The initiative aims to enhance the travel experience of global visitors in China ahead of a major holiday in the country, the May Day holiday.
The "International Visitor Friendly Scenic Spot" initiative is the first of its kind in China. The initiative helps global travelers visiting Huangshan enjoy convenient payment options, including card, mobile payment and cash, as well as claim tailored digital red packet to enjoy shopping discounts and check travel guide and tips in 16 languages.
Huangshan Tourism Group will also collaborate with Alipay to launch local Hui culture experience tours and activities for international tourists.
"The beautiful scenery of Mount Huangshan and splendid Hui culture are must-have experiences when traveling in Huangshan. We hope to enhance global travelers' experience through digital solutions on Alipay platform," said Jiajia Li, vice president of Alipay business group at Ant Group.
An increasing number of overseas tourists are visiting China given the expansion of the visa-free policy and continued recovery of international flights. Official data showed the number of foreign nationals visiting China in the first quarter of 2024 increased more than three times year-on-year.
Huangshan is the top tourist attraction for international visitors to Anhui Province. After the mutual visa-free policy between China and Singapore went into effect in February, 2024, the first week of visa-free travel between the two countries saw the transaction volume via Alipay from Singaporeans visiting Huangshan increase by over 400% year-on-year.
China's central bank, the People's Bank of China, has been guiding banks and mobile payment companies to take measures to optimize payment experience for international visitors.
Recent data from Alipay shows that in March 2024, transaction volume by international tourists using Alipay in the Chinese mainland increased by nearly 10 times compared to that of last year and the number of transactions increased by 8 times year-on-year.
Alipay enables international visitors to pay at tens of millions of merchants across China after downloading the app and linking an international credit or debit card from Visa, Mastercard, JCB, Discover®, and Diners Club International®. Beyond providing a convenient and secure mobile payment service, Alipay collaborates with industry partners to offer global tourists various travel services to enhance their travel experience in China. These easy-to-access services include online translation, car-hailing, public transport, hotel booking, and train ticket booking, which are all available on the homepage of Alipay.
In addition to using Alipay to pay like a local in China, international tourists can also use their home e-wallet while traveling around China. These home e-wallets include AlipayHK (Hong Kong SAR, China), MPay (Macao SAR, China), Touch 'n Go eWallet (Malaysia) and Kakao Pay (South Korea), Hipay (Mongolia), Changi Pay (Singapore), OCBC (Singapore), Naver Pay (South Korea), Toss Pay (South Korea), TrueMoney (Thailand), and NayaPay (Pakistan).
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