SINGAPORE: This year has seen a rebound in Chinese New Year spending in China, according to a report from Alipay. And according to data from Ant Group, traveller payments have reached pre-pandemic levels.
From Feb 10 to 16, the first seven days of CNY, spending in Singapore had reached levels comparable to before the pandemic. Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia witnessed a 7.5 per cent rise in tourists from 2019, which also meant a 580 per cent uptick from last year.
Ant, which operates Alipay, tracked cross-border travel patterns of users who utilized the app when they took overseas holidays.
The top destinations for travellers from China are Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Macao, Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea, France, Australia and Canada.
Transactions outside mainland China between Feb 9 and 12 were greater than in 2019 by 7 per cent. At the same time, this year’s consumer spending recovered to 82 per cent compared to 2019, 2.4 times greater than last year.
“The payments data adds to evidence that Chinese consumers are venturing further afield,” a Feb 23 article on Alizila reports news from Alibaba.
This is further proof of the return of tourism from China, as levels return to 2019 numbers, the last year before the COVID-19 pandemic closed the nation’s borders.
Alizila noted that one factor that helped was that this year’s public holidays lasted eight days, or one day longer than usual. Another factor was that visa policies in other Southeast Asian countries, including Singapore, had relaxed.
Singapore and China’s visa-free travel arrangements, announced by Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong last December, were implemented on Feb 9, just in time for the Chinese New Year.
The agreement allows citizens to enter without visas for business and vacation trips for as long as 30 days. Individuals who wish to stay longer must still obtain a visa before entry, as do those whose activities require prior approval.
Read also: Visa-free entry arrangement between Singapore & China to start Feb 9
At the same time, visitors from overseas have also been returning to China. Alizila added that tourists from around the globe spent 500 per cent more on international Alipay accounts this year compared to 2023.
Cherry Huang, general manager of Alipay+ offline merchant services at Ant International, is quoted in Singapore Business Review as saying:
“Globally, we have seen an increase in Chinese tourists in markets that have introduced visa-free policy and we believe that this is a positive development to welcoming more Chinese tourists to Singapore in 2024.” /TISG
Read also: CNY travel bookings to Singapore are now 206 times higher