Tourism is increasingly driven by data. Across the traveler journey, from online searches and bookings to check-in, on-site services, and loyalty programs, tourism & hospitality organizations collect and process large volumes of personal information.

As digital technologies become standard across the sector, including mobile travel apps, contactless services, digital keys, the amount and sensitivity of traveler data processed by tourism and hospitality organizations continue to grow. At the same time, data breaches, opaque data uses, and growing public awareness of privacy rights have increased travelers’ concerns about how their personal information is handled and whether data requests are justified and fair.

Against this backdrop, a new study by researchers from Babeș-Bolyai University and Auckland University of Technology identifies the key drivers and conditions that enable tourism and hospitality organizations to gain travelers’ trust in their personal data practices, moving the focus beyond formal compliance toward perceived fairness, transparency, usefulness, and user control.

Beyond compliance: what travelers really want

Based on a survey of 875 travelers, the study shows that simply having privacy policies or consent checkboxes does not mean that travelers genuinely accept how their personal data is collected and used. Legal compliance is just not enough.

Real acceptance (i.e., social license) and trust occur only when, beyond legal compliance, tourism & hospitality organizations (hotels, travel agencies, airlines etc.) demonstrate: 

• Fairness. Travelers need to feel that their data is collected for justified reasons and used in their best interest.
• Transparency. Clear, easy-to-understand explanations about what data is collected and why are essential.
• Usefulness. Travelers must also see concrete benefits from sharing their data, such as better services, more relevant offers, faster processes, and more personalized experiences. 
• Privacy control. Giving travelers meaningful control over their personal data is also a key trust builder.

Fairness is the key driver

The findings show that fairness is the strongest predictor of travelers' trust in personal data management and the social license they grant to tourism & hospitality organizations to handle their data (i.e., genuine acceptance of personal data collection and processing). 

In practice, this means travelers are far more willing to share data when companies are perceived as:

• not collecting excessive or irrelevant information;
• using data responsibly for meaningful outcomes;
• acting in a customer-focused way rather than for purely commercial reasons.

Practical actions for tourism & hospitality organisations

For tourism & hospitality companies, the study's findings translate into concrete actions that are needed to build trust and, eventually, to obtain travelers' social license for data practices: 

• Organizations should clearly explain the customer the reason and benefit behind each data request. For example, a hotel might state: “We ask for this information to reduce your check-in time.” 
• Data collection should be directly linked to visible and useful features, such as room personalization or faster customer support. 
• Companies should avoid excessive or precautionary data collection without a clear purpose.
• Companies should communicate their data practices in transparent, accessible language, not only through complex legal phrasing. 
• Just as importantly, travelers should be given simple ways to update or delete their stored personal data, ensuring real control over the information they share.

The research conducted by Anca C. Yallop (AUT Business School, Auckland University of Technology), Ovidiu I. Moisescu (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Babeș-Bolyai University), and Oana A. Gică (Faculty of Business, Babeș-Bolyai University) was published in the Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management (Taylor & Francis). The full paper is freely accessible at https://doi.org/10.1080/19368623.2026.2623416