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beijing business news (reporter liu sihong) are you planning to go abroad during the national day holiday? on september 29, a beijing business daily reporter noticed that during the countdown to the national day golden week, in response to the upcoming peak of chinese tourists’ outbound travel, in addition to millions of merchants around the world and multinational tourism bureaus “grabbing the beachfront” in advance, there are also many payment giants are "preparing" in advance and competing to promote innovative services and preferential experiences.

just recently, alipay's "outbound shopping festival" was launched, and one-stop travel discounts have become a new hot spot. for example, the national day trip to hong kong, china, has a bay area pass card, which covers a series of travel coupon packages for buses, subways, taxis, trains, etc.; go the new "travel japan" applet is available in many places in japan to book "free travel" transportation routes, popular attractions and cultural experiences in advance; you can use alipay on all buses in jeju island, south korea, with up to 50% off; when traveling to southeast asia use alipay to call grab, call a taxi abroad in chinese, and get a free ticket draw... a mobile phone makes traveling around the world more authentic and can further enhance the outbound travel experience of chinese tourists.

coincidentally, wechat pay is also taking action. recently, wechat hong kong dollar wallet has newly added access to the public transportation networks of the macau special administrative region and 18 popular mainland cities for "hong kong people going north", and has connected to the public transportation networks of nearly 50 cities covering "hong kong and macao" and "beijing, shanghai, guangzhou and shenzhen". . hong kong users take local transportation in hong kong, take public buses in macau, and "go north" to various mainland cities to take cross-border buses, cross-border ferries, online car-hailing, buses and subways, etc. they can conveniently purchase tickets through wechat hong kong dollar wallet or pay for transportation.

in addition, hong kong and the mainland travel in both directions. mainland tourists take cross-border buses or ferries, and in hong kong they take taxis, mtr, buses (new lantau bus, kowloon bus, long win bus and citybus), hong kong trams, star ferry, etc. for transportation, you can also use wechat pay (rmb wallet) to pay conveniently without the need for currency exchange.

in addition to travel, cross-border consumption experience has also been significantly improved. hong kong users can use the wechat hong kong dollar wallet to conveniently pay at tens of millions of merchants in the mainland, and the annual consumption limit in the mainland has also been increased to hk$400,000. for wechat payment merchants in various cities in the mainland, no modification is required to receive payments from the wechat hong kong dollar wallet.

in addition to smooth travel, there are also discounts. a reporter from beijing business daily learned that during the national day, hong kong will hold colorful celebrations, with free admission to museums and wetland parks, half-price movies, and instant discounts of up to 500 yuan at popular merchants such as harbor city, mannings, and chow tai fook using alipay.

in addition, alipay and the hong kong version of "alipayhk" (alipayhk) will simultaneously launch the bay area pass card during the national day. for the first time, "one card can be used in three places" in shenzhen, guangzhou, and hong kong, covering buses, subways, taxis, trains, etc. in all aspects of travel, mainland tourists can buy a bay area pass card for only 1 yuan and receive multiple travel discount packages.

“you should also be city-like when traveling abroad!” as we countdown to the national day golden week, international air ticket bookings on multiple online travel platforms have doubled year-on-year. data shows that international air ticket bookings for residents in third-tier cities and below increased by 2.5 times year-on-year. as the "post-2000s" become the main force in outbound travel, "free travel" has become the new normal for outbound travel, and cost-effectiveness has become a key word for consumption.

it is understood that after leaving the country, alipay also offers "local money savings pass" with varying discounts, as well as special discounts from selected business districts and merchants covering multiple scenes of eating, drinking, playing and shopping, which are worthy of chinese tourists. take the convenience store scene that is a must-visit when traveling abroad as an example. in popular overseas convenience stores such as watsons in hong kong, 7-11 in malaysia, lawson in japan, and gs25 in south korea, you can use alipay to get huge "national day" discounts. .

su xiaorui, a senior researcher at suxi zhiyan, said that with the continuous improvement of cross-border convenience measures and the continuous expansion of various visa-free "circles of friends", the demand for outbound travel has been further released during the golden week. payment institutions can provide cross-border consumer services during the long holidays. on the one hand, they can greatly improve the efficiency of exchange and consumption, and can also provide users with real discounts. on the other hand, they can also promote overseas tourism consumption and drive transactions with overseas cooperative merchants. the frequency and transaction size have been effectively increased.

su xiaorui pointed out that judging from the interim reports of listed payment institutions, the current fluctuations in domestic payment transaction volume and the "involution" of transaction rates have become the main theme of the payment industry. breakthroughs outside to seek business growth have become a common theme among leading payment institutions. reach a consensus. at present, the gross profit margin of major payment institutions' overseas businesses is significantly higher than that of domestic businesses, and they also have growth potential in terms of growth rate. it is expected that the subsequent cross-border payment business will become an important position for the competitiveness of leading institutions. through the expansion and maintenance of the number of licenses, the number of cooperative merchants, and the number of active users, a second curve of performance growth of payment institutions will be created.