China’s 2025 Labor Day Sees Surge in Inbound and Outbound Travel Spending via Alipay and Other Alipay+ Partner Payment Apps

Data from Alipay and other Alipay+ partner payment apps indicates a notable increase in both outbound and inbound tourism spending in China during the 2025 Labor Day holiday (Golden Week).

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Outbound Travel: Chinese tourists explore local experiences through digital platforms in overseas destinations

Through Alipay+, a unified wallet gateway with cross-border payment and digitization services developed by Ant International, users of 36 e-wallets in Asia and Europe—including Chinese travelers—can use their own home payment apps across over 70 markets without the need to exchange currency or carry cash. During China's Labor Day holiday, global Alipay+ merchants have joined Alipay in an exclusive campaign to lure travelers.

The top destinations for Chinese travelers, based on total Alipay spending, are Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Macao SAR, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, France, Canada, and Italy.

Thanks to Alipay+'s 100 million-strong and diverse global merchant network, Chinese tourists are increasingly seeking more personalized, local experiences. Switzerland recorded the highest average Alipay spending per user, while in South Korea, average spending exceeded USD 100—driven in part by the growing trend of traveling for cosmetic surgery. In addition, the growing desire for immersive local travel experiences is driving increased use of local transportation, with Alipay transactions rising 53% year-over-year. Public transit has become the most frequently used Alipay service among travelers. Taking buses and subways with Alipay is especially popular in Hong Kong SAR and Macao SAR, where travelers are already familiar with using it for daily commutes. Other emerging trends include buying train tickets in Europe and unlocking shared bikes in Japan with Alipay.

Furthermore, Alipay’s real-time tax refund service saw a 33% year-on-year increase in the refund value per transaction, while the number of claims for Alipay’s instant discount offer increased by 46% compared to the New Year’s Day holiday.

Inbound Travel: Visa-free entry, updated tax refund policies, and new payment options attract international travelers

Since September 2023, the Alipay+ solutions have supported 13 leading payment apps¹ in Asia to serve their roaming users across Alipay’s extensive merchant network in China.

Thanks to China’s updated tax refund and visa-free policies, more international travelers are heading to the country. During the Labor Day holiday, both the number of transactions and the total spending by travelers using the 13 overseas e-wallets rose by over 100% year-on-year.AlipayHK topped the list for total spending, followed by Malaysia’s Touch ’n Go e-Wallet, Kazakhstan’s Kaspi.kz, Macao SAR’s MPay, and Thailand’s TrueMoney.

With Alipay+, international travelers may also bind their Visa, Mastercard, American Express, JCB, Discover^®, Diners Club International^®, and UnionPay International credit or debit cards to Alipay for a seamless travel experience in China. This enables smooth payments and access to a wide range of digital services on the Alipay platform, including ride-hailing, hotel bookings, and plane or train ticket purchases.

Alipay Tap!—a contactless payment and customer engagement solution introduced by Alipay in China in June 2024—has also quickly become a preferred payment method among international travelers to China. The solution is essentially a simplified QR-code method that enables users to access services hosted on Alipay simply by tapping a merchant’s terminal or an Alipay Tap! Tag, without needing to open an app, scan a code, or navigate multiple screens. As of April 2025, Alipay Tap! had attracted over 100 million users in China within just 11 months of launch. During the Labor Day holiday, travelers from the 54 countries covered by China’s 240-hour visa-free transit policy spent 50% more via Alipay Tap! compared to the same period in April.

About Alipay+
Ant International's Alipay+ is a unified wallet gateway with cross-border payment and digitization services that help connect global merchants to consumers. Consumers enjoy seamless payments a broad choice of deals and the convenience of digital services using their preferred payment app/e-wallet while travelling abroad. Many small and medium-sized businesses already use Alipay+ digital tools to enhance efficiency and achieve omni-channel growth.

About Alipay
As the world becomes increasingly digital, Alipay has evolved from a trusted e-wallet into an all-in-one digital platform for daily services, connecting more than one billion consumers to over 80 million merchants across China. Alipay offers users a secure, seamless mobile payment experience and integrates over 10,000 services across sectors like travel, healthcare, tourism, and entertainment. With digital tools like Alipay Tap!, mini-programs, lifestyle accounts, Alipay enables merchants, institutions, and independent software vendors (ISVs) to enhance operational efficiency and effectiveness. In addition, Alipay is developing a new AI-driven open platform by integrating AI agents to deliver smarter, more personalized services to its users as well as facilitating the digital transformation of the service sector.

____________________ 1 The 13 payment apps include AlipayHK (Hong Kong SAR, China), Kaspi.kz (Kazakhstan), MPay (Macao SAR, China), Touch ’n Go eWallet (Malaysia), Hipay (Mongolia), NayaPay (Pakistan), Changi Pay (Singapore), OCBC Digital (Singapore), Kakao Pay (South Korea), Naver Pay (South Korea), Toss Pay (South Korea), TrueMoney (Thailand), GCash (The Philippines).

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