The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and Alipay are expanding their partnership to promote the ‘Amazing Thailand, A Must-visit Destination This Sumer Holiday’ marketing campaign with an aim to enhance the travel experience for tourists from China, Hong Kong SAR, Malaysia, and South Korea by allowing them to pay seamlessly with their home mobile wallets via Alipay+.
Mr. Tanes Petsuwan, TAT Deputy Governor for International Marketing – Asia and the South Pacific, said “The expanded partnership with Alipay will help bring a smoother consumer experience to Chinese tourists visiting Thailand, and open up more resources to Thai businesses, especially the vast number of SMEs to help them develop digital operations and marketing capabilities.”
Platforms like Alipay are becoming increasingly important for destination markets like Thailand, because they play a significant role in shaping travellers’ decisions on airlines, hotels, and destination selection, added Mr. Tanes.
Thailand welcomed over 1.4 million Chinese tourists in the first half of 2023, and with Chinese travellers on average spending 24% more on Alipay when abroad during this first half compared to first half 2019, this signals new growth trends that Thailand is preparing to capitalise on with its increased cooperation with Alipay.
As travel revives, Alipay is launching a series of campaigns in summer 2023 with regional partners like TAT, which feature a variety of promotions on travel-related services, such as shopping, attractions, and transportation. Thailand is seen as the destination with the greatest potential in Southeast Asia to promote Cashless Society spending, and as part of this Alipay aims to increase tourist flows to secondary cities across Thailand.
Alipay became available in Thailand in 2015, and now connects Chinese travellers to 550,000 local traders across the country. Thailand is among the top four outbound travel destinations by total transaction volume on Alipay.
Alipay is a payment platform trusted by the Chinese people, and is thus well-positioned to promote Thailand as a trusted travel destination. It works with payment platforms in Thailand, such as TrueMoney, Kasikornbank, and Krungthai Card (KTC), and may soon add PromptPay to this list.
