The reason behind this is to make payments easier for Chinese tourists visiting Turkey, KrASIA reveals. Istanbul Grand Airport (IGA) is the company that built and now operates the airport, and it noted that Chinese travellers are the second biggest spenders at the airport after Turkish travellers. With the launch of WeChat Pay, it hopes to further increase their shopping volume.
WeChat Pay allows users of WeChat to make payments on their mobile phones. In 2019, Turkey hosted nearly 400,000 Chinese visitors and is expecting even more once travel resumes after the COVID-19 pandemic. The introduction of the online payment method at the airport was a joint effort of the Turkish subsidiary of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), Tencent, IGA, and the airport’s duty-free shop UNIFREE.
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