Contributing more than 10 percent to global GDP, travel & tourism is one of the world’s largest industries. While the sector is characterized by its resilience, it faces significant challenges such as digitization, mobility across borders and over-crowding.

Addressing these challenges is too big a task for any single entity. Mastercard has the insights, solutions and scale to help the industry through its transformation – and is partnering with organizations such as the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) to advance more connected and more sustainable tourism:

• Digitizing travel booking payments to create efficiencies for individual businesses and a more secure and stable environment for the entire industry.


• Working with tourism players to explore the use of biometric technologies for more seamless and secure user experiences.


• Partnering with over 100 cities to make access to public transport easier through contactless and mobile ticketing.


• Helping Destination Marketing Organizations to better understand travelers’ needs.


• Working with national and regional governments to ensure communities benefit from tourism, e.g. by expanding access to electronic payment acceptance.

From April 17-19, Mastercard will highlight these themes at the WTTC Global Summit in Buenos Aires, the annual gathering of industry executives and tourism officials:

• On April 18, Diana Robino, SVP Enterprise Partnerships, will participate in a panel on “Secure and seamless travel: defining a vision for the future”.


• On April 19, Kevin White, Director Enterprise Partnerships, will give remarks at the Mastercard-sponsored Tourism for Tomorrow Awards.

Follow updates from Buenos Aires on Twitter @MastercardNews.