Alipay Partners With Norway Tourism Board

Alipay, China’s leading third-party online payment solution, has partnered with Norway’s tourism promotion agency to provide better services to Chinese tourists traveling in the Nordic country.

Norway is just the latest country to offer Chinese tourists the convenience of using Alipay, which is owned by China’s Alibaba Group. The mobile payment service boasts more than 500 million registered users and plans to grow that number to exceed 2 billion within the next 10 years. It powers hundreds of millions of transactions per day.

The payment method is now accepted in 70 countries and supports transactions in 14 major currencies.

According to China Daily, this latest partnership is between Alipay and the Scandinavian Tourist Board (STB), a joint initiative by Denmark and Norway for promoting tourism in China.

Alipay, which officially launched in Norway on September 4, will use its app and external communication channels to promote Norway as a Chinese-friendly and mobile pay-oriented travel destination. In turn, STB will promote Alipay services in Norway by encouraging local merchants to consider and accept Alipay’s mobile payment solution and marketing platform.

“Now with this partnership with Alipay, we will further support them in deploying Alipay services in this region, which will strengthen the advantages of Norway as well as the Nordics as a Chinese-friendly destination,” said Per Holte, chairman of STB and head of tourism in Asia and Latin America at Innovation Norway, a government agency responsible for promoting innovation in Norway and marketing the country’s tourism on the world market.

Rita Liu, Alipay’s head of Europe, Middle East and Africa, said the partnership will benefit both Chinese tourists and Norwegian businesses.

“We have been launching our services in Europe since mid-2016,” Liu said. “We are happy that Norway and the Nordics are embracing Alipay for Chinese tourists. The adoption of Alipay services of both payment and marketing will not only enhance the experience of Chinese consumers, but also help Norwegian businesses to reach out to their Chinese customers even before they depart from China.”