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China banks on ease of payments to draw Indonesian tourists
China's two leading mobile payment providers, WeChat Pay and Alipay, now allow foreign visitors to link their credit cards to access the ubiquitous payment methods at local retailers, meaning one headache less for travelers to the country.
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A QR code for China’s WeChat Pay is displayed on Sept. 30, 2023 at a store selling nuts in a market in Urumqi, Xinjiang. Payments through Tencent's WeChat and Alibaba's Alipay, the country’s two dominant mobile payment providers, are accepted almost universally across China. (JP/Aditya Hadi)
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hina’s WeChat Pay and Alipay in July started allowing foreign travelers to link their credit cards to accounts on the country’s two dominant mobile payment providers to ease cashless transactions at local stores.
Rudy Chen, an Indonesian YouTuber based in China, says the move by WeChat Pay and Alipay has made life much easier for travelers and is likely to help attract more tourists from his home country to the Asian superpower.
"Lots of my subscribers have asked about this payment problem, as many retailers reject cash because they lack small change. With this partnership, Indonesian tourists don't need to think too much before coming here," Rudy told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
WeChat is owned by multimedia giant Tencent, while Alipay is the mobile payments arm of tech behemoth Alibaba Group.
According to data from China’s immigration authorities, the country saw only 8.44 million international tourist arrivals in the first half of this year, a far cry from around 31 million visitors recorded during the same period in 2019.
Beijing recently dropped its pre-entry COVID-19 testing requirement as part of its effort to increase foreign visitor numbers, and it is hoping that the move to facilitate cross-border payments will further boost inbound travel.
Read also: It's time for one big payment network in South and Southeast Asia
