During the Spring Festival holiday in 2024, China's visa-free "Circle of Friends" will be expanded, the capacity of international flight routes will increase, and the popularity of inbound and outbound tourism will continue to rise, forming a short-term peak season. On the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, Alipay shared data analysis of cross-border travel during the Spring Festival, showing that the Spring Festival has once again become the peak period of global tourism consumption after four years, and it has shown an obvious "two-way" warming trend.
Outbound travel consumption has recovered strongly, and payment scenarios are more frequent and diversified
At present, Alipay covers more than 70 countries and regions around the world and 8 million overseas merchants, accompanying Chinese people all over the world. During the Spring Festival, Alipay and overseas merchants expanded their "Preferential Exit" services to provide Chinese tourists with a number of preferential exchange rates, transportation and consumption discounts, making it easier for tourists to travel around the world.
Alipay's outbound travel data shows that the number of overseas purchases by Alipay users during the Spring Festival has been 107% of the level of the same period in 2019, of which the consumption amount will increase by 140% year-on-year in 2023. With the strong recovery of outbound travel, it also shows that users' travel preferences are more diverse, and mobile payment scenarios are more common and diversified.
Among them, nearby destinations such as Hong Kong, Macao, Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea are sought after, while long-distance destinations such as Europe, America, Australia, North America and the Middle East are also gradually picking up, indicating that the travel radius and choices of Chinese tourists are constantly expanding. Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, France, Australia and Canada are the top 10 destinations most popular by Alipay users in terms of spending amount.
Caption: Singapore's famous Yue Hwa domestic products unfurled banners to welcome Chinese tourists.
From the end of 2023, the three countries of Southeast Asia's ** tourist routes, "Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand", have successively released favorable policies for China, and the spending amount of tourists attracted by these three places during the Spring Festival of the Year of the Dragon has increased by 80% compared with the May Day ** week of 2023 before the full visa exemption. Judging from the data performance of Alipay's outbound travel in Southeast Asia, compared with the Spring Festival in 2023, it has achieved a huge growth of nearly 580%. Among them, Thailand topped the list of spending amounts, while Malaysia also performed well, making it the country with the largest increase in consumption among the three countries.
The diversification of tourism consumption scenarios is also a major feature of outbound travel during the Spring Festival in the Year of the Dragon. In addition to traditional consumption hotspots such as shopping in business districts and duty-free shops, hotels and vacations, it has also expanded to "immersive" tourism experiences such as special tourism, local catering, local transportation and cultural and entertainment consumption. Compared with the 2019 Spring Festival, people's spending on local and specialty food and beverage has continued to rise, with the amount of food and beverage spending increasing by 70%, reflecting the pursuit of high-quality travel experiences by Chinese tourists.
At the same time, in recent years, Alipay has focused on expanding overseas short-distance transportation services, and currently supports a variety of overseas travel modes including taxis, car rentals, public transportation, electric scooters, and high-speed rail, which has led to a significant increase in overseas digital travel orders. In particular, the access to diversified bus services has reduced the cost of transportation by about 60% compared with 2019. The carbon footprint of Chinese travel has become lighter, and "sustainable travel" has also become a highlight of Alipay's outbound travel.
The living circle of the Greater Bay Area has begun to take shape, and cross-border mobile payment has risen sharply
The interconnection of the cultural and tourism industries in the Greater Bay Area has deepened, and the Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions** have joined hands with all walks of life to hold a variety of special activities for the Spring Festival, making Hong Kong and Macao the favorite of short-distance tourists during the Spring Festival. At present, Alipay's coverage rate in Hong Kong and Macao merchants exceeds 90%; The trading volume of tourists in Hong Kong and Macao began after Chinese New Year's Eve**, and reached new highs day by day.
Caption: Macao's Guanye Street is full of weaving.
After the Hong Kong SAR optimised its customs clearance policy, the number of transactions made by Alipay users in Hong Kong increased significantly by 45% this Spring Festival compared to the same period in 2019. Tourists are not only keen to buy and buy, but also make good use of local transportation and immerse themselves in one-stop tourism. Alipay's MTR, buses, Star Ferries and Dingding cars have become the most popular travel choices for tourists, with each user scanning the code and taking the ** pass tool more than 3 times on average. Macao's tourism industry, especially souvenir shops, drugstores and resort hotels, also benefited from the convenient transportation of Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macao and the holiday bonus of the Spring Festival, with a 130% increase in transaction value compared to the 2019 Spring Festival.
A mobile phone to travel in China The number of Chinese merchants doing business with overseas tourists increased by 56 times
The Spring Festival is becoming more and more "internationalized", driving the acceleration of inbound tourism. Currently, more than 20 countries and regions have made the Chinese New Year an official holiday, and about one-fifth of the world's population celebrates the Lunar New Year in different forms. This year, with the popularity of cross-border mobile payment services, more overseas tourists can experience the original Chinese New Year more smoothly. And more businesses, especially small and medium-sized businesses, can also start a "cross-national" tourist business with zero technical costs. Before the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games, through Ant Group's AliPay+ innovative cross-border payment technology solution, users in 7 countries and regions, including South Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand, can use 10 e-wallets that are commonly used at home to scan QR codes to pay directly in China. Friends from other countries and regions can also bind a wild card through Alipay to realize "a mobile phone tour in China".
In the Year of the Dragon, the amount of inbound spending by overseas tourists using overseas e-wallets increased by nearly 32 times compared with last year's Spring Festival, and the amount spent using Alipay increased by 5 times, helping the growth of the tourism and retail industries in various places. The number of active merchants in China who started business with overseas tourists increased by 5% compared to the Spring Festival in 20236 timesAmong them, the entry of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan residents, overseas Chinese returning to China to visit relatives and foreign tourists experience tourism have become the three main inbound consumption. Hong Kong, Malaysia, Macau, South Korea and Thailand were the main source destinations during the Spring Festival, while Guangdong, Shanghai, Fujian and Zhejiang were the regions that received the most inbound mobile payment users.
Caption: Macau wallet mpay users spend money in Zhuhai during the Spring Festival.
With the help of mobile payment, overseas tourists can experience the scenery and culture of China's big cities and towns in a deeper way, covering hot pot restaurants, bubble tea shops, places of interest and niche attractions. Especially in the Greater Bay Area, Hong Kong and Macao compatriots have truly realized a "cross-border digital life circle". Hong Kong and Macao tourists began to go north before the Spring Festival to buy New Year's goods, hair and nail art and other beauty consumption has also become a rigid demand this year. Before the Spring Festival, Hema, Sam, and Costco received waves of northbound passengers. In January this year, the average daily number and value of AlipayHK transactions by Hong Kong citizens in the mainland increased by 10 to 15 times compared with the reopening of the border in February last year. Scanning QR codes in the mainland has also become a skillful travel habit for Hong Kong citizens, accounting for one-third of the total number of transactions in the mainland in January. This year, in addition to the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta, the popular Northeast tour in China will also attract more overseas tourists to Harbin and Shenyang to experience the ice and snow world.
Zeng Gang, deputy director of the National Finance and Development Laboratory, said: "From the perspective of the Spring Festival business trend, cross-border mobile payment services have increasingly become the key to a smooth international travel experience, and also provide more channels for merchants and tourism departments to reach users and cross-border promotion.