Cairns workshop to teach tourism operators how to tap into Chinese market through Alipay
If you’re a tourism operator and you’re not on Alipay, you’re missing out on Chinese business.
That’s the message from the Queensland Government, which is paving the way for the state’s tourism industry to join the mobile-based payment system.
Affiliated with the Alibaba Group, it’s one of the biggest online platforms in the world and has 800 million active users in China.
In Australia, it has the additional feature of currency conversion and a discovery map, which allows Alipay users to identify stores that allow them to pay with the system.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk met with Alibaba executives during a trade Mission to China this week.
She says by having Queensland tourism operators using Alipay, it will be easier to attract Chinese visitors, the state’s biggest international visitor market.
“500,000 Chinese visitors came to Queensland in the past year, spending a record $1.3 billion,’ she 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.”
Tourism and Events Queensland will conduct an industry workshop in Cairns on December 4, focusing on bringing Alipay online, as well as financial services provider UnionPay.
The announcement follows this week’s deal between Alipay and Vodafone Australia, which is the first Australian telecom company to accept Alipay as a payment option for its sim card services.
