Mobile payment platform Alipay has announced that it’s special “cashless” trip to Singapore, where Chinese tourists to Singapore travelled to the Little Red Dot and endeavoured to cover all their expenses without the use of paper money or coins.

Organised in conjunction with the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), Singapore Airlines, Shangri-La Hotel (below) and Resorts World Sentosa who agreed to accept Alipay, the trip was designed to demonstrate to Chinese travellers that they can enjoy the same cashless lifestyle in Singapore as they do at home. Though, considering Alipay’s aforementioned partners, I don’t think there was any chance it would fail.

Alipay and STB invited six Alipay users to participate in the cashless trip in August. The visitors were only allowed to use Alipay for their purchases, including meals, accommodations, transportation, gifts as well as souvenirs, and entertainment. Special travel itineraries were curated by the STB for the six travellers to explore their own interests in food and cultural exploration.

Commenting on the trip Cherry Huang, general manager of cross-border business for South and Southeast  Asia at Alipay, said: We are very pleased to work with the Singapore Tourism Board to provide a cashless experience for Chinese tourists travelling to Singapore. Through Alipay, we hope to help even more merchants in Singapore connect with Chinese tourists.”

According to STB more than 3.2 million Chinese tourists visited Singapore in 2017, with the country welcoming more tourists from China than from any other country for the first time last year. Chinese tourists are also the largest source of tourist spending in Singapore.

“Strong reach and understanding of the Chinese market”

Jacqueline Ng, director of marketing partnerships and planning at Singapore Tourism Board said: “We are pleased to have partnered with Alipay in this activity given their strong reach and understanding of the Chinese market, our top source market for both visitor arrivals and tourist spending.

We hope to use the insights from this initiative to explore better ways of engaging Chinese visitors and to offer more compelling and seamless experiences through Alipay that are better tailored to their passions.”