Travel connectivity has changed more in the last two years than in the decade before it. Roaming charges, once an accepted cost of travel, are increasingly seen as a friction point travellers actively avoid. eSIM has moved from “nice to have” to a default expectation for a growing share of international travellers, and that shift is reshaping the competitive landscape for every provider in the space.
To understand exactly how, Kaleido Intelligence surveyed more than 5,000 respondents across 20 leading travel markets for its Q2 2026 Global Traveller Survey – the most detailed survey-based study of its kind currently available. Within that broader study, the Travel eSIM Usage & Preferences in 2026 report zeroes in on more than 15 questions covering why travellers adopt travel SIMs and eSIMs, how much they spend, how they prefer to buy, and where usage is headed next.
For eSIM providers, MVNOs, travel-tech platforms, and the marketing and product teams behind them, this isn’t just interesting reading; it’s a strategic input. To give more context, I will break down what the report covers and, more importantly, how different teams across an eSIM business can put it to work.
Why This Research Matters Now
The travel eSIM category has gone from a niche alternative to physical SIM cards to a genuinely competitive market, with telcos, dedicated eSIM specialists, and even device and platform players all pushing into the space. That crowding raises the stakes for decision-making: knowing which markets are accelerating, why travellers choose one connectivity option over another, and how purchase behaviour is evolving is no longer optional context; it’s the difference between chasing growth and finding it.
Because the research is drawn directly from traveller responses across 20 markets, it offers something most internal data sets can’t: a comparative, cross-market view of demand and behaviour, rather than a single company’s view of its own customers.
One of the most useful ways to think about this study isn’t as a single document to read once, but as a resource that answers different questions depending on who’s asking.
As circuit-switched voice usage declines, voice roaming revenues are expected to fall by 80% or more between now and 2030. Meanwhile, the growth in VoLTE/VoNR traffic will result in around 58 billion MB of data usage by 2030. While this represents a substantial increase in data consumption, it will generate considerably lower voice roaming revenues (attributable to data roaming revenues) compared to traditional voice services.
Product teams can apply the same market and corridor data to their own roadmap decisions. If certain markets or traveller segments are showing distinct preferences, let’s say around plan structure, data bundle size, or purchase timing, for example – that’s a signal for where localisation or new product tiers could have the most impact. Used this way, the research acts as an external check on internal assumptions, helping product teams prioritise features and packages based on evidence of what travellers actually want, not just what’s easiest to build.
Marketing and brand teams, whether a mobile operator, a dedicated travel eSIM brand, or a platform newly entering the space can use the findings to understand how the overall market has grown and which markets are driving that growth. That narrative becomes the backbone of campaigns, sales enablement content, and positioning: rather than making a generic case for travel eSIM, marketing teams can point to specific, credible evidence of market momentum and use it to support a clear story about where the category and their product is headed.
At a broader level, having a consistent, third-party evidence base gives leadership teams a shared reference point for planning conversations, whether that’s investment decisions, market entry timing, or partnership evaluation. Instead of each function working from its own assumptions, sales, product, and marketing can align around the same underlying data, even as they apply it to different decisions.
Turning Insight Into Action
The real value of research like this isn’t in the headline numbers; it’s in what a team does with them.
A few starting points:
- Cross-reference the market and corridor data against your current footprint. Where are the gaps between where growth is happening and where you’re currently investing?
- Use traveller preference and spending data to pressure-test your pricing and packaging. Does your current offer match what travellers say drives their purchase decisions?
- Build your next campaign or sales narrative around the market growth story, rather than generic category messaging.
- Revisit the findings by function. What looks like a marketing insight at first glance may also be a product signal or a sales prioritisation cue, the same data point often supports more than one decision.
Access the report
The Travel eSIM Usage & Preferences in 2026 report delves deeper into all of these questions, with detailed breakdowns across the 20 markets surveyed. If your team is making decisions about where to invest, what to build, or how to position your travel eSIM offer over the next 12 months, it’s worth a closer look.
Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our team to discuss how the findings apply to your specific market or business questions.