Contactless has moved far beyond a pandemic-era workaround. It has become one of the clearest expressions of what customers now expect from modern brands: less friction, more control and a seamless connection between digital convenience and physical experience.
That expectation first became unmistakable in everyday commerce. Publicis Sapient research found that contactless interactions were already shaping where people chose to shop, with 61% of respondents naming contactless as a top factor in grocery store selection and 67% having used contactless payment in a physical store. Just as important, the underlying consumer motivation was never only safety. It was ease. People increasingly reward brands that make experiences feel simpler, faster and more intuitive.
For travel, hospitality and dining, that insight opens a much bigger opportunity. Contactless is not just about reducing touchpoints. It is about redesigning the journey.
In these industries, the most valuable moments often happen in the physical world: arriving at an airport, checking into a hotel, entering a room, ordering a meal, collecting a bag, getting help or discovering something new onsite. But customers now approach those moments with digital-first expectations. They want the confidence, transparency and speed they have come to associate with the best apps and platforms, even when they are moving through real places in real time.
That is why contactless has become a bridge technology. It links the convenience of digital with the emotional and operational realities of physical service.
In travel, that can mean mobile boarding passes, touchless bag check, self-service kiosks and reduced queue times at key points of the journey. Publicis Sapient research found that 30% of respondents ranked check-in and baggage kiosks among their top airline choice factors, while about one-third wanted reduced wait times for experiences such as airport screening. What travelers value is not simply the absence of contact. It is the removal of uncertainty, bottlenecks and wasted time.
In hospitality, the same principle applies from booking to checkout. Research showed that 36% of respondents cited contactless hotel check-in and checkout via website or mobile app as a top-three factor in hotel choice. Mobile check-in, digital room keys and app-enabled service requests give guests more autonomy while freeing staff to focus on higher-value interactions. Instead of standing in line at the front desk, a guest can move directly from arrival to room. Instead of calling down for towels or spa bookings, they can handle the request in moments through their phone or another digital interface. The result is not a colder experience. Done well, it is a more responsive one.
The real advantage emerges when brands stop treating these as isolated features and start connecting them into a unified guest journey. A hotel that enables digital room access can also extend mobile control to parking, fitness centers and other amenities. A travel brand that understands where a customer is in the journey can recommend relevant upgrades, services or destination experiences at the right moment. A family checking into a resort, for example, can be guided toward vetted local excursions or on-property experiences tailored to their needs. Contactless then becomes more than operational efficiency; it becomes a platform for personalization, discovery and revenue growth.
Dining is seeing a similar shift. As labor pressures and rising customer expectations reshape the industry, digital ordering, kiosks and self-service are becoming essential tools for doing more with less while preserving experience quality. The goal is not automation for its own sake. It is to lower the cost to serve routine interactions and make ordering faster, clearer and more convenient. Contactless ordering, QR-enabled menus, kiosk-enabled self-service and mobile loyalty integration can simplify the path from intent to transaction. They can also help brands influence what customers order, when they order and how offers are presented.
That matters because convenience increasingly drives choice across channels. Publicis Sapient research has consistently shown that seamless experiences influence purchase decisions and that convenience now outweighs novelty. In digital environments, people abandon journeys when they are confusing, slow or require too many steps. The same logic applies in physical environments. Long lines, repetitive handoffs and disconnected systems create friction. Contactless experiences reduce that friction while generating richer data about customer behavior and preferences.
This is where the commercial upside becomes especially powerful. Every contactless interaction can also be a data point: a check-in completed on mobile, a room key activated in-app, a kiosk order, a self-service bag drop, a loyalty-triggered offer redeemed at the right time. When connected across channels, those signals help brands understand intent, personalize offers and build stronger loyalty over time. Publicis Sapient research has also shown that consumers increasingly want personalized offers and content that reflect their preferences. Contactless journeys create the conditions to deliver that relevance in the moment, not after the fact.
The strategic shift, then, is clear. Brands should not frame contactless purely as a health or safety investment. They should treat it as part of a broader platform experience strategy.
That means designing around the full end-to-end journey rather than individual transactions. It means integrating mobile, kiosks, payments and service operations so that customers can move fluidly between digital and physical touchpoints. It means using self-service to remove low-value friction while empowering employees to deliver more meaningful support where human interaction matters most. And it means turning operational moments into loyalty and cross-sell opportunities, whether that is a room upgrade, a destination activity, lounge access, a relevant dining offer or a personalized promotion.
The brands that lead will be the ones that understand a simple truth: customers do not separate digital experience from physical experience anymore. They experience one journey. Contactless is how leading travel, hospitality and dining brands can make that journey feel connected, intelligent and effortless.