The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has signed a letter of intent with Alipay (Hangzhou) Technology Co to cooperate with the world's largest online payment platform to lure visitors from China. The one-year cooperation began yesterday and aims at increasing the number of high-quality visitors from the mainland, said TAT governor Yuthasak Supasorn. Mr Yuthasak said he estimated many of the 10.5 million Chinese tourists who visited Thailand last year used Alipay to pay for their transactions. The volume of visitors from the mainland is expected to reach 11.6 million this year, when Thailand projects welcoming 41 million tourists. Some 4.4 million Chinese tourists have visited Thailand from January to May 20 this year, a fall of 5.2% from the same period last year.

Source: Bangkok Post May 27, 2019 22:52 UTC