eSIM for tour groups and delegations

You should. It is the one piece of information that tells you in advance who will not be able to install. eSIM support depends on the model and sometimes on the regional variant sold in a particular country. Knowing the list two weeks out leaves time to arrange something else for anyone whose phone cannot take one; finding out the night before the flight leaves you no room at all.

It is a bad idea. Each QR is tied to one profile and usually installs only once. If somebody scans a code that is not theirs, it is spent, and the person it belonged to cannot install. Send them one to one, with the recipient's name in the message, so you can trace which code went where.

Technically yes, because the install needs an internet connection and airport Wi-Fi may provide it. In practice it is a poor bet for a large group. Access conditions differ from airport to airport, and if several installs fail at once you are debugging phones one at a time somewhere loud with a schedule to keep. Installing before departure removes that risk entirely.

You cannot fix the handset, so you fix the itinerary instead. Pair them with a connected member for every free period, let them tether when they need to, or arrange a physical SIM for the destination separately. The important part is learning about it while you are still collecting names, not on the day.

If the group touches more than one country, a regional plan is usually easier to manage, because a dozen people do not have to swap profiles mid-trip — the step where most mistakes happen. Always check the plan's actual country list first, though: each one defines its own scope, and a country you merely transit through still has to appear on the list if you want data while you are there.

There is no fixed figure — it depends on how much you call over apps and how long maps stay open each day. The useful principle is that the leader's phone plainly works harder than everyone else's: taking calls, sending locations, and sometimes hosting a hotspot for a moment. Leave more headroom than your estimate suggests, and check the remaining balance mid-trip rather than waiting for it to run out.