Chinese visitors at the Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) complex in Singapore can now opt to pay in a contactless fashion.
The integrated resort rolled out this week on-site smart payment terminals in more than 110 locations around Resorts World Sentosa. For this project, RWS collaborated with Ant Financial Services Group and appointed Alipay—China’s largest mobile payment provider—as its partner for contactless mobile payments of visitors from mainland China.
Alipay was also named the official partner of S.E.A. Aquarium and Resorts World Theatre as part of its partnership with Resorts World Sentosa.
The resort will extend its Alipay-enabled payments across its hotels, dining, retail and entertainment offerings, with plans to offer joint travel packages and promotions exclusively for Alipay users.
A Resorts World Sentosa spokesperson told CalvinAyre.com by email that “Alipay payment is not available in the casino at Resorts World Sentosa.”
“Mobile payment as redefined consumer experience around the world,” Resorts World Sentosa said in a statement. “This strategic collaboration seeks to bring about greater convenience and appeal to Chinese visitors, and position Alipay as everyone’s preferred global lifestyle mobile app.”
Singapore saw a spike in the number of its Chinese visitors after the country ended its decades-old ban on casinos. Government figures show Singapore’s tourism revenue grew 25 percent in the first four years since the country opened its first two casino resorts in 2010. Now, Credit Suisse forecast that tourist arrivals will likely reach 16.5 million for 2016, a climb of 8 percent compared to 2015.
China was the country’s largest contributors in terms of international visitor arrivals. From January to October 2015, an estimated 1.8 million Chinese tourists visited the country, a 20 percent growth compared to the same period two years ago.
Resorts World Sentosa—Singapore’s first casino—said its partnership with Alipay is part of the company’s strategy to grow “its important cross-border Chinese business.”
“Chinese tourists will experience an unprecedented visitor experience at Resorts World Sentosa that is fast, seamless and secure, such as scanning of QR or barcodes on their Alipay mobile application to pay for purchases, booking attraction tickets online and storing the electronic admission passes conveniently on their smartphones, and online-to-offline (O2O) redemption deals on Alipay,” the casino resort said.
