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SOUTH KOREA. In a move aimed at boosting the spending of Chinese tourists, Hana Bank has partnered with online payment provider Alipay to launch a payment service for Chinese visitors to Korean stores, local news outlets have reported.
According to the Korean Times and Korean Herald the service will be available in around 400 stores across the country most frequented by Chinese visitors, including duty free shops. It sees tourist make payments using their
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Alipay account via a smartphone, with Hana Bank paying the shop and Alipay paying the bank. Lotte Duty Free is one of the first retailers to allow Chinese tourists to pay with the online payment system.
As reported earlier this year, Chinese visitors to South Korea rose by +40.9% in the first 11 months of 2014 to 5,706,364. This resulted in an increase in Chinese spend in downtown shops as well as at Incheon International Airport, as reported.
With the increased number of Chinese tourists to South Korea, this is Alipay’s latest move to target the group with the online payment provider also recently launching a Korean transportation card for tourists.