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PCI DSS Adoption Critical for Travel Industry

May 30, 2024         By: Kevin Xu

Andrea McGeachin, the commercial director of Ixaris, recently wrote about the importance of compliance with payment regulations on Travolution. McGeachin explained of adhering specifically to the Payments Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS).

Created jointly in 2004 by MasterCard, Visa, Discover, and American Express, the PCI DSS was designed to minimize the chances of fraud and malicious data access. It is increasingly important for any business that handles card-based payments to become PCI DSS compliant.

Consumers have a right to security and privacy, and these regulations lead to a direct reduction in fraud. It is absolutely critical for the travel industry to adopt these standards with travellers increasingly using card-based and contact-less payments, businesses in the travel industry must adapt and adhere to these regulations or else face hefty fines levied by the PCI Security Standard Council for security breaches, or worse, lose the trust of their customers.

According to McGeachin, the measures of the PCI DSS are not difficult to follow. Some online travel agencies still send customer data through fax, or retain sensitive information for lengthy periods of time which are practices that can be changed to dramatically increase security. McGeachin states that the travel industry, especially in a turbulent economy, cannot afford “A public data breach at a major travel organization,” as this “would have damaging consequences for the whole sector.”