TAT and Alipay+ launch digital travel innovations

Enhancing travel through digital innovations

According to TAT, in the first four months of 2024, 2,351,909 tourists from the Chinese mainland travelled to Thailand. During the 2024 Labor Day holiday, data from Alipay, an Alipay+ partner e-wallet, showed that Thailand remains the top destination in Southeast Asia for Chinese tourists. Transactions made via Alipay increased by 161% compared to 2023, surpassing that of the prepandemic period in 2019.

To better cater to today’s mobile-savvy travellers, TAT will launch the Alipay+ D-hub and Amazing Thailand e-Card exclusively on Alipay for Chinese tourists and gradually make them available to other Alipay+ payment partners.

TAT is one of the first tourism boards to launch Alipay+ D-hub, a customisable in-app mini programme that will feature essential travel and cultural information, local merchants recommendations, and city and province guides of Thai destinations.

Boosting local business

Meanwhile, Amazing Thailand e-Card connects local businesses with tourists – helping them engage a new pool of customers, increasing the visibility and awareness of Thailand’s tourism offerings for visitors, and offering a channel for tourists to discover merchants and enjoy exclusive promotions.

At the beginning of 2024, Alipay+ also introduced the Alipay+ D-store in Thailand, an all-in-one store digitalization platform that allows locals and tourists to simply scan the store’s QR code and order, customise, and pay directly on their mobile devices. Currently, Alipay+ D-store merchants include local and international F&B merchants such as Dairy Queen, Burger King, The Coffee Club, D’Oro, and more.

Promoting seamless payments across Thailand

From January – April 2024, Thailand has already welcomed a record number of 12,127,447 international arrivals.

In addition, data from Alipay+ showed a 70% increase in transactions in Thailand from January – April 2024, compared to the preceding four months, with the highest spending coming from Alipay (Chinese mainland), Touch ‘n Go eWallet (Malaysia), AlipayHK (Hong Kong SAR), and Kakao Pay (South Korea). Joint marketing efforts have successfully boosted tourist engagement, with a 52% increase in Alipay+ transactions during Songkran 2024, compared to the month before.

Alipay+ continues to expand its merchant coverage in Thailand to ensure that users of 14 international payment apps, which are Alipay+ partners, can pay seamlessly across the country. As of May 2024, Alipay+ is accepted by more than 400,000 merchants across Thailand, including in smaller regions, enabling tourists to travel more easily around the country and fully experience Thailand.

Introduced by Ant International in 2020, Alipay+ now connects over 88 million merchants in 57 countries and regions to 1.5 billion consumer accounts across over 25 e-wallets and bank apps. It allows consumers to travel and pay hassle-free globally and merchants to expand cross-border consumer engagement and digital marketing.