Can the paperwork required to enter a country be enough to make travelers reconsider their destination?
That is one of the key findings of the 2026 Global Passenger Survey, released on October 28 in Macao by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
Based on more than 10,000 responses from over 200 countries, the survey highlights a striking contrast: while travelers are increasingly embracing digital tools to organize their trips and move more easily through airports, visa and immigration requirements remain a significant barrier to international travel.
Entry requirements discourage 43% of travelers
According to IATA, 43% of surveyed passengers say immigration requirements have discouraged them from visiting a destination, compared with 33% in 2025.
The 10-percentage-point increase in just one year highlights the growing influence administrative requirements can have on travel decisions.
Complexity is the biggest concern. Among travelers discouraged by entry requirements, 53% say the procedures are too complicated, far ahead of those citing cost (17%) or concerns about personal data privacy (17%).
The findings also reveal significant differences between regions.
In Africa, 52% of respondents say immigration requirements have discouraged them from visiting a destination, the highest proportion recorded in the survey. The figure stands at 49% in Asia-Pacific, 43% in the Middle East and 41% in Latin America and the Caribbean.
In Europe, 38% of respondents report having faced this barrier, compared with 35% in North America, where immigration requirements were least likely to discourage the travelers surveyed.
These figures suggest that entry requirements can affect a destination’s appeal to international tourists, well beyond the administrative burden they impose.
Six in ten travelers prefer to apply for visas online
The survey also confirms a strong preference for digital visa application procedures.
Worldwide, 60% of travelers prefer to apply for a visa online, while 25% still favor submitting an application in person at an embassy or consulate.
Passengers are also increasingly willing to complete immigration formalities earlier in their journey:
- 86% would be willing to share their immigration information digitally before departure to speed up the process, compared with 83% in 2025.
- 45% would prefer to complete immigration procedures before even arriving at the airport, up from 41% the previous year.
For IATA, these expectations reinforce the value of electronic visas (e-Visas), while also exposing the limitations of existing systems.
The association points out that more than 100 countries now issue e-Visas, yet there is still no truly standardized way for airlines to verify their validity.
IATA had already raised this issue in September, as VisasNews reported in its article explaining why airlines still struggle to verify electronic visas.
Nick Careen, IATA’s Senior Vice President for Operations, Safety and Security, is urging governments to adopt common standards that would make digital travel documents easier to verify.
“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,” Careen said.
The goal is to make travel procedures simpler for passengers while ensuring that airlines and border authorities can reliably verify the authorizations issued by governments.
Digital passports and biometrics gain popularity among travelers
Beyond visas, the survey shows growing interest in technologies designed to reduce repeated document checks throughout the passenger journey.
Some 84% of respondents would like to use a digital passport for online check-in, rather than having to present their physical passport.
Another 82% would be willing to share a digital passport with their airline after completing a booking, particularly if doing so provided access to personalized information about visa requirements for their trip.
Biometric technology is also becoming more widespread at airports.
In 2026, 58% of passengers say they have used biometrics at least once during the past 12 months, up from 50% in 2025.
Among those who have experienced biometric processes, 87% say they are satisfied with the experience.
More broadly, 78% of travelers would be willing to share their biometric information if it meant they no longer had to repeatedly show their passport or boarding pass at airport checkpoints.
These expectations are consistent with emerging projects aimed at making border checks less visible through biometric identification and advance passenger screening.
However, personal data protection remains a major concern. Data breaches are cited by 59% of respondents as one of their main concerns about biometric technology.
The growing interest in digital passports therefore does not mean they can already replace physical travel documents across international borders.
Nearly half of travelers use artificial intelligence to plan their trips
Artificial intelligence is also becoming an important part of travel planning.
According to IATA’s survey, 49% of passengers have already used AI to plan a trip.
The most common uses include searching for flights to a specific destination (21%), finding the cheapest airfare (19%) and getting inspiration for where to travel next (17%).
Adoption varies considerably by region.
In the Middle East, 72% of travelers say they have used artificial intelligence to plan a trip, compared with just 35% in Europe, the lowest rate among the regions surveyed.
For IATA, this shift also presents a commercial challenge for airlines.
Nick Careen believes carriers must ensure their offerings are visible through AI-powered tools while developing convenient ways for travelers to move from an AI conversation to an actual booking.
AI is therefore becoming another travel-planning resource alongside traditional search engines and booking platforms.
European travelers remain more cautious about digital travel technology
IATA’s survey also highlights notable regional differences in attitudes toward digital technology.
European travelers are among the most cautious when it comes to adopting new digital travel solutions.
Only 47% say they have used biometrics over the past year, compared with the global average of 58%.
Similarly, 79% of European respondents are interested in using a digital passport for online check-in, below the worldwide average of 84%.
By contrast, travelers in the Middle East show the strongest interest in this technology, with 91% expressing a willingness to use a digital passport when checking in online.
In North America, travelers are the most likely to have used biometrics over the past 12 months (63%), but they also express the greatest concern about the risk of personal data breaches.
In Africa, biometric use remains relatively limited (49%), although interest in digital travel solutions is among the highest worldwide.
These regional differences show that the adoption of new technologies is progressing at different speeds, despite widespread interest in making travel more seamless.
For IATA, governments now have a crucial role to play, not only in issuing and accepting digital travel documents but also in simplifying entry requirements.
The challenge is to meet travelers’ expectations without adding unnecessary procedures or duplicating document checks.
VisasNews Take
IATA’s 2026 Global Passenger Survey shows that entry requirements are more than just an administrative inconvenience: they can directly influence where people choose to travel. While passengers are increasingly using artificial intelligence to organize their trips and showing growing interest in digital passports and biometrics, complex visa and immigration procedures remain a significant obstacle. Moving these processes online can help, but only if applications are accessible, requirements are easy to understand, and verification systems can communicate effectively with one another. For travelers, making entry procedures simpler matters just as much as making them digital.
