Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism partners with UnionPay International to enhance tourism accessibility

Representatives from Nelson Mandela Ba Tourism, UnionPay International and South African Tourism toast to the start of the collaboration to make Nelson Mandela Bay accessible to the Chinese inbound tourism market.

Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism is attending Africa’s Tourism Indaba 2018 in Durban from the 8-10th May to market the city as a world class tourism destination to international buyers and media.  Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism and UnionPay International will use Africa’s biggest and the world’s third largest tourism trade show to announce and launch their collaboration.

UnionPay International (UPI) is a subsidiary of China UnionPay focused on the growth and support of UnionPay’s global business. In partnership with more than 1800 institutions worldwide, UnionPay International has enabled card acceptance in 168 countries and regions with issuance in 48 countries and regions.  Beyond mainland China, UnionPay cards are accepted at more than 23 million merchants and over 1.64 million ATMs.

With its extensive acceptance network and in association with the China’s banking industry, UnionPay has become the preferred payment method of Chinese travellers. Collaborating with global tourist industry, UnionPay is also offering its cardholders access to a wide variety of hospitality offerings.

Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism CEO, Ms Mandlakazi Skefile advised, “The achievement of this collaboration will enhance the accessibility of Nelson Mandela Bay to Chinese visitors. China has become one of South Africa’s core tourism markets, with visitor numbers growing by a remarkable 38% in 2016 to approximately 117,144 visitors a 10,000 a month.”

The two entities will sign a Strategic Memorandum of Understanding to jointly promote the acceptance of UnionPay cards, optimize the card-using environment and provide more convenient services to UnionPay cardholders visiting Nelson Mandela Bay.

Mr. Luping Zhang, General Manager of UnionPay International Africa said, “Formalising this important industry partnership will promote visitor numbers to Nelson Mandela Bay as this will enhance payment convenience alongside joint marketing initiatives.”

Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism will engage with local products and tourism stakeholders to offer packages and discounted rates for UnionPay cardholders. These packages will allow the destination and products to be incorporated into UnionPay’s global promotional campaigns.

Right now, the themed marketing campaign “Fly to the World” of UnionPay International is offering discounts and privileges at various types of merchants, covering the whole process of tourists’ trips. Participating merchants include airport duty free shops, famous department stores and brand stores, car rentals, restaurants, cruises, tourist attractions and communication service providers. UnionPay cardholders may enjoy online booking discounts when booking hotel rooms at OTAs like agoda.com. After returning home, they may get cash refunds from banks and airlines or card-using incentives from travel agencies.

In Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism efforts to grow the destination as a unique wold class destination the momentous occasion of the union between the two parties will encourage more visitors from the China outbound tourism market to visit he city. The multitude of unique cultural, shopping, adventure and tourism offerings will in turn add to the diversity of the UnionPay offerings.

Besides serving the Chinese tourists, UnionPay International is also offering safe and convenient payment services to customers outside mainland China. As of the endo of 2017, about 100 million UnionPay cards are issued beyond the Chinese Mainland. And it is revealed that UnionPay International is looking forward to rolling out a plan which will enable cards to be issued to consumers in South Africa for local citizens.