Alipay and Singapore Tourism Board join hands to achieve Chinese tourists ‘ cash-free travel to Singapore

On September 13, Alipay, an ant financial services group, announced that the first batch of visitors had completed a “cashless” journey to Singapore.

The entire itinerary is built by Alipay and the Singapore Tourism Board, Dozens of Singapore businesses including Resorts World Sentosa, Shangri-La Hotel and Singapore Airlines，Support for services throughout the trip.

The Alipay and Singapore Tourism Board have invited six lucky users to Singapore through social media. The tour is also customized according to their preferences, with different travel routes including “food lovers”, “quality collectors” and “urban explorers”. Take visitors to Singapore’s unique destination and enjoy mouth-watering cuisine, exciting shopping and fantastic sights.

All destinations in the itinerary are connected to Alipay so that Chinese tourists can enjoy the same cashless payment experience in Singapore as in China. The business category covers catering, accommodation, transportation, shopping and entertainment.

“With the launch of this trip, we learned that Chinese tourists prefer to use mobile payments,” said James Quan, founder of the bookbinding and leather goods business Bynd artisan. “When we realize this, we do not hesitate to access Alipay so that we can better serve our customers in China.” ”

“Since Alipay replaced the wallet and was convenient, we noticed that most Chinese customers who came to our store chose to use Alipay for purchase. We have been working with Alipay because we want to provide Chinese customers with a familiar payment method to make them feel comfortable while shopping “

More than 3.2 million Chinese tourists traveled to Singapore in 2017, according to data from the Singapore Tourism Board. Last year, China became the first major source of tourism in Singapore. Chinese tourists are also the largest source of tourism revenue in Singapore.

Singapore attracts a growing number of Chinese tourists, This is partly because local businesses are trying to address the changing needs and spending habits of Chinese tourists.

 

Data from Nielsen show that 65 percent of Chinese tourists use mobile payment tools during overseas trips, six times more than tourists from other countries (11 percent).

In addition, more than 90% of Chinese visitors said they would increase their spending if they accepted Alipay payments.

Last year, Finland became the first country in the world to offer a completely cashless experience for Chinese tourists.

 

Chinese tourists can pay for all local purchases via Alipay account, including booking tickets, shopping, dining, visiting museums, experiencing entertainment, booking transportation, and receiving instant tax refunds at Helsinki Airport via Alipay.

Recently, the Finnish Tourism bureau Director Pavo Virkunin, the Chinese tourists in recent years to maintain a steady growth in the number of Finland, with Alipay covered in Finland two years ago, Chinese tourists in Finland in two years per capita spending has soared from 600 euros to 1300 euros.

“We are delighted to have partnered with Alipay to launch this event. Alipay is rooted in the Chinese market and has a deep understanding of the market. We want to take advantage of Alipay’s insights to explore better ways to attract Chinese tourists and to provide a more engaging and seamless experience through Alipay to better inspire the enthusiasm of visitors. Huang, Director of marketing cooperation development and planning at the Singapore Tourism Board marketing Division said.

Perhaps the Singaporean government has been so active in working with Alipay to see that the Finnish and Chinese mobile payers-Alipay partnership has brought Chinese tourists steady growth in Finland.