Business travellers are carrying the office everywhere they go, according to Holafly for Business's latest research

Holafly’s Summer Travel & eSIM Report 2026 finds 42% of business travellers rank secure internet as their top priority while abroad, with 86.5% reporting stress from connectivity issues. Productivity benefits are also pronounced: 81.3% of travellers with a corporate eSIM report positive productivity impact versus 61.2% using traditional corporate roaming and 52.4% self-arranging connectivity. Overall, the data suggests demand is shifting toward digital-first, secure connectivity solutions for international work.

Analysis

This looks more like a procurement shift than a new category of spend: corporate buyers are moving from ad hoc roaming reimbursements toward centrally managed, security-controlled connectivity. If that behavior sticks, the marginal dollar migrates away from carrier roaming gross margin and toward SASE/identity/MDM vendors that can package secure access, device policy, and provisioning into one workflow. Near term, the market may underreact because the revenue base is small, but the second-order effect is improved pricing power for platforms that sit in the corporate control plane.

The bear case for carriers is muted: international roaming is usually too small a share of total service revenue to move earnings absent a broader ARPU reset, so shorting telecoms on this alone is low-conviction. The bigger structural read-through is that younger business travelers normalize always-on work, which can lengthen the tail of secure-access spending over 6-18 months and support premium multiples for security software relative to the market. Contrarian view: the survey measures preference, not budgeted deployment; if IT keeps treating travel connectivity as a reimbursement item, the conversion to durable ARR may be much slower than the narrative implies.

Catalysts are likely to come from earnings commentary, enterprise IT budget cycles, or a high-profile breach involving traveling employees. The thesis breaks if carriers reprice roaming bundles aggressively, if eSIM provisioning remains operationally clunky, or if security vendors fail to mention travel-related workflows in customer wins over the next 1-2 quarters. We need hard evidence on attach rates, churn away from roaming, and enterprise standardization before sizing this as more than a watch item.

Key Decisions for Investors

• No immediate standalone trade; treat this as a watchlist signal rather than a catalyst. Reassess only if enterprise security or mobility vendors report travel-related ARR expansion over the next 1-2 earnings cycles.
• Small tactical pair: long ZS or PANW vs short VZ or T on weakness, 1-3 month horizon. Target is modest multiple support for security software versus negligible fundamental impact to roaming-heavy telecoms; keep size small because the revenue linkage is indirect.
• If management commentary from OKTA/PANW/ZS shows eSIM or secure-remote-access attachment in enterprise wins, initiate a 6-12 month long on pullbacks. Falsify the thesis if billings growth decelerates or customer win rates do not improve.
• Set an alert on international roaming commentary from VZ/T/VOD over the next two quarters. If roaming ARPU softens twice in a row, consider a larger telecom underweight; if it holds, abandon the short idea.