The Middle Eastern tourism sector has skyrocketed following the pandemic dip. In fact, tourist arrivals have jumped 15 per cent in Q1’23 compared to Q1’19, with 22 per cent coming from an Asian country. Capitalising on this NEOPAY, the payment subsidiary of Mashreq, has become the first acquirer in the UAE to launch Alipay+ cross-border solutions.
The UAE had 14.36 million tourists in 2022, and with 2023 expected to outdo this figure, many organisations are looking at making the payment process for tourists simpler. By partnering with Alipay+, NEOPAY is empowering Asian tourists to opt for their favoured payment methods at affiliated establishments. This will initially be available at 2,000 store locations across the UAE, with existing POS devices being upgraded to Alipay+ from the backend for all merchants.
This is only the beginning. NEOPAY has plans to roll out the solutions to all merchants throughout the year. Alipay+ has been the perfect partner for the paytech as it reaches over 1.4 billion global consumers behind more than 20 mobile wallets and banking apps. This includes:
Alipay in the Chinese mainland
MPay in Macao SAR China
TrueMoney in Thailand
GCash in the Philippines
Kakao Pay in South Korea
Tinaba in Italy
The collaboration bolsters NEOPAY’s services. The vision is to encompass merchant acquiring, issuing processing, and consumer payment platforms. With SMEs acting as the backbone for various economies across the globe, NEOPAY offers its customers services such as SAAS based on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) combined with payment capabilities.
Vibhor Mundhada, CEO of NEOPAY
Mashreq, NEOPAY’s parent company, has witnessed growth of 26 per cent compared to previous years and with this collaboration, NEOPAY looks to emulate this success.
Benefits of collaboration
Vibhor Mundhada, CEO of NEOPAY, commented: “NEOPAY, with its technological acumen powered by Mashreq, has consistently led the digital payments revolution. Our strategic partnership with Alipay+ augments this trajectory. Furthermore, it enables our merchants to seamlessly integrate multiple Asian wallets, streamlining the payment process.
Guoming Cheng, general manager of Ant Group in Europe and Middle East
“This partnership not only highlights Mashreq and NEOPAY’s relentless drive towards a digitised economic landscape but also cements our reputation as one of the early adopters of this transformative payment solution. The synergy with Alipay+ propels our growth, expanding our reach in the burgeoning mobile payment ecosystem.”
Guoming Cheng, general manager of Ant Group in Europe and Middle East, added, “This partnership enables merchants in the region to not only accept Alipay, but also process various digital payment methods – through simple integration – to make visitors across Asia and beyond more welcoming. Together we look forward to transforming the retail landscape. This is in addition to capturing more growth opportunities for merchants and seamless experience for consumers.”
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