Articles tagged “alipay”

Booking.com, Airbnb, Marriott, and every high-end retail shop on the Champs-Élysées want to see the proliferation of Alipay and other digital payment services to capture the spending of Chinese travelers. But Alipay's key cross-border payments strategy, despite a record-setting IPO, has run into major snags.

The travel industry has its own set of unique challenges when it comes to getting cross-border payments right. There are a few key tactics that can turn a good payments strategy into a great one.

Mobile payments are already commonplace in parts of Asia — China particularly — but as travelers adopt these tools, travel companies will need both local expertise and deep technological capabilities to make sure their guests can pay when and how they like.

Americans and Europeans who used to scoff at QR-style bar codes are going to need to learn how to use them to pay for meals, attractions, and tickets whenever they visit Japan. The reason? Swelling Chinese tourism is prompting the country to adopt China’s preferred mobile payment method.

The phrase "cash is king" is fast becoming outdated as Chinese travelers popularize mobile payment methods like Alipay and Weixin Pay.

The global travel industry wonders when Chinese companies and investors will play a bigger role. Restrictions on foreign investment are getting tighter. On the other hand, maybe they’re just not that into us.

KLM is a little less reliant on Chinese customers than other major airlines, but it's good to see the Dutch carrier taking the chance on a new way of accepting payments. We're betting it'll work out well for KLM. And we suspect other airlines will follow.

The Chinese outbound market is booming yet travelers still find low acceptance of their typical payment methods. As travel becomes more accessible to the Chinese lower and middle class offering payment methods such as AliPay and WeChat Pay will be a definitive competitive advantage.