Singapore is the sixth most popular destination globally for Chinese tourists, with spending in the city-state for the first seven days of Chinese New Year (CNY) in 2024 similar to pre-Covid-19 levels, according to Ant Group’s Alipay+.
Alipay+, a suite of global cross-border payments and marketing solutions operated by Ant Group, was made available in Singapore in the fourth quarter of 2023. It recently onboarded six more international e-wallets, bringing the total number to 12 partners in the ecosystem that merchants in Singapore can accept.
This includes Alipay in mainland China, AlipayHK in HongKong, and GCash in the Philippines.
Amongst other Asian tourists using Alipay+ partner payment apps, Singapore is the fifth most popular destination globally. It trails behind countries such as Thailand and Malaysia.
Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore combined saw a 7.5% increase over 2019, and a 580% leap compared to 2023, with Thailand leading in total volume and Malaysia showing the largest increase, according to Ant Group’s release.
Over CNY, the number of transactions made by Alipay users globally surpassed that of 2019 by 7% while consumer spending recovered to 82% of the 2019 level, or 2.4 times of 2023.
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As a result, total cross-border spending on the region’s leading e-wallets powered by Alipay+ increased by 252% y-o-y, while daily average transactions increased by 304%.
“Based on the recent CNY spending trends, we can see that it has already far surpassed 2023 and back to 2019 levels,” says Cherry Huang, general manager of Alipay+ offline merchant services, Ant International. “In anticipation for this increase, we continue to work with local partners like the Singapore Tourism Board to promote Singapore and local businesses, and expanding our merchant coverage, including through partners like NETS and SGQR, to ensure that more local merchants, both big and small, can benefit from this tourism growth.
