Thursday, November 7, 2019
For the first time, Alipay, the mobile payments and lifestyle platform owned by Ant Financial, is opening its platform for international travelers in China.
With this, global tourists visiting China will be able to download and use the app during their trip, and this would give them access to the most popular form of payment, and the most popular mobile-payments provider in China.
Visitors will just need an overseas phone number, a visa and their bank card to sign up for Alipay’s “Tour Pass” mini-program. They can refill in increments of to the extent of RMB2,000 ($285), and use the service to not only make offline payments but also book cars and hotels, buy train tickets, among other features available within the Alipay app.
Access to Tour Pass lasts three months, and after that, any leftover funds are refunded automatically.
Mobile payments are quite popular in China, where virtually every mainstream business in the country accepts them – even street hawkers. But until now, a local phone number and Chinese bank account was required to access Alipay, which restricted short-term international visitors from using the app.
Alipay said that inbound tourists to China are increasing every year, due to eased visa requirements for boosting tourism. In 2018, 30.5 million international visitors came to China. These tourists are also spending more, with expenditure in hotels, shopping, and food increasing 5.1% to a total of US$73.1 billion last year.
Tags: Alipay
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