Many Chinese tourists are currently preparing to travel overseas during the Lunar New Year celebration, which begins on February 16 and runs through March 2 this year. In the US, hundreds of thousands of retailers and service providers are ready to cater to these tourists by offering them the mobile-wallet payment options they prefer, such as Alipay.
Each year, Chinese tourists take more than 100 million trips, generating hundreds of billions of dollars in sales for retailers and service providers worldwide. These tourists are valuable shoppers who are known for snapping up apparel, beauty products and fragrances, food and beverages, and electronics in particular.
Chinese consumers are currently gearing up to take trips to mark the Lunar New Year holiday, which falls on February 16 this year, although festivities will continue through March 2. The holiday is a popular time for overseas vacations, and US retailers and service providers are better prepared to serve these consumers this year. In particular, a large number of US businesses have begun accepting Alipay over the past year. The mobile wallet service is used by more than 520 million Chinese shoppers, and many of them prefer to use it for purchases when traveling abroad.
Alipay told us that it has been building out partnerships across retail, hospitality, leisure experiences and transportation in the US, and that more than 170,000 locations in North America now accept payments made through Alipay. That means that this year’s Chinese New Year will mark the first time many US stores and services are set up to cater to Chinese tourists wanting to pay using a familiar mobile wallet service.
In this brief report, we note how US retailers and service providers are catering to Chinese tourists by offering Alipay and list some of the types of businesses that now accept it as a payment method. First, though, we summarize the scale of the opportunity that Chinese tourists represent.
Chinese tourists are of great value to retailers worldwide due to their propensity to spend and their sheer numbers. We conducted a survey of Chinese consumers in 2017 that found that the US is the top non-Asian and non-European destination for Chinese tourists. In our 2017 report called Deep Dive: Chinese Outbound Tourists—More Diverse, More Sophisticated, we noted the following:
Chinese consumers lead the world in the adoption of mobile payments. At home and abroad, these consumers want to be able to pay for their purchases using mobile wallets such as Alipay. Already, almost two-thirds of Chinese travelers say that the option to pay by mobile is an important factor in choosing a retailer when shopping overseas.
In a world of multiple payment choices, why do so many Chinese tourists opt to pay using mobile payment apps such as Alipay? The company notes several reasons for its own app’s popularity:
Souheil Badran, President of Alipay – Americas, describes Alipay as “a [local] friend…[who can] give you the best insights on where to shop, eat, what to experience and how to get there.” He says that the app is like having a “friend in every city that helps Chinese consumers transcend country, currency and language barriers.”
Many US retailers and service providers are now able to accept Alipay thanks to recent partnerships between Alipay and point-of-sale and payment-processing intermediaries such as Adyen, Citcon, First Data, Poynt, RiverPay, Verifone and Worldpay. Other retailers have worked directly with Alipay to implement mobile wallets as a payment option.
Given the extension of Alipay partnerships over the past year, Chinese travelers can now use the mobile wallet service to pay for hotels, apartment rentals, transportation, restaurant meals and retail purchases in the US. Below, we highlight some of the goods and services that travelers to the US can pay for using a mobile wallet service such as Alipay.
In addition to paying for goods and services with Alipay, travelers can use the app’s Discover platform to help them as they plan their trips and their days. Discover is a geolocation function that provides listings of merchants that accept Alipay. Alipay’s Badran describes the Discover platform as “a treasure trove of information on local businesses.”
Over the approaching Chinese New Year holiday, we are likely to see millions of Chinese tourists use mobile wallets such as Alipay as they travel and shop overseas.