms, the tech has gone full circle. The value of travel eSIMs is being recognized – even traditional carriers like Vodafone now operate their own travel eSIM service. Now, through MVNEs like 1GLOBAL, other industries are getting in on the act. Where previously, the main requirement for a viable travel eSIM service was in-house telco expertise and mobile network access, now a digital platform of any kind and a relevant user base take priority.

Full-stack MVNO infrastructure enables better experiences

While the advantages of launching a mobile service are clear, how to do it is not. Hundreds of non-telecoms brands have unveiled their own mobile services in recent years, via different methods, and with varying results.

We’ve previously explored the MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) landscape, covering everything a brand needs to know before entering the telecoms market. As the market grows, the distinction between MVNOs and non-telco digital brands is blurring. Previously, companies looking to onboard mobile services would outsource nearly all aspects of the operations, including pricing, coverage, and customer service, to a third-party telecoms company. This approach enables swift market entry time, but leaves them vulnerable to fluctuations in cost and quality, as these are still determined by the telco provider.

1GLOBAL offers an alternative: a full-stack MVNO that lets partner brands manage:

• Coverage

• Branding

• Pricing

• Billing

• Customer service

These features are all integrated with a suite of eSIM APIs, allowing brands to enjoy the same swift go-to-market times while offering their customers a wide range of telecommunications services, on their own terms.

Beyond the travel sector

A further advantage of a full-stack embedded telco partner are the possibilities it opens for future expansion. While the travel eSIM market remains a lucrative option, more and more brands are deepening their telecoms offering with the integration of longer-term mobile services.

The German digital bank N26 partnered with 1GLOBAL to incorporate travel eSIMs into their app, targeted at their digitally-savvy user base. Like Revolut, the service allows users to instantly purchase mobile plans within the app, without the friction of a checkout process or third-party vendors. After the travel eSIM service was established as a success, N26 and 1GLOBAL deepened their collaboration by offering customers domestic mobile plans. This is a significant pivot from stopgap connectivity services to customers no longer requiring telecoms companies to be their primary mobile carrier.

For N26, domestic mobile plans offer three significant benefits:

1. They create longer-term, diversified revenue sources beyond temporary travel eSIMs.

2. They increase digital engagement, boosting the frequency and duration of app visits.

3. They position the brand as more than a financial services provider.

Incorporating a domestic mobile service turns brands into essential service providers, providing customers with long-term, daily used mobile services without the lock-in commitments and admin associated with traditional mobile carriers. The focus here is not on immediate revenue but on building a broader customer engagement strategy. As eSIM-based mobile services continue to become more sophisticated, digital brands are using them to fundamentally transform their market position and customer relationships.

Launching branded mobile services with 1GLOBAL

Global eSIM adoption rates are set to balloon over the coming decade — and with it, customer familiarity with eSIM-focused services, travel eSIMs, and in-app domestic mobile plans.

Brands looking to leverage this shift require the right telco partner — one that’s able to implement scalable, easy-to-manage mobile services that can keep pace with the rising demand in the coming years.

Through a single API, 1GLOBAL enables partners to launch branded travel connectivity across 200+ destinations while building toward a complete embedded mobile proposition. This allows them to deploy mobile services anywhere in the world their customers need them, while managing all connectivity plans through a single contract, with a single partner. Brands no longer face a choice between launching quickly and maintaining control over their embedded mobile services.

1GLOBAL’s full-stack infrastructure and network of over 600+ partner carriers provide fast, reliable, embedded connectivity solutions, with long-term control over features, pricing, and branding.

Find out more about 1GLOBAL embedded telco solutions, or contact our team today.