Alipay Enhances China Travel for International Tourists with 16-Language App Upgrade

As Chinese inbound tourism gains momentum with the extension of its visa-free policy to more countries and the recovery of international flights, Alipay, the leading digital payment and lifestyle platform in China, now supports 16 languages on its App, further enhancing the travel experience of international tourists exploring China.

These languages include Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Russian, Turkish, Malay, Indonesian, Thai, Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese.

This service upgrade enables international tourists, to explore China like a local with Alipay, using the language that they are familiar with.

For example, Italian tourists can download the Italian version of the Alipay App and enjoy mobile payment services in Italian while making offline payments in China. They can also enjoy frequently-used travel services such as hailing cars, booking hotels and purchasing plane and high-speed train tickets on the Alipay homepage in their native language, thanks to the App’s embedded translation tool.

Using the Alipay App has become increasingly popular for international visitors travelling within China as the country’s rich culture and history, stunning scenery, gourmet cuisine, modern transportation like high-speed trains, and convenient and secure mobile payment have become frequently enjoyed among international visitors.

A study conducted by the Silk Road Research Institute of Beijing Foreign Studies University in June 2024 on international tourists’ travel and payment experiences in China, found that international visitors are interested in trying local mobile payment methods like Alipay. The study revealed that 84% of those surveyed used at least one type of mobile payment in China. Among international travelers who used Alipay, nearly 97% would recommend it to their friends visiting China.

Alipay has also recorded a surge in consumption from international tourists in China. The spending of international visitors in China using Alipay increased by eight times in the first half year of 2024 compared to the previous year.

Since 2022, Alipay has partnered with international card networks to further enhance its payment services for international travelers. After downloading the Alipay app, international tourists can sign up and link their international credit or debit cards from Visa, Mastercard, JCB, Discover®, and Diners Club International® to pay at the tens of millions of Alipay partner merchants across China, including restaurants, cafes, tourist attractions, shopping malls, street stalls and public transport. Alipay also collaborates with industry partners to offer international travelers with convenient travel services such as online translation, hotel booking, ride hailing, purchasing tickets to tourist sites, riding shared bikes and taking public transport.

In addition to paying like a local with Alipay, international travelers can also use their home e-wallet to scan Alipay QR codes and pay across China through Ant International’s Alipay+ solution. These 12 overseas e-wallets include AlipayHK (Hong Kong SAR, China), Kaspi.kz (Kazakhstan), MPay (Macao SAR, China), Touch ‘n Go eWallet (Malaysia), Hipay (Mongolia), NayaPay (Pakistan), Changi Pay (Singapore), OCBC Digital (Singapore), Kakao Pay (South Korea), Naver Pay (South Korea), Toss Pay (South Korea) and TrueMoney (Thailand).