Nielsen and Alipay jointly issued the 2017 Survey: Outbound Chinese Tourism and Consumption Trends, which details how Chinese tourists pay for products in services and their behaviors in making such decisions. Ninety-nine percent of Chinese respondents have the Alipay app installed on their phones.

The survey found that discounts and payment methods supported by local merchants are the biggest factors influencing Chinese tourists’ spending decisions; 65 percent of Chinese tourists used mobile payments for their expenses abroad; Chinese tourists most frequently used mobile payments for shopping and dining while abroad among other data. The survey also found that over the past two years, outbound Chinese tourists increased their usage of mobile payments from 2.3 in every 10 transactions to 2.8 in every 10 transactions during their most recent overseas trip.