The Challenge
We understand the funding complexity behind destination marketing.
Complex international funding flows from multiple partners
You’re coordinating marketing funds from airlines, hotel groups, tour operators, and tourism boards—each with different currencies, payment schedules, and contribution agreements. Tracking who contributed what, when funds arrive, and how to allocate them across campaigns is a constant reconciliation challenge that delays campaign launches.
Slow cross-border disbursements when funding campaigns
Marketing campaigns need fast execution—seasonal promotions, crisis recovery initiatives, event sponsorships. But when you’re sending funds to partners abroad for co-op campaigns, wire transfers take 3-5 days, intermediary banks take cuts, and you lose critical timing windows for campaign impact.
High FX costs eating into marketing budgets
You’re collecting contributions in multiple currencies and disbursing funds internationally. FX conversion fees and spreads can consume 3-5% of marketing budgets before a single campaign runs. Every dollar lost to banking fees is a dollar not spent on reaching travelers.
Bureaucratic banking processes across jurisdictions
You’re operating across multiple countries, each with different banking requirements, compliance rules, and payment infrastructure. Opening accounts, getting approvals for international transfers, and navigating local banking bureaucracy slows everything down and creates operational overhead.
Difficulty rapidly deploying funds for time-sensitive campaigns
Destination marketing often requires rapid response—natural disaster recovery, competitive threats, sudden market opportunities. But traditional banking timelines don’t support “deploy funds to five markets this week.” You lose momentum waiting for transfers to clear.
Limited transparency around partner fund receipt and deployment
Tourism boards and airline partners want to know their contributions are being used effectively. But tracking when partners receive funds, how quickly campaigns deploy, and tying spend back to contribution sources requires manual reconciliation across disconnected banking systems.
Why It’s Getting Harder
Market shifts are making payment complexity worse.
Currency volatility creating margin uncertainty: Exchange rate swings between quote, booking, and service delivery can wipe out your margin entirely. You’re either taking FX risk or spending time managing currency hedging, which most DMCs aren’t staffed to handle. Payment providers offer multi-currency accounts, but they don’t solve the timing mismatch between when you collect and when you pay.
Working capital constraints limiting growth: You could handle more volume, but you can’t fund the supplier payments before client collection. Traditional business loans don’t understand DMC cash flow cycles. Payment financing solutions are designed for e-commerce or retail, not service aggregation with 30-60 day payment terms.
Technology expectations without DMC-specific solutions: Tour operators want API integration and automated payment confirmation. Suppliers want instant payment notification. Your clients expect transparent pricing in their currency. You’re supposed to automate all of this, but payment platforms built for travel are designed for OTAs and suppliers, not for DMCs in the middle.
Compliance costs rising across multiple jurisdictions: You’re subject to payment regulations in your home country, client countries, and potentially supplier countries. PSD2 in Europe, local payment licensing in Asia, consumer protection rules in North America—it all applies to your operations, but compliance guidance is written for banks and processors, not DMCs.
How We Help
Advisory designed for DMC business models.
Payment Flow Optimization
We map out your client collection and supplier payment flows, then design a payment architecture that minimizes FX costs, reduces trapped working capital, and automates reconciliation. This includes currency strategy, payment method selection, and choosing providers who understand DMC timing mismatches.
Multi-Currency & FX Strategy
We help you structure currency collection and payment to protect margins without requiring constant FX management. This includes: when to hold balances in local currency, how to price and collect to minimize FX exposure, and where hedging actually makes sense for your volume and booking patterns.
Working Capital & Payment Terms
We identify payment financing and cash flow solutions that fit DMC operations: supplier payment optimization, client payment acceleration options, and working capital facilities that underwrite against travel receivables. We know which providers understand DMC cash cycles and which ones don’t.
The Insider Advantage
We’ve operated in destination services.
Most payment consultants have never managed a supplier network or negotiated payment terms with local transport operators. We understand the difference between paying a hotel group and paying 50 individual suppliers with different payment preferences and capabilities.
When you tell us you’re collecting in USD but paying suppliers in EUR, THB, and AED, we understand exactly how that impacts your margin on every booking. When you’re evaluating a payment platform that claims to solve multi-currency operations, we know the questions to ask about FX spreads, settlement timing, and local payment method support.
We’re independent—not tied to any payment provider, banking relationship, or software platform. Our recommendations are based on what works for your supplier network, your client base, and your operational capacity. We’ve seen what actually gets implemented versus what sounds good in a demo.
Get Started
Let’s talk about your payment operations.
Book a 30-minute call to discuss your specific situation. No sales pitch—just a conversation about whether we can help.
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