Ant Group, the operator of Alipay+, the global cross-border digital payments and marketing solution, announced that merchants in the Philippines can now accept a total of four mobile wallets. These wallets include AlipayHK (Hong Kong SAR), Kakao Pay (South Korea), Touch ‘n Go eWallet (Malaysia), and Alipay (Chinese mainland). 

This advancement allows travelers from these regions use their home mobile wallets for transactions, enhancing the travel experience as digital payment solutions like mobile wallets become the standard for day-to-day transactions.

Currently, Alipay+ is accepted by merchants in Manila and Cebu, which were the top two most visited cities in the Philippines before the pandemic. In the first half of 2023, Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) experienced a 219% increase in passenger traffic compared to the same period in the previous year. In response to the evolving preferences of digital-first travelers, the airport has integrated Alipay+ into the operations of 90% of its merchants, ensuring that tourists can enjoy a digitally enhanced cashless experience from the moment they arrive in Cebu.

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“The integration of Alipay+ offers our passengers exceptional convenience and a wider range of payment options when they travel through MCIA,” said Athanasios Titonis, CEO of Aboitiz InfraCapital assigned to MCIA.

MCIA is the second largest airport in the Philippines, serving over 11 million passengers annually, making it the country’s second busiest airport. With its strategic location, MCIA aims to establish itself as the primary tourism gateway of the country, providing an exceptional travel experience that connects the world to the Philippines. MCIA is the first and only airport in the Philippines to have received the Airport Customer Experience (ACX) accreditation from the Airports Council International.

“Our focus now is to work with more partners to onboard additional merchants with Alipay+ across the Philippines, particularly local small businesses, and promote digital travel and travel recovery,” said Dr. Cherry Huang, general manager of Alipay+ Offline Merchant Services at Ant Group.

Ant Group introduced Alipay+ to enable local businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, to process a wide range of mobile payment methods and reach more than 1.4 billion regional and global consumers, through a simple one-time integration and technical adaptation.