Travel Industry Cybersecurity Crisis: $4.8 Billion Spending by 2028 as Digital Transformation Creates New Attack Vectors

Key takeaway: Travel and tourism cybersecurity spend is projected to hit $4.8B by 2028, driven by exposure across booking platforms, airline/airport boarding systems, and API-heavy integrations that attract both financially motivated and state-linked actors. This demands sector-specific controls that blend API security, identity, and OT/airport ops resilience.

Market outlook

• The new report highlights accelerated cyber spend as travel’s digital footprint grows; sensitive exchanges now occur at every step, from e-commerce booking to mobile boarding and loyalty systems.finance.yahoo+1

• Analysts frame travel as a high-value data target (PII, passport, payment, itineraries), with clarity that both APTs and criminal groups pursue the sector for surveillance and fraud.globenewswire+1

Digital transformation risks

• Booking platforms: API sprawl, SSO/OAuth misconfigurations, loyalty point fraud, and mobile app reverse engineering increase takeover risk if token validation and data-at-rest protection lag.securitymagazine+1

• Boarding and airport systems: Identity gates, payment points, and airline integrations concentrate crown-jewel data; weak API trust between partners magnifies blast radius.securitybuzz+1

Threat actors and TTPs

• Financial crime: Account takeover via phishing/smishing, loyalty theft, refund abuse, and card capture through web injection or POS chains at hotels.digitaldefynd+1

• State-linked espionage: Targeting travel itineraries and passenger manifests for tracking—APIs connecting airlines, hotel chains, and aggregators present systemic pathways.globenewswire+1

Case studies and lessons

• Hotels: Historic breaches (e.g., Marriott, Hyatt, IHG) show persistence in POS networks and reservation platforms, underscoring vendor and M&A due diligence gaps.digitaldefynd

• Travel super-apps: Salt Labs documented account takeover paths at a top-tier travel service via malicious links and lax token validation—classic API trust erosion.securitymagazine+1

Data protection challenges

• PII/Passport/payment data sits across multiple controllers/processors; cross-border processing complicates lawful basis and breach notification windows for airlines and chains.globenewswire

• Loyalty economy: Points function like stored value—API and fraud controls must treat loyalty like cash, with anomaly detection for transfers and redemptions.appdome

Sector security framework

• API-first security: Enforce mTLS between partners, per-client OAuth scopes, token binding, and continuous anomaly scoring for session reuse and consent flows.securitybuzz+1

• Identity and device trust: Phishing-resistant MFA for staff and travelers, conditional access for agent portals, and device posture checks at airport ops endpoints.globenewswire

• Payment and POS: Network segmentation for hospitality POS, P2PE, and anti-skimming telemetry; frequent integrity checks and allowlisted firmware.digitaldefynd

• OT/airport resilience: Tabletop exercises for DCS/boarding outages, offline boarding passes, and signage/revenue fallback to limit passenger chaos during cyber events.globenewswire

Customer protection strategies

• Traveler-facing controls: Step-up auth on high-risk actions, session notifications, travel-geo anomaly flags, and masked credentials in all channels.appdome

• Data minimization: Trim passport and payment retention windows; tokenize loyalty IDs; encrypt sensitive records in motion and at rest across partners.globenewswire

Security assessment for travel tech

• Checklist: Threat-model APIs (booking, loyalty, ancillaries), verify OAuth/OpenID flows, run DAST on mobile/SDKs, and red-team airline/hotel partner integrations for token leakage and replay.securitymagazine+1

• Vendor oversight: Require SOC 2/ISO 27001, SBOMs for core apps, breach SLAs, and continuous pen tests; audit partner session management and consent scopes.globenewswire

Alfaiz Nova industry analysis

• Evolution: As travel becomes an API economy, the security perimeter shifts to consented connections—“who called the API” matters as much as “who logged in.” Spending will favor API gateways with behavior analytics, identity orchestration, and OT failover for airport operations.globaldata+1

• Recommendations: Treat loyalty and itinerary data as regulated-grade assets; deploy real-time risk scoring on booking/boarding events; pre-negotiate resilient ops with airports and GDS partners to survive targeted outages without stranding passengers.securitymagazine+1

Why it matters now

• The sector’s attack surface rises with every partner integration and mobile feature; the $4.8B spend is a lagging indicator. Security must be designed into booking and boarding flows rather than bolted on after an incident.finance.yahoo+1

Sources

• Globenewswire/Yahoo Finance: Cybersecurity in Travel & Tourism 2025; spend forecast to $4.8B by 2028, risks across booking and boarding systems.globenewswire+1

• GlobalData strategic intelligence summary echoing the $4.8B projection and digitalization risk.globaldata

• Hotel breach case studies and lessons (Marriott, Hyatt, IHG).digitaldefynd

• Salt Labs/industry coverage on travel service API ATO vectors and partner trust failures.securitybuzz+1

• App security perspectives for booking apps and data-at-rest protection.appdome