Australia's Queensland State will adopt the online payment platform, Alipay, in an effort to attract Chinese visitors, officials said on Thursday.
Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk met with representatives from e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, who operate Alipay, to discuss ways of improving services for the state's biggest tourism market at the ongoing China International Import Expo in Shanghai.
An aerial view of Queensland, Australia. /VCG Photo
"500,000 Chinese visitors came to Queensland in 2017, spending a record 945 million US dollars," Palaszczuk said. "With a potential market in the millions we need to do all we can to promote Queensland to Alibaba's users and make their holidays as seamless as possible," she added.
Tourism Industry Development Minister Kate Jones said with an expected increase of visitors over Chinese New Year 2019, it is especially crucial for Queensland to adapt to consumer's needs.
An aerial view of Golden Beach, Australia. /VCG Photo
"We know we operate in a highly competitive market when it comes to attracting international visitors, and we want to make things as smooth as possible, making transactions easier which will hopefully encourage visitors to book and travel to Queensland," Jones said.
China remains Queensland's largest and most valuable international market, with overnight visitor expenditure increasing by 11.7 percent to 1.14 billion US dollars and visitation increasing 3.8 percent to 503,000 in 2017, according to the International Visitor Survey (IVS) released by Tourism Research Australia.
An aerial view of the Sydney Harbor Bridge. /VCG Photo
Chinese tourists spend almost three times on shopping as much as the second biggest spenders, the Americans, in 2015, according to statistics from the World Tourism Organization. In a study by Nielsen, 91 percent of Chinese tourists said they would spend more if the shop accepts Alipay or WeChat Pay. This opens up a lot of opportunities for Australian merchants. Leading Australian retailers such as IGA, Chemist Warehouse, CUE Clothing Co. and Priceline have already accepted Alipay, WeChat Pay or both.
A record-high 1.3 million Chinese people have visited Australia in the 12 months ending June 2018, an increase of 13 percent from the previous 12-month period, the IVS report said.
(With input from Xinhua)