By the GoVnSIM Team

Overseas travel by Canadian residents continued to grow in 2025.

Statistics Canada recorded 14.2 million overseas trips by Canadian residents in 2025, an increase of 9.2 per cent from 2024. The total was also 14.9 per cent above the comparable pre-pandemic level in 2019.

At the destination end of the journey, Vietnam welcomed nearly 21.2 million international visitors in 2025, setting a new annual record, according to the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism.

These figures highlight a wider retail opportunity. As overseas travel grows, more services that were once purchased after arrival can now be researched, paid for and delivered before departure.

Flights and hotels moved online years ago. Airport transfers, attraction tickets, travel insurance and local activities followed. Mobile connectivity is increasingly becoming part of the same pre-arrival purchase journey.

Counterpoint Research estimates that third-party travel eSIM downloads will grow nearly threefold between 2025 and 2030, suggesting that destination connectivity is moving beyond a specialist telecommunications product.

Mobile connectivity is increasingly becoming part of the pre-departure travel purchase journey.

Connectivity Moves Earlier in the Customer Journey

Buying a local SIM card was traditionally one of the first tasks after entering another country.

Travellers would locate an airport counter, compare unfamiliar plans and wait for the service to be installed or activated. The process still exists, but it now competes with a model that moves the purchase to an earlier stage of the journey.

A traveller expecting to depend on maps, translation, ride-hailing and messaging may choose an unlimited data eSIM for Vietnam before departure rather than making connectivity another task after landing.

The customer is not simply purchasing a quantity of mobile data. The practical value lies in being able to contact a driver, retrieve an accommodation address, check a reservation or navigate away from the airport.

This makes connectivity relevant to travel retailers even when mobile service is not their primary business.

The First Hour Is the Clearest Retail Use Case

Digital travel products are easier to understand when customers can see the problem being solved.

For international connectivity, that problem often appears during the first hour after arrival. A traveller may need several online services before reaching the hotel, including transportation, messaging, translation and navigation.

Airport Wi-Fi can provide temporary access, but it may require registration and does not follow the traveller outside the terminal.

This changes how connectivity should be presented.

Network type, validity and data allowance still matter, but technical specifications should be connected to a practical outcome. A product described only as “10 GB for 15 days” communicates the allowance. A product framed around maps, ride-hailing and everyday communication explains its role in the journey.

For travel retailers, the second approach is more useful because it connects the purchase to a recognisable point of friction.

Digital Fulfilment Does Not Remove Retail Friction

An eSIM can be delivered electronically, but that does not automatically make the customer experience frictionless.

In our work supporting international visitors to Vietnam, many post-purchase problems are not caused by the destination network.

Some customers discover that their phone remains locked to their home carrier. Others install the eSIM successfully but select the wrong line for mobile data or leave data roaming disabled.

There is also frequent confusion between data-only products and plans that include a Vietnamese phone number. A customer may assume that every travel eSIM supports local calls, text messages or account verification when the selected plan was designed only for internet access.

These are partly technical issues, but they also reveal gaps in product communication.

Before checkout, customers should be able to answer four basic questions:

·   Is the phone both eSIM-compatible and carrier-unlocked?

·   When should the plan be installed and activated?

·   Does the plan provide data only or also a local number?

·   Does the plan allow hotspot use, and are any fair-use or speed-management policies applied?

Clear answers may make the product page slightly more detailed, but they can improve purchase quality and reduce preventable support cases.

“Unlimited” Requires Clearer Segmentation

The word “unlimited” is commercially attractive because customers do not need to estimate how much data they will consume during the trip.

However, unlimited plans do not necessarily provide identical conditions.

A plan may be data-only, exclude hotspot use or operate under a fair-use or traffic-management policy. Another traveller may receive better value from a fixed daily allowance or may need a different product because access to a local phone number matters more than unrestricted data.

For example, a visitor mainly using maps, messaging and ride-hailing may be satisfied with a daily high-speed allowance. Someone working remotely, streaming video frequently or sharing a connection across devices may have heavier data requirements.

A traveller who needs local calls, text messages or certain account-verification functions should instead look for a product that explicitly includes a Vietnamese number.

The retail lesson is that the largest headline allowance is not automatically the best product fit.

Effective segmentation should help customers choose according to their itinerary, device and intended use rather than pushing every buyer toward the same plan.

Why This Matters to Canadian Retailers

Digital SIM activation is also becoming more familiar within the Canadian mobile market.

Apple’s current Canadian iPhone 17 Pro models do not have a physical SIM tray and activate only through eSIM. Apple also lists Bell, Freedom, Rogers and Telus among the carriers supporting the technology.

This does not mean every Canadian traveller already understands travel eSIMs. It does mean that digital mobile activation is becoming less unfamiliar, particularly as consumers replace older devices.

For Canadian airlines, travel agencies, tour operators and other businesses serving outbound travellers, connectivity can therefore become a practical ancillary category alongside insurance, airport transportation and destination activities.

The opportunity is not simply to place another item on a checkout page.

Connectivity is more relevant when it appears within the context of the journey: inside a pre-departure email, beside an airport-transfer booking or within practical destination guidance.

A generic add-on asks customers whether they want to spend more. A contextual offer explains when and why the service may be useful.

Local Knowledge Still Creates Value

Digital delivery enables travel products to be sold across borders, but it does not eliminate the value of destination expertise.

A visitor spending several days in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City may have different connectivity priorities from someone travelling through Hà Giang, Sapa, Cao Bằng or other mountainous areas.

A short city visit may also require a different plan from a month-long, multi-region journey.

The cheapest plan is not automatically the most suitable. Coverage, validity, local-number access and expected usage all affect the decision.

This is where local providers can offer more than digital fulfilment. Guidance based on the traveller’s actual route can reduce the likelihood of selecting a product that looks attractive on price but does not match the trip.

Moving a product online does not remove the need for human support. In some cases, it makes support more important because the customer has no physical counter to visit when something goes wrong.

Trust Is Harder to Copy Than Price

Price and headline data allowances are relatively easy for competing providers to reproduce.

Trust is harder to replicate.

A traveller may buy an eSIM several weeks before reaching the destination but be unable to fully test the service until it is needed. The retailer must establish confidence through accurate descriptions, realistic coverage information, clear setup guidance and accessible support.

The customer journey therefore does not end when a QR code or installation instructions are delivered.

For an intangible product, post-purchase support is part of what the customer has bought. It is also one of the clearest ways a retailer can differentiate itself in an increasingly crowded category.

A Category Built Around Arrival

Pre-arrival connectivity will not entirely replace airport SIM counters or international roaming. Different travellers will continue to choose different ways to stay connected.

The category is expanding because it addresses a predictable point of friction: arriving in another country without dependable access to the digital services that support the trip.

For travel retailers, the opportunity is broader than selling mobile data. It involves identifying when the customer is likely to need connectivity, presenting the product in the right context and providing support after the transaction.

As overseas travel grows and digital activation becomes more familiar, connectivity is likely to become a more established part of the pre-departure retail journey.

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About the contributor: GoVnSIM is a Vietnam-based travel connectivity and visitor-support provider. Its team assists international travellers with local eSIM selection and setup, airport services and practical support before and during their trips in Vietnam.

PUBLISHER NOTE — REMOVE BEFORE PUBLICATION

Image: Place the feature image after the Counterpoint Research paragraph and before the first section heading. Caption: “Mobile connectivity is increasingly becoming part of the pre-departure travel purchase journey.” Alt text: “Traveller arranging mobile connectivity before an international flight.”

Fact-check sources: Statistics Canada, “Travel between Canada and other countries, December 2025”; Vietnam National Authority of Tourism, 2025 international visitor statistics; Counterpoint Research, “Travel eSIMs Set for High-Growth Phase, but Challenges Remain”; Apple Canada, iPhone 17 Pro eSIM information and carrier support details.