PYMNTS Data Dive: The Coming Cross-Border Travel Explosion

With a perfect stream of events — including an emerging middle class in several global economies, an aging but healthy population with both money and time on their hands to expend all of a sudden and a host of digital technologies that make travel extremely easy from almost all corners of the globe — it seems cross-border travel is about to explode in a big way.

Such is the conclusion of a new study from Visa that marks a dramatic spike in international travel over the next decade. 

How dramatic?

282 million | The number of  households projected to plan at least one international trip every year by 2025.

$20,000+ | The annual income of the head of household in the “traveling class” as defined by Visa.

$5,300 | What consumers will spend on average on each of those trips, a 35 percent increase over the ten-year period 2015-2025.

86% | The amount cross-border travel is projected to grow among Chinese consumers between 2015 and 2025.

33% | The amount cross-border travel is project to grow among American consumers between 2015 and 2025.