Chinese travellers on average spent 24% more on Alipay when being abroad during the first half of 2023 compared with H1 2019, which signals new growth trends in China’s outbound tourism, said Alipay, China’s leading open platform under Ant Group.

“As tourists revisit their favourite destinations, Ant Group continues to innovate our offerings to enhance their travel experience. Beyond payments, Alipay users can now use their app as a one-stop platform, for example, to search for hotels and call for taxis. Consumers’ accelerated adoption of digital services will shape the future of travel and retail, and we aim to enable our partners to cater to these new habits, better connect with international visitors and promote growth for them,” said Dr Cherry Huang, General Manager of Alipay+ Offline Merchant Services of Ant Group at the launch of a joint campaign with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (“TAT”) on Ant Group’s campus in Hangzhou, China.

Asian destinations remain the favourites among Chinese mainland tourists in 1H 2023. Hong Kong SAR, Macao SAR, Japan and Thailand were the top four outbound travel destinations by total transaction volume on Alipay. South Korea and Singapore ranked sixth and tenth, respectively.

Chinese tourists are also going to a more diverse range of destinations. Long-haul destinations France, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom were the fifth, seventh, eighth and ninth most popular destinations for Alipay travelers, as counted by the total transaction volume on Alipay in 1H 2023.

As China’s mobile payment leader, Alipay now connects Chinese users to over 5 million merchants across over 70 international markets. The app is launching a series of campaigns in summer 2023 with regional partners on the back of the travel revival. The campaigns feature a variety of promotions on travel-related services, including shopping, attractions, and transportation. The app now offers ride-hailing and taxi services across 2000 cities outside China.

To enhance the travel experience to Thailand, one of the top travel destinations globally, Ant Group is collaborating with the TAT to promote the Amazing Thailand campaign to stimulate travel in Thailand, including by enabling tourists from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong SAR, Malaysia and South Korea to pay seamlessly with their home mobile wallets via Alipay+, the global payment and marketing solutions developed by the Company. Ant Group will also help local Thai businesses better engage with tourists through digital marketing solutions.

“The expanded partnership will help bring more smooth consumer experience to Chinese tourists, and open up more resources to Thai merchants, especially the vast numbers of SMEs to help them develop digital operation and marketing capabilities, ” said Mr. Tanes Petsuwan, TAT Deputy Governor for International Marketing Asia and South Pacific, at the event.

Platforms like Alipay becomes increasingly important for destination markets because they play a significant role in shaping travellers’ decisions on airline, hotel, and destination selection, Mr. Tanes Petsuwan said. Thailand welcomed over 1.4 million Chinese tourists in 1H 2023. Alipay became available in Thailand in 2015. It now connects Chinese travellers to over 550,000 local merchants across the country.