Sri Lanka's telecom operator Dialog Axiata has announced cooperation with Alipay to provide mobile payment services for Chinese tourists in Sri Lanka. The joint statement released said that Alipay will access the payment system of merchants to meet the needs of Chinese tourists in Sri Lanka. Alipay intends to expand its overseas business by providing payment services to Chinese tourists via the offline outlets of Dialog Axiata.
According to Sri Lanka's national tourism promotion bureau, the number of Chinese tourists to Sri Lankan have increased by 4.9% year-on-year in August 2018, reaching 200,000. The total number of visitors received in the first eight months of 2018 reached 1.58 million, a year-on-year increase of 12.5%. Chinese tourists rank second in the number of tourists from all over the world.
In view of Cherry Huang, general manager of Alipay's South Asia and Southeast Asia cross border business, cooperation with Dialog will help Sri Lanka's local businesses access Alipay mobile payment system and create opportunities for local businesspersons.
Dialog Axiata chairman Supun Weerasinghe, regarding the cooperation, has said that Dialog Axiata has 20,000 retailers in Sri Lanka, and Alipay cooperation will provide mobile payment services for their businesses, eliminating the worries of tourists exchanging currencies.