The Flight Is Fine. The Border Is the Problem: How Immigration Rules Are Costing Destinations Visitors

IATA’s 2026 Global Passenger Survey finds that 43% of travellers have been deterred by immigration requirements, up from 33% in 2025, even as satisfaction with air travel rises to 87%. The findings expose a growing disconnect: better flying experiences, but border and visa processes that continue to discourage visitors.

---

Global (Tourism Reporter) — Ask frequent travellers what spoils a trip and they will tell you about delays, lost luggage and an uncomfortable seat at the back of the cabin. Yet the greatest obstacle to a journey may arise long before a passenger reaches the airport. It can be found in a visa form, a consulate queue or an entry process that asks for the same information twice. IATA’s 2026 Global Passenger Survey, released on 28 October, suggests that this is becoming an increasingly significant barrier to international travel.

Drawing on more than 10,000 responses from over 200 countries, the survey delivers a striking finding: immigration requirements have discouraged 43 per cent of passengers from visiting a destination, up from 33 per cent in 2025. A ten-percentage-point increase in twelve months is significant for an attitudinal measure. The contrast becomes even more revealing when set against another finding: overall satisfaction with air travel stands at 87 per cent, one percentage point higher than last year. Travellers are broadly satisfied with the flight, yet a growing proportion are being put off by what happens before they board or after they land.

There is an important distinction between what the survey measures and what it does not. It captures travellers who say immigration requirements have discouraged them from visiting a destination at some point; it does not establish how many trips were cancelled or how many arrivals destinations have lost in 2026. The 43 per cent figure should therefore not be interpreted as a visitor shortfall. Even so, the direction of travel is difficult to ignore.

For an industry whose tourism ministers and destination marketing organisations invest heavily in persuading people to visit, the finding raises an uncomfortable question: what happens when the desire to travel is there, the flight is available, but the border process becomes the reason a visitor stays away?

---

What Exactly Is Putting People Off?

The detail behind the 43 per cent figure matters more than the headline itself. Among passengers deterred by immigration requirements, 53 per cent say the process is too complex. Privacy concerns and cost were each cited by 17 per cent.

These proportions should prompt governments to rethink how they approach visa reform. Fee reductions and waivers are often the most visible policy instruments because they are relatively easy to announce and measure. Yet they address the concern of roughly one in six deterred travellers, while complexity affects more than half. A traveller confronted with multiple documents, separate application portals and uncertain processing times is unlikely to be persuaded simply because the visa fee has been reduced.

The destinations making changes in 2026 offer examples of a different approach: redesigning the process itself. Egypt’s Digital Visa-on-Arrival System allows travellers to generate a QR code before departure, during the flight or after landing, removing the paper-sticker queue that traditionally followed arrival. South Africa’s Electronic Travel Authorisation, launched by President Cyril Ramaphosa at OR Tambo International Airport, combines biometric checks and machine learning within a single digital process. During its pilot, the system rejected 6,126 fraudulent applications out of 216,204 processed, demonstrating how digital processing can support both easier access and security. Ghana has taken a complementary route by waiving visa fees for African passport holders, directly addressing the cost barrier.

The survey’s findings on traveller preferences reinforce this direction. Sixty per cent prefer to apply for visas online, compared with 25 per cent who favour applications in person at a consulate or embassy. Eighty-six per cent are likely to share immigration information digitally before departure, up from 83 per cent. Meanwhile, 45 per cent would prefer to complete immigration procedures before reaching the airport, compared with 41 per cent last year.

The message is becoming difficult to miss. Travellers want immigration processes that are simpler, more digital and completed earlier in the journey. For governments and destination marketers, the opportunity is to make entering a country feel less like an administrative obstacle and more like the beginning of the visitor experience.

---

The Verification Gap Nobody Is Marketing

One passage in IATA’s announcement deserves more attention than it is likely to receive. An eVisa is only as effective as the ease with which it can be verified, and airlines are often the first to perform that check.

“Passengers want to apply for visas online and complete immigration procedures before they reach the airport,” said Nick Careen, IATA’s Senior Vice President, Operations, Safety and Security. “eVisas can deliver that, but airlines can only verify them efficiently if governments use common standards. More than 100 countries issue eVisas, yet there is little consistency in how they are checked. The tools to fix that already exist, and governments should adopt them.”

This is a significant admission of how fragmented the digital visa landscape remains. A destination can introduce an eVisa system and still create friction thousands of kilometres away at a departure airport if the airline’s check-in staff cannot verify the document quickly and consistently. For the traveller, the experience is simply another obstacle associated with visiting that destination. Yet the tourism ministry responsible for the system may never capture that frustration in its own performance data.

For tourism ministries and destination authorities, this is as much a procurement and standards issue as it is a technology question. When commissioning or upgrading an eVisa or Electronic Travel Authorisation system, the question should not be limited to how easily visitors can apply. It should also be how efficiently an airline in another country can verify the approval before allowing a passenger to board.

The issue reflects a broader lesson in the passenger journey. Careen has previously highlighted how 17 per cent of attempted ancillary purchases fail at the final stage of payment. In both cases, the same principle applies: the final operational step can determine whether an otherwise well-designed digital experience succeeds or fails. For destinations investing in easier access, the verification process deserves as much attention as the application itself.

---

Safety, and the Uncertainty That Can Be Fixed

The survey also examines the influence of geopolitical conflict on travel decisions. Among passengers discouraged from visiting a destination because of geopolitical conflict, 72 per cent cite safety as their main concern. A further 13 per cent point to uncertainty over whether travel is possible.

These represent two different challenges, and they require different responses. Safety concerns are judgements about personal risk, not perceptions that a destination can simply market away. No promotional campaign should attempt to persuade travellers to disregard legitimate security concerns. Uncertainty, however, is a different matter. It reflects a lack of reliable information about whether flights are operating, borders remain open, routes are accessible or travel insurance will provide cover.

That information gap is something destinations can address. Clear, timely and specific communication can help travellers make informed decisions, even when circumstances remain uncertain. Nepal’s Tourism Minister demonstrated this approach through the #NepalCalling campaign following the August floods, when the immediate priority was to tell prospective visitors which routes remained open and which areas were accessible.

For destinations operating close to conflict zones or recovering from major disruptions, the lesson is straightforward: travellers need practical, up-to-date information, not simply reassurance. A bulletin explaining which airports are operating, which routes are accessible and what conditions apply to visitors this week may do more to restore travel confidence than an elaborate destination-branding campaign.

---

Biometrics Are Now Mainstream, and Trust Is the Condition

At airports, one technology appears to have moved beyond experimentation and into everyday use. Fifty-eight per cent of passengers experienced biometrics at some point in their airport journey over the past 12 months, up from 50 per cent in 2025 and 24 percentage points above the 2022 level. Satisfaction among those who have used the technology stands at 87 per cent.

Acceptance extends beyond the airport. Seventy-eight per cent of passengers would share biometric information if it allowed them to bypass passport or boarding pass checks. Among these respondents, 75 per cent would prefer to register once in advance and be recognised automatically throughout their journey.

Interest in digital passports is even higher. Eighty-four per cent want to use one for online check-in instead of a physical passport, while 82 per cent would share a digital passport with an airline at the booking stage, after payment, if it enabled personalised services such as visa information. The same proportion is interested in having a single smartphone that combines a digital wallet, digital passport and loyalty cards.

The booking-stage finding deserves particular attention from tourism businesses. Travellers are increasingly willing to share identity information when doing so delivers a practical benefit. Visa guidance is one example highlighted by IATA. Tour operators, online travel agencies and national tourism platforms are all positioned to make that information useful at the point when travel decisions are being finalised. Saudi Arabia’s Package Visa, which integrates visa issuance into flight and hotel bookings, offers an early example of this approach in practice.

But growing acceptance should not be mistaken for unconditional trust. The leading concerns about biometrics are data breaches (59 per cent), information being shared with other organisations (49 per cent) and a lack of clarity about how personal data is handled (41 per cent). The last concern points to an area where governments and service providers can make a direct difference through clearer policies, transparent consent and responsible data management.

Careen’s call for a common framework is therefore central to the future of digital travel. “To make biometrics the norm for international travel, governments must agree a framework for issuing and accepting secure digital passports—or Digital Travel Credentials,” he said.

The next phase of digital travel will depend not only on how quickly identity checks can be completed, but on whether travellers trust the systems handling their personal information. Without common standards, each border system risks developing its own requirements, leaving passengers to navigate multiple platforms and place their trust in separate systems. The technology may be ready, but the international framework that makes it work seamlessly still needs to catch up.

---

AI Has Entered the Planning Process

Nearly half of travellers (49 per cent) have now used AI for travel planning. The most common application is searching for flights to a specific destination (21 per cent), followed by finding the cheapest flights (19 per cent) and seeking inspiration on where to travel (17 per cent).

That final figure deserves particular attention from destination marketers. Seventeen per cent of travellers have already turned to AI for destination inspiration, meaning a growing share of travel discovery is taking place through conversations with tools that tourism boards neither own nor directly control. Tourism Australia has recognised this shift by incorporating AI discoverability into its Tourism 2035 strategy, while the issue also featured prominently in discussions around the World Tourism Day 2026 theme. IATA’s survey now provides a measure of how quickly the behaviour is spreading.

Careen’s advice to airlines is equally relevant to destinations. “It’s important for airlines not only to ensure their offerings show up in AI, but also to develop convenient links to convert an AI conversation into a real booking.” The principle extends well beyond aviation. Being recommended by an AI tool is only the beginning; destinations and tourism businesses must also provide an accurate, accessible and bookable route from discovery to purchase. That means ensuring destination information is current, experiences are easy to find and booking channels work without unnecessary friction.

The regional differences are striking. Seventy-two per cent of travellers in the Middle East have used AI for travel planning, compared with 57 per cent in Asia-Pacific, 52 per cent in Africa, 47 per cent in North America, 43 per cent in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 35 per cent in Europe.

For European destinations competing for visitors from the Gulf and Asia-Pacific, these figures carry a practical implication. Travellers in some of their important long-haul source markets are already using AI extensively to research and plan trips. It is reasonable to expect that destination visibility within these tools will increasingly influence how competing places are discovered and considered. The challenge for tourism boards is no longer simply to be visible online, but to remain discoverable, accurately represented and easy to book in an AI-mediated travel market.

---

Reading the Regions

The regional findings add another dimension to IATA’s survey, revealing that the challenges and opportunities in the changing passenger journey are not evenly distributed. Africa stands out for the contrast between traveller satisfaction, immigration barriers and appetite for digital solutions.

African travellers are among the most satisfied with air travel, at 89 per cent, yet they are also the most likely to have been discouraged from visiting a destination by immigration requirements, at 52 per cent. Complexity leads their concerns, followed by cost. Although biometric experience remains relatively low at 49 per cent, 87 per cent are interested in using a digital passport for online check-in, while 82 per cent are willing to share biometric data. The picture is of a region whose travellers are broadly satisfied with flying but face significant barriers at the border, while showing considerable openness to the digital tools that could help remove them.

This tension also gives greater relevance to Aliko Dangote’s widely reported complaint about the difficulty of travelling with an African passport, including his reference to needing 38 visas, which AITEC World highlighted in Cotonou. His experience reflects a broader concern about the relationship between passport access, mobility and tourism opportunities across the continent.

The difference between Africa’s 52 per cent and North America’s 35 per cent, the lowest regional figure, also invites comparison with the passport-access disparities tracked by the Henley Passport Index. Its rankings illustrate the unequal number of destinations accessible to holders of different passports. IATA’s survey does not establish a direct causal relationship between passport strength and travel deterrence, but the contrast raises an important question about how unequal mobility affects tourism demand and international visitor flows.

Asia-Pacific records the joint-highest overall satisfaction with air travel, at 90 per cent, alongside the Middle East. Yet 49 per cent of its travellers say immigration requirements have discouraged them from visiting a destination. For destinations seeking to attract more visitors from Asian markets, the finding is a reminder that high travel satisfaction does not necessarily translate into friction-free international mobility.

Europe presents a different picture. Its travellers report the lowest overall satisfaction with air travel, at 84 per cent, the lowest use of AI for travel planning, at 35 per cent, and the lowest willingness to share biometric data, at 70 per cent. Interest in using a digital passport for online check-in is also lowest, at 79 per cent. At 38 per cent, however, European travellers are less likely than those in most other regions to have been discouraged by immigration requirements.

This contrast is worth watching. European travellers appear more cautious about emerging digital travel technologies, even as European destinations compete for visitors from regions where enthusiasm for these tools is considerably higher. The challenge for destination authorities and travel businesses is to accommodate different expectations without compromising convenience, privacy or security.

The Middle East shows the strongest appetite for digital identity, with 91 per cent interested in using a digital passport and the highest satisfaction among passengers who have experienced biometrics. One result, however, stands out: the proportion who experienced biometrics during the past year fell by six percentage points to 61 per cent, making it the only regional decline in the survey. IATA offers no explanation for this change, and the figure should therefore be treated as an observation rather than evidence of a wider reversal.

Latin America and the Caribbean record the largest improvement in air-travel satisfaction, rising five percentage points to 85 per cent. At the same time, travellers in the region express the highest concern about how their personal information is shared and handled.

Taken together, the regional findings show why a single approach to the future of travel will not work everywhere. Africa’s priority is reducing mobility barriers while expanding access to digital systems. Europe presents a greater challenge around technology acceptance and trust, while the Middle East demonstrates strong enthusiasm for digital identity. Across all regions, the task for governments and the travel industry is to make international journeys easier without overlooking the security and privacy concerns that shape passenger confidence.

---

What Tourism Leaders Can Do With This

None of the barriers identified in IATA’s survey belongs to the airlines alone. Several sit squarely within the responsibility of tourism ministries, immigration authorities and destination management organisations.

The first priority is to treat the entry process as part of the tourism product. Governments should examine every step between a traveller deciding to visit and being cleared to board: the documents required, application stages, digital platforms and processing times. They should also compare that experience with competing destinations seeking the same visitors. If complexity is the leading deterrent identified by travellers, it should become a measurable part of destination competitiveness.

Second, move visa applications and immigration procedures online and further upstream in the travel journey. This responds directly to the 60 per cent who prefer to apply for visas digitally and the 45 per cent who would rather complete immigration procedures before reaching the airport. Third, governments commissioning digital visa systems should insist on common verification standards, allowing an airline in Nairobi, Mumbai or São Paulo to check an approval as efficiently as an immigration officer at the destination.

Fourth, communicate clearly and consistently when conflict or disruption affects travel. Travellers need practical updates on operating airports, accessible routes, border conditions and any restrictions that could affect their journey. Fifth, tourism authorities should examine how their destinations appear when travellers ask AI tools where to go, and whether accurate information leads to a clear, reliable booking route.

Finally, trust must be built into every system that collects biometric and personal information. Governments and service providers should explain what data they collect, why they need it, how it will be stored and whether it will be shared with other organisations. The 41 per cent concerned about a lack of clarity over data handling are asking for transparency, not another promotional campaign.

Ultimately, the survey offers tourism leaders a reminder that attracting visitors is only part of the job. A destination can invest heavily in marketing, connectivity and visitor experiences, yet still lose potential demand through an entry process that makes getting there unnecessarily difficult.

A traveller who has already chosen your destination has done the hardest part of the sales process. What the Global Passenger Survey records is how many of them are then lost to a form.

---