Malaysia ahead of US in global Chinese tourist transactions

Malaysia has climbed ahead of the US to become the ninth largest market worldwide for Chinese tourists’ spending overseas.

This was recorded during China’s summer holidays, which took place between July 1 and Aug 31 this year.

According to Alipay, a mobile and online payment platform offered by Ant Financial, the volume of transactions made by Chinese tourist using Alipay in Malaysia grew five times this year compared to the same period in 2017. This growth also makes Malaysia the only other Asian country apart from Cambodia to make the top 10 list.

“Malaysia is a hotspot for Chinese tourists. When we established our network with Malaysian merchants in May last year, we looked forward to seeing both Chinese tourists and local businesses mutually benefit from our presence.

Today, Chinese travellers can continue enjoying the smart lifestyle they enjoy back home, and Malaysian merchants are able to expand on their service offerings and see profit with Alipay,” said Cherry Huang, general manager, cross-border business for South and Southeast Asia Alipay.

The two-month annual holiday period celebrated in China saw Alipay process almost three times as many in-store overseas transactions than during the 2017 summer break. It also saw a 43% increase in the average per-capita spend per user this year, going from RMB2,073 (RM1,257) to RMB2,955 (RM1,792).

China was the third largest source of tourist arrivals (at 2.28 million) for Malaysia in 2017 and more tourists are expected to arrive over the years. Alipay’s presence locally allows merchants to leverage on Chinese tourists’ preference for cashless payments. This is evidenced by Nielsen’s findings highlighting that 99% of Chinese tourists have Alipay installed on their devices, with over 90% preferring mobile payments abroad given the option.