According to Alibaba’s corporate news service, Alizila, Finland has become the first destination in the world to offer Chinese tourists an “all-Alipay” travel experience.
Finland, perhaps one of the most aggressive destinations in the world in terms of rolling out Chinese-focused travel technology, is now said to have reached a level of adoption that allows Chinese tourists to enjoy a fully cashless experience in the country.
To demonstrate how far Finland has come with Alipay adoption across the tourism, hospitality, and retail industries, Alipay brought eight Alipay users to Finland for six days of “normal” Chinese tourism in the country, involving, e.g., sightseeing, shopping, and dining. The whole trip and almost all consumption during the trip were paid for using Alipay, including food, shopping, cab rides, tax refunds, etc.
A group of eight Chinese travellers have concluded a cashless journey to Finland, with all transactions, from booking flights, making local retail purchases in Helsinki and dining out throughout their trip, made with their Alipay accounts.
This has made Finland the first country outside China where Alipay users can make all payments with their smartphones and enjoy their trip without worrying about cash and language barriers, according to Ant Financial Group, which operates Alipay.
The eight Chinese tourists were selected from an online social media campaign initiated by Alipay at the end of 2017 and flew into the country in mid-January by Finnair. The airline became the first airline in the world to accept mobile payments for in-flight purchases when it began accepting Alipay on flights between Helsinki and Shanghai in January 2017.
