If Maslov were to update the ‘Hierarchy of Needs’, Internet connectivity would certainly be included, or perhaps one can argue that Internet connectivity today is part of the physiological needs of a human being. From sharing selfies to booking cabs and making payments, having a data connection on your smartphone is as important as remembering to keep your passport when you travel.
With the convenience of purchasing an eSIM instead of a physical SIM for your travel, it is no wonder that the travel eSIM market has become a USD 300 million+ opportunity in 20231, and travel eSIM users are expected to grow from 40 million in 2024 to over 200 million by 20282.
Given the strong growth in the Travel eSIM market, we wanted to study which telcos are capitalizing on this opportunity and how easy it is for tourists to purchase an eSIM.
Interestingly, of the 28 Telecom Service Providers we studied in ASEAN (India, Australia, and New Zealand), only one-third (i.e. only 9 telcos) offered Tourist eSIMs that could be purchased online. Instead, many telcos offer eSIMs for postpaid customers or even prepaid customers but require local ID or verification, and some do not provide an online purchase option, making it inaccessible for tourists.
The Tourist eSIM market is competitive as non-telco players like Airalo, Yesim and others storm the market with great CX (customer experience) and telco partnerships to offer data roaming services.
To compete, telcos must deliver a great Tourist eSIM experience, from the purchase journey to activation. This journey should also extend to top-up, potential rewards and other adjacent services linked with travel & hospitality.
As part of the Twimbit CXMark service, we benchmark CX journeys across different players in an industry by conducting real transactions to define the journey parameters that drive the experience and discover the friction points, understand best practices from the players, and identify CX innovation opportunities for the players to improve their CX.
We have recently conducted a CXMark exercise on the Tourist eSIM purchase journey across 10-12 providers in Asia Pacific, and the full research findings and benchmarks will be published on the Twimbit platform.
When it comes to eSIMs, tourists are expecting:
To win the Tourist eSIM journey, telecom service providers must be laser-focused on building a great customer experience that makes the telco the preferred option for Tourist eSIMs for all their travels across multiple destinations. To do this, telcos need to understand how to build the best experience for the Tourist eSIM Purchase & Activation journey, understand the current friction points, learn how other players manage the journey and identify opportunities to differentiate and innovate.
Details of the customer journey for the providers offering Tourist eSIMs will be available in our upcoming CXMark study.