Malaysia Among Top 5 Growth Destinations for Chinese Travellers via Alipay

During the 2025 Chinese New Year (CNY), Alipay recorded a significant increase in China’s outbound and inbound travel spending, with Malaysia being amongst the top destinations for Chinese travellers with the top five highest growth rates in total Alipay spending, driven by shopping malls in Malaysia providing special discounts on Alipay to welcome Chinese tourists, as well as the recent mutual visa exemption policy announced by both Malaysia and China.

Global Alipay+ merchants have joined Alipay in an exclusive CNY campaign to lure travellers during the country’s longest national holiday. From 28 to 30 January, the number of transactions made by Alipay users in overseas destinations increased by 30% compared to the same period last year.

Friendlier visa policies in major destinations bring substantive impact. In Singapore, total spending of Alipay rose by 56% year-on-year, making the Garden City the most popular destination. Japan also emerged as a favoured spot, with a 40% increase in Alipay spending, driven by eased visa policies and a weakened yen. Malaysia, Hong Kong SAR, and South Korea also rank among the top five destinations.

With China’s recent visa-free policy updates, Alipay has launched new campaigns to double the number of Chinese merchants accepting payments with international card-enabled Alipay accounts and a total of 13 overseas e-wallets.

Between 28 January and 1 February, travellers spent 150% more using Alipay at merchants across the Chinese mainland over 2024. Spending from visa-free origins rose by 200% year-on-year.

Since September 2023, the Alipay+ solutions have supported 13 leading payment apps in Asia to serve their roaming users across Alipay’s 80-million-strong merchant network in China. During the first four days of the Chinese New Year holiday, the number of overseas e-wallet users making payments in China increased by 94% year-on-year.

AlipayHK users topped the list, followed by Malaysia’s Touch ’n Go e-Wallet, Macao SAR’s MPay, Kazakhstan’s Kaspi.kz, and Thailand’s TrueMoney.