Four different mobile wallets are now recognized in the Philippines, according to Ant Group, the company that runs Alipay+, a global cross-border digital payment and marketing service. These include Touch ‘n Go eWallet (Malaysia), Kakao Pay (South Korea), Alipay (Chinese mainland), AlipayHK (Hong Kong SAR), and Alipay (Chinese mainland), which has been welcomed by Filipino retailers since 2017. As digital payment methods like mobile wallets become the standard for everyday transactions, this enables travelers from these locations to enjoy a cashless experience using merely their home mobile wallets to make payment.
With travelers returning to the Philippines, Alipay+ has announced the adoption of three new mobile wallets. More than 3 million tourists visited the Philippines between January 1 and July 19, 2023, according to the Department of Tourism (DOT), indicating a persistently strong recovery. The DOT also revealed that from January 1 to June 30, 2023, inbound tourism receipts will be more than 500% greater than they were during the same time period in 2018. The majority of foreign visitors to the Philippines are from South Korea, but Malaysia is among the top 10.
Businesses in Manila and Cebu, the two most popular tourist destinations in the Philippines prior to the 2019 pandemic, currently accept Alipay+. Comparing the first half of 2023 to the same time in 2018, Mactan-Cebu International Airport showed a 219% increase in passenger traffic. The airport has integrated Alipay+ across 90% of its shops in order to meet the growing demands of digital-first travelers, ensuring that visitors can enjoy a digitally improved cashless experience from the time they arrive in Cebu.
“At MCIA, we have always placed the utmost importance on providing convenience and ease of travel through seamless processes and world-class services and amenities,” stated Athanasios Titonis, Aboitiz InfraCapital Chief Executive Officer assigned to MCIA. When using MCIA, our passengers now have additional convenient payment alternatives thanks to the integration of Alipay+.
With approximately 11 million people passing through it each year, Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) is the second busiest airport in the Philippines and the second largest airport overall. The MCIA intends to establish itself as the primary tourism gateway of the nation with unique travel experiences, linking the world to the Philippines with its advantageous position and top-notch facilities. The Airports Council International has accredited MCIA as the first and only airport in the Philippines to date in the category of Airport Customer Experience (ACX).
Dr. Cherry Huang, General Manager of Alipay+ Offline Merchant Services at Ant Group, offered the following statement in response to this new development: “Philippines and its numerous islands, such as Cebu, have long been a favorite travel destination for Asian travelers, and we look forward to collaborating with our local partners to improve their travel experience. In particular, we think that the way travelers interact with travel-related businesses—from airports and hotels to F&B and retail stores—will be shaped by digital adoption and solutions. Our current priority is to collaborate with more partners to sign up more local small businesses for Alipay+ in the Philippines while also promoting digital travel and travel recovery.
Through a one-time integration and straightforward technical adaptation, Alipay+, which was introduced by Ant Group in 2020, seeks to enable local enterprises, particularly small and medium-sized ones, to process a wide range of mobile payment methods and reach more than 1.4 billion regional and global consumers. Along with the Philippines, Alipay+ is extensively accepted in a number of other countries and regions, including the Chinese mainland, Macao SAR, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, and South Korea.