Singapore emerged the 3rd largest market in Southeast Asia for Chinese tourists spending over CNY, with an increase of 34% in average spending per Chinese tourist.
Diving into the overseas spending and mobile payment behavior of Chinese consumers across the 54 markets where Alipay is accepted during the 2019 Lunar New Year period (4-10 February), Singapore emerged the 3rd largest market in Southeast Asia for Chinese tourists spending over CNY, with an increase of 34% in average spending per Chinese tourist.
The statistics reinforce the findings of the report jointly released by Nielsen and Alipay last month. The report, titled 2018 Trends for Mobile Payment in Chinese Outbound Tourism, uncovered the value that Alipay has brought to the businesses of overseas merchants, especially brick-and-mortar retailers, with 60% of merchants that had adopted Alipay reporting growth in revenue and foot traffic. It also highlights how the use of Alipay has become mainstream, as the older generations catch up with their younger peers in embracing digital payment.
Our key findings reveal:
- Both transaction values and volumes experienced robust growth.
- Offline in-store transaction value surged 2.2 times year-on-year.
- Asian countries still dominate the top in terms of transaction volume with the exception of Canada, which climbed to tenth spot due to increased adoption by local merchants and large retailers.
- Singapore remains in third place in Southeast Asia terms of transaction volume after Thailand and Malaysia, and ranks in eighth place globally.
- Average spending per Chinese tourist in Singapore increased by 34 percent
- Transaction volume in Singapore doubled.
- The highest number of transactions in Singapore occurred at airport terminals and in taxis.
- Taxi transaction volume in Singapore this year was 1.92 times more than last year, and there was an increase of 5% in spending.
- Transaction volume on Sentosa tripled, with over 70% acceptance rate on the island.
- In terms of product and outlet categories, Chinese tourists shopped more frequently in department stores and luxury shops in Europe, while those who travelled to Asian countries favored pharmaceutical and cosmetics shops and convenience stores.
In addition, preliminary findings released last week show:
- Average consumption growth through Alipay by travelers from third-and-fourth-tier cities in China outpaced those travelers from the top-tier cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou
- Middle-aged travelers, which are categorized into two groups – those who were born between 1960 – 1969 and then those born between 1970-1979, were the main driving force in outbound tourism and overseas consumption
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
