For years, China’s May Day “Golden Week” has been the bell-weather of mainland consumer confidence. This year it doubled as a stress-test for cross-border digital wallets—one that Alipay+ passed with a flourish. New data from Ant International shows that transactions and total spending by international visitors inside China using the 13 overseas e-wallets plugged into Alipay+ more than doubled year-on-year.
That inbound surge is only half the story. Outbound Chinese tourists also made merry: Alipay+ users swiped, tapped and QR-scanned in over 70 markets, with Hong Kong, Japan and Macao leading the spend league. Switzerland bagged the highest average ticket, while South Korea saw per traveller outlays top US$100 – cosmetics anyone?
Why the spike in digital wallet transactions?
- Visa-free freebies. China’s 240-hour transit visa exemption now covers 54 countries. Travellers from that cohort spent 50 % more via Alipay Tap! than they did just a month earlier, proof that easier entry plus one-tap checkout is catnip for globetrotters.
- Tap, not scan. Launched in mid-2024, Alipay Tap! lets visitors pay by simply bonking their phone on an NFC tag – no app-switching, no tourist-tier data plan required. The feature roped in 100 million Chinese users in 11 months and is now spreading to tourists like a flash sale on Singles’ Day.
- Merchant math. From Seoul’s Myeong-dong cosmetics stalls to Milan’s luxury boutiques, Alipay+ rolled out Golden Week cashback campaigns that shaved the FX spread and undercut card fees. Small merchants got instant settlement in local currency; travellers got WeChat-worthy deals. Everybody clicked “buy.”
So what?
- Cards feel the squeeze. When a wallet lets you pay overseas with familiar UX, loyalty points and near-zero FX, that eight-digit PAN suddenly looks like yesterday’s tech. Expect issuers to push harder on “Pay by card, get fee-free installments” sweeteners to stay relevant.
- Super-app diplomacy. Beijing wants more inbound tourists; ASEAN wants more mainland shoppers. Alipay+ gives both sides what they want without a single bank branch in sight. The model mirrors India’s UPI-PayNow link, only at continental scale.
- Regulators take notes. An instant, wallet-to-wallet rail that leapfrogs interchange and scheme fees won’t stay under the radar. Watch for central banks (especially in Indonesia and Malaysia) to ask whether Alipay+ is a “systemically important payment system” masquerading as a marketing programme.
What’s next for digital wallets?
Ant International says Project Nexus, the five-country fast-payments super-link it co-champions, could go live by 2026. If Alipay+ can herd 36 e-wallets today, stitching together real-time account rails tomorrow starts to look inevitable. The bigger question is whether rivals like GrabPay and WeChat Pay can match Alipay+’s merchant-acquiring muscle before Chinese tourists rediscover Europe in earnest.
Bottom line: Golden Week 2025 wasn’t just a travel rebound; it was a dress rehearsal for a world where the passport stamp is optional but the digital wallet is mandatory. For acquirers, that means optimising QR codes in Cantonese, Thai and French. For banks, it’s another reminder that the cross-border fee buffet is closing fast. And for the rest of us? Better dust off that NFC reader—next holiday season will be here before you can say “tap and go.”