Alipay and the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) are broadening their partnership with the launch of joint marketing activities to promote Singapore and drive tourist spending among Chinese visitors.
The marketing activities are designed to incentivise Alipay users, through rewards and discounts, to spend across different types of tourism businesses such as retail, F&B and attractions, further boosting their spending in Singapore.
Alipay and STB will also create tailored itineraries that are aligned with STB’s new Passion Made Possible brand. These itineraries are meant to encourage Alipay users to “pursue their passions by exploring and discovering new attractions, dining and shopping experiences”. It will also give them more reasons to visit and spend more in Singapore.
Additionally, the partnership is expected to leverage Alipay’s insights to deepen STB’s understanding of Chinese visitors’ consumer behaviour.
Since signing an MoU last September to explore co-investing in joint-marketing initiatives to encourage Chinese tourists to spend with Alipay while in Singapore, the payment platform has experienced double-digit growth in user spending.
China has also become Singapore’s top market in 2017 for both tourism receipts and visitor arrivals, contributing S$4.2 billion (US$3.1 billion) in tourism receipts and 3.2 million visitor arrivals.
“We hope to continue to broaden over time our partnership with Alipay to explore more innovative marketing initiatives in the areas of content, digital and technology to further enhance the Chinese visitor experience,” said Jacqueline Ng, director, marketing partnerships & planning, STB.
“Singapore is a favourite destination for Chinese travellers. According to research released by Nielsen last year, it is one of Chinese tourists’ top 10 preferred travel destinations in the world… At the same time, we are excited to connect more merchants in Singapore with Chinese tourists and be discovered by them through the app,” commented Cherry Huang, general manager, cross-border business for South and South-east Asia, Alipay.
According to the recent Nielsen report, jointly released with Alipay, over 90 per cent of Chinese tourists would consider using mobile payments when traveling overseas if more overseas merchants accepted them.
