China’s top e-payment company, Alipay, is venturing deeper into the travel sector by launching a service that makes it easier for Chinese tourists to get around when they travel to three Asian destinations.
The Alipay Overseas Transportation Card will let users pay for their local holiday travel before they leave China through advance purchases of transport passes sold in Singapore, Thailand and Macau. These transport passes are stored-value smart cards that are used to pay for bus rides, subway trips and other types of local and regional public transportation as well as taxis.
Users can buy passes through Alipay’s mobile application, Alipay Wallet. When travelers reach their destination airports, they can visit booths or kiosks to scan a barcode on their mobile phones to pick up passes. Unused credit on cards will be refunded to users’ Alipay accounts.
Alipay will roll out the service for Chinese visitors to South Korea in the near future, according to an Alipay press release.
“With nearly 100 million outbound Chinese tourists, Alipay is excited to be working with our partners to offer this new transportation card service to travelers,” said Sabrina Peng, head of Alipay International. “The convenience of our users is of paramount importance to us, and we hope to be a useful travel partner to them as they explore the world.”
This is the second travel-related service Alipay has launched this year. In June, Alipay teamed up with tax refund company, Global Blue, on a service allowing sales-tax refunds for duty-free purchases to be remitted to the accounts of Alipay users. Alipay Wallet has also added a host of travel and entertainment booking options to help Chinese tourists plan their trips.
According to an August study conducted by a China-based travel association, World Tourism Cities Federation, and Ipsos, transportation was the biggest concern for outbound Chinese tourists due to language barriers and unfamiliarity with pricing structures.
About 116 million Chinese people are expected to spend $155 billion overseas this year, up 20 percent from a year ago, said Dai Bin, head of the China Tourism Academy, a Beijing-based research institution, in September.