Tencent Holdings' WeChat Pay, one of China's dominant digital payment platforms, saw a jump in transactions during the "golden week" national holiday, as consumer spending shows signs of recovery after Beijing rolled out its biggest stimulus package since the pandemic.

Known as Weixin Pay on the mainland, the digital wallet recorded a 20 per cent year-on-year surge in transaction numbers during the week-long break, which ended on Monday, according to the company.

Tourism-related transactions nearly doubled from the week before the holiday, with cross-border payment volume growing over 70 per cent, WeChat Pay said. In Hong Kong and Macau, cross-border transactions more than doubled from the previous week, suggesting that those cities were especially popular among mainland tourists.

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Consumers in China appear to have loosened the purse strings after Beijing announced late last month a slew of heavyweight measures to boost the economy, including mortgage rate cuts and tools to support the stock market. Many people spent the holiday abroad as sentiment improved.

Tourists walk by a replica of the Eiffel Tower at the Parisian hotel resort in Macau. Photo: AFP alt=Tourists walk by a replica of the Eiffel Tower at the Parisian hotel resort in Macau. Photo: AFP>

Alipay, the other major mobile payment service in China, reported a 60 per cent rise in transaction numbers year on year in overseas markets. Ant Group, which operates Alipay, is an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the South China Morning Post.

Outbound travel bookings saw substantial growth, and interest in long-haul and niche destinations also rose, according to Alibaba's travel booking platform Fliggy.

Still, plenty of Chinese tourists chose to stay in their home country.

During the golden week holiday, local tourists made 765 million domestic trips, up 5.9 per cent from the same period last year, and up 10.2 per cent from 2019, according to estimates released by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Tuesday.

Domestic travel spending rose 6.3 per cent from a year ago to 700.8 billion yuan (US$99.3 billion), up 7.9 per cent from 2019, the data showed.

The rise in digital payment transactions also comes after WeChat Pay expanded its service to Alibaba's Taobao and Tmall. The two online marketplaces, the largest in China, began accepting Tencent's payment services for online purchases in early September.

The landmark cooperation deal was part of a major effort to tear down the digital walls separating the ecosystems of the country's largest tech firms, in response to a call by the Chinese government to enhance interoperability.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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