The worth of the global tourism industry today has ballooned to a whopping $7 trillion, with Chinese citizens taking more and more trips. In just the next five years, around 700 million Chinese travelers are projected to take overseas trips.
And among Chinese travelers, there’s a significant cross-section making luxury purchases while abroad. According to the latest X-Border Payments Optimization Tracker™, to cater to this lucrative group and grab a bigger piece of the pie, international cross-border payment companies from Europe to China are increasingly partnering up. But, will they appeal to the differing palates of globe-trotting tourists?
The May edition of the PYMNTS.com X-Border Payments Optimization Tracker™ looks at the latest trends shaping cross-border travel payments and ranks the industry players in the space.
Around the X-Border World
Here’s a snapshot of some recent notable news from around the cross-border payments world: WeChat, the China-based social media and messaging service, for one, is branching out to Europe to further develop its payment service and lure new advertisers. The company is aiming to attract more European brands to sell products on its platform and has already partnered with high-profile brands like Burberry and Chanel.
Meanwhile, Klik & Pay has integrated Alipay on its platform to tap into Chinese travelers who make some 100 million transactions using the mobile payment app every day. ACI Worldwide is yet another player to partner with Alipay to enable merchants to target their marketing initiatives to draw Chinese consumers into stores, restaurants and other local attractions. The partnership expands the reach of EMEA merchants to over 450 million Chinese consumers actively using Alipay.
Taming X-Border Payments
The B2B cross-border payment market, as it stands, is fraught with friction despite its size. For the May Tracker’s feature story, PYMNTS caught up with Mike Laven, CEO of Currencycloud, a U.K.-based payment solutions provider that helps businesses make cross-border payments.
The biggest global issue with processing cross-border payments, Laven said, is meeting compliance standards while managing complex workflows.
“In the individual transfer and remittance market, there are a lot of great companies working to solve the problem. However, the problem for businesses is harder. Businesses have more complex workflows and have a higher compliance bar that they need to meet.”
Currencycloud is trying to solve that with its API-based platform.
Find the full story inside this month’s Tracker.
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About the Tracker
The PYMNTS X-Border Payments Optimization Tracker™ is the framework for evaluating players in the cross-border payments landscape, and the quarterly index tests the readiness of the companies to serve a global audience.
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