Major Japanese tour agency JTB aims to introduce Alibaba Group Holding's Alipay mobile payment service at around 2,000 partner businesses across Japan within three years to help grease the wheels of spending by foreign tourists.
Alipay, one of the most popular payment services in China, lets users pay for purchases by simply showing QR codes on their smartphone for merchants to scan with special software. JTB, which has an agency contract with Alibaba, will from next month urge partner hotels, restaurants and rental car providers to embrace Alipay.
With many businesses broadening payment options for travelers, Alibaba aims to make Alipay available at 45,000 or so locations across Japan by year-end.
The Chinese mobile payment service has already begun taking root in big Japanese cities. But hotels and eateries in smaller localities have lagged in adopting new payment methods. This has kept such establishments from fully capturing demand from foreign visitors for their unique offerings. JTB wants to help them grow sales with Alipay.
With a record number of foreign tourists visiting Japan, others are also stepping up efforts to better tap demand. Nippon Travel Agency aims to promote compact currency exchange machines at hotels and elsewhere outside major cities -- areas where currency exchange businesses can be hard to find. The effort will be spearheaded by a unit, Nichiryo Sangyo. The G Pay terminals from Tokyo-based Accretive accept up to 12 foreign currencies, such as the dollar, the euro and the yuan, automatically converting them into yen.
