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(Local merchants in Europe use Alipay to attract Chinese tourists during the summer vacation)

Our reporter Lu Xiao (chinatimes.net.cn) reports from Beijing

As the Paris Olympics kicks off, a number of hot global sporting events are being held one after another, which has also boosted cross-border travel in both directions this summer.

As one of the "bridges" connecting domestic and foreign tourism markets, payment institutions have also launched a number of measures to support cross-border travel. A reporter from the China Times learned that on July 23, Alipay, a subsidiary of Ant Group, has joined forces with the Paris Tourism Bureau, the Tourism Authority of Thailand and other local tourism bureaus as well as millions of merchants around the world to jointly "increase" cross-border travel summer discounts, striving to "travel the world with one APP."

Behind the increase in cross-border tourism, overseas markets and overseas users have become potential incremental markets for Alipay, which is undergoing continuous digital transformation. What Alipay needs to do is to "awaken" them. Wang Pengbo, a senior analyst in the financial industry at Broadcom Consulting, also believed in an exchange with a reporter from the China Times that in order to make an ecosystem work, it is not only about building basic products and tools, "but more fundamental is the high-frequency contact with merchants and users."

Continue to increase investment in overseas markets

From Paris to Bangkok, from Hong Kong to Jeju Island, Singapore and other places, tourism bureaus in many places are working with Ant to promote exclusive discounts for the Olympics and popular destinations.

Among them, in order to welcome the upcoming large number of tourists, the Paris Tourism Bureau has joined hands with Ant Group's innovative Alipay+ cross-border service, allowing Chinese tourists and other Asian tourists to search for "惠出國" on Alipay, and they can find the Paris city page to learn about practical Olympic strategies. They can also use Alipay+ to pay on the official website of the Paris Tourism Bureau and enjoy Olympic discount codes.

Ant also told the China Times reporter that currently in Paris, whether taking a G7 taxi from the airport or booking European train tickets; whether buying snacks at a vending machine or shopping in popular shopping malls such as Printemps and Galeries Lafayette, Chinese tourists can use Alipay "with one mobile phone" to make reservations and receive offers and discounts.

“Through our partnership with Alipay+, we can improve our service to Asian tourists. The convenient and efficient payment experience will ensure a barrier-free trip to Paris,” said Corinne Menegaux, General Manager of the Paris Tourism Board.

Not only the Olympics, in recent years, Ant has frequently used large-scale sporting events to accelerate its overseas expansion.

The European Cup final was held on July 15 this year, and the top scorer trophy was named by Alipay+, a global brand under Ant Group. In addition, the reporter also learned that Alipay+, a cross-border digital payment and marketing solution, WorldFirst, a global e-commerce cross-border payment platform, and Antom, a global acquiring business, all three of Ant Group's cross-border businesses, also made their collective debut in this year's European Cup.

Behind the accelerated overseas layout, payment giants that are fiercely competing in the domestic mobile payment market have already set their growth targets on overseas markets. An industry insider told reporters that my country's mobile payment development is currently ahead of the world, and payment institutions are actively appearing in global sports events, which is conducive to accelerating the global mobile payment popularization and expanding overseas incremental markets. "Payment can help merchants complete the final reach of users, and the payment itself represents the user's choice."

Inbound tourism becomes a new growth

While outbound tourism is booming, inbound tourism, which is also hot, has also become a new source of growth that payment institutions are looking for.

The China Inbound Tourism Development Report (2023-2024) released by the China Tourism Academy in June this year shows that the development trend of my country's inbound tourism market will continue to improve in 2024, and the inbound market for foreigners is expected to recover to 80% of 2019, and increase from 0.5% of GDP in 2019 to about 2%. So far, the number of countries that apply my country's 144-hour transit visa exemption policy has reached 54.

According to a reporter from China Times, in order to welcome the peak of cross-border tourism in summer and encourage inbound tourists to deeply experience China, Alipay+ cross-border services have been further upgraded, and more than 140 cross-border service mini-programs have been launched in overseas wallets such as AlipayHK (Hong Kong, China), Mpay (Macao, China), and Touch 'n Go eWallet (Malaysia). Among them, overseas wallet users can use their commonly used e-wallets to more conveniently come to the Chinese mainland market to experience food, transportation, phone recharge, shared power banks, scenic spot services and other services.

In addition, foreign guests can also use their mobile phones to "get free gifts" just like Chinese people. Ant Financial told reporters that this summer, users of multiple foreign e-wallets such as AlipayHK (Hong Kong, China), Mpay (Macao, China), Touch 'n Go eWallet (Malaysia), and TrueMoney (Thailand) who scan the QR code to make purchases in mainland China will receive a random discount of 10 purchases, with the highest discount reaching 188 yuan.

According to the reporter, Alipay has long been targeting the incremental market of inbound tourism.

Since 2022, Ant Group has joined hands with multiple partners to launch "foreign card internal binding" (download Alipay to bind overseas bank cards) and "outsourcing internal use" (through the Alipay+ service, overseas wallets can directly scan the code to pay in China). On the eve of the Hangzhou Asian Games last year, Alipay also launched an international version for overseas tourists at the 2023 Partner Conference held in August of that year. It is reported that overseas users can download and register Alipay to enter the international version, and can bind bank cards of mainstream international card groups, such as Visa, Mastercard, Diners Club, Discover, JCB, etc., to obtain the same convenient payment experience as domestic users.

Wang Pengbo told the China Times reporter that with the increasing cross-border flows, the number of overseas tourists has also continued to rise. He believes that covering this long tail of users is an important part of Alipay's ecological expansion.

Editor-in-charge: Huang Xingli Editor-in-chief: Han Feng