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The Year of the Dragon may have signalled the return of the overseas Chinese tourist, with preliminary data from popular payment service Alipay showing an increase in transactions this year compared with 2019, the last time international borders were open before the onset of the pandemic.
Alipay operator Ant Group, the fintech business affiliated with Alibaba Group Holding, said in a statement that transactions made overseas by Alipay users from February 9-12 were 7 per cent higher than for the same holiday period in 2019, with a 45 per cent increase in Hong Kong, a clear sign of recovery for the outbound tourism sector.
Meanwhile, the value of Chinese consumer spending overseas recovered to 82 per cent of the 2019 level, according to Ant. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
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