Airlines Reporting Corp. now can process Alipay
transactions made through ARC's 12,262 U.S. retail and corporate travel agency
locations, satellite ticket printing offices and online travel agencies. The
capability is made possible through UATP's existing partnership with Alipay,
first signed in 2013, that enables airline and other travel partners like
hotels and car rental companies to accept Alipay when travelers book directly
on merchant websites. To date, UATP said it has two airlines that are live with
Alipay.
"As far as our systems are concerned, if an airline and
agency agree to enable acceptance through that travel agency, it can be
reported to us using the UATP solution to settle the transaction," said
ARC managing director of airline services Chuck Fisher.
In 2011, ARC similarly enabled agencies to accept PayPal
through UATP's PayPal partnership. Fisher said the channel has been "pretty
quiet." Even so, he said, the company has "renewed our focus on
alternative forms of payment."
ARC is working to support payment network China UnionPay through a direct relationship, according to Fisher. UATP enabled China UnionPay in 2016 through a partnership with Planet Payment.
All Eyes on China
China has become the world's largest
business travel market spending
$291.2 billion 2015, according to the Global Business Travel Association. That
said, only 5 percent of Chinese business travel is international. Chinese
outbound tourism spend, however, is booming. It totaled $261 billion in 2016,
according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization. The U.S. was Chinese
outbound tourists' sixth most popular destination in 2017.
The opportunity to capture those travel transactions is not
lost on merchants, and many across the world have been working to enable
Chinese tourists' preferred payment methods: Alipay and WeChat. Alipay has more
than 500 million users, according to UATP. "As people from China travel to
the U.S. they want to use their preferred payment method," said Chuck
Fisher.
Alipay works somewhat similarly to PayPal. An Alipay user
can link a credit or debit card, or transfer money from a bank account into the
mobile app to pay for an item online or by scanning a quick response, or QR,
code at participating merchants at the point of sale.
Correction, July 13, 10:40 a.m. Eastern: This story originally stated that ARC was working to support China UnionPay through UATP rather than directly.