Ant Group, the operator of Alipay+, the global cross-border digital payments and marketing solution today announced that a total of four mobile wallets are now accepted in Thailand. These include AlipayHK (Hong Kong SAR), Kakao Pay (South Korea), Touch ‘n Go eWallet (Malaysia) and Alipay (Chinese mainland), which has been accepted by Thai merchants since 2015.
“Building on the trust and collaboration we have had with Alipay for many years to engage tourists from the Chinese mainland, we are excited to further expand the reach through Alipay+ to tourists in three more Asian countries and regions, which are important source locations for Thailand.”
Ant Group also unveiled new collaborations with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (“TAT”), to promote the Amazing Thailand campaign and to stimulate travel in Thailand. In addition to facilitating purchases and transactions made by mobile wallets familiar to tourists, Ant Group will also provide digital solutions to local businesses in areas such as digitalisation of service operations, digital marketing efficiency and customer experience enhancement.
This is targeted at helping local merchants to engage tourists more effectively throughout their journey from pre-trip to post-trip. Local businesses can leverage solutions including the Alipay+ D-store to build digital stores in the form of mini programmes, leveraging digital platforms to reach and engage tourists.
Speaking of the partnership, Yuthasak Supasorn, Governor of TAT said, “Building on the trust and collaboration we have had with Alipay for many years to engage tourists from the Chinese mainland, we are excited to further expand the reach through Alipay+ to tourists in three more Asian countries and regions, which are important source locations for Thailand.”
“We also welcome Ant Group’s efforts to contribute to the digitalisation of the tourism industry by providing innovative digital solutions and close collaborations with local merchants. We are confident that this will lead to a revenue boost and growth opportunities for local businesses.”
Thailand’s flag carrier Thai Airways is one of the first airlines to integrate Alipay+ as a payment method. Users of all four mobile wallets can now seamlessly pay for purchases of flight tickets using their wallets and enjoy competitive foreign exchange rates.
Commenting on the latest expansion of Alipay+ in Thailand, Dr Cherry Huang, General Manager of Alipay+ Offline Merchant Services at Ant Group, said: “We strongly believe that the acceptance of more Asian mobile wallets in Thailand will enhance the travel experience and further promote Thailand as an attractive and sustainable destination for travellers. Our focus now is to onboard more local merchants in sectors including travel, retail, hospitality, and F&B to integrate the Alipay+ solution.”
“We look forward to working with local merchants, not only in the popular locations but also those in the lesser-known areas, to help them grow and thrive with added digital solutions and capabilities,” she added.
The Ministry of Commerce1 recently announced a significant surge in new registrations of tourism-related businesses, where the number of new registrations doubled year-on-year during the first four months of 2023.
Introduced by Ant Group in 2020, Alipay+ aims to enable local businesses, especially small and medium-sized businesses, to process a wide range of mobile payment methods and reach 1 billion regional and global consumers, through one-time integration and simple technical adaption. In addition to Thailand, Alipay+ is also widely accepted in destinations including the Chinese mainland, Macao SAR, Singapore, Japan, and South Korea among others. – Business Wire
