Chairman of China UnionPay, Ge Huayong (2nd left, back) and the representative of the Ministry of Tourism, Vaiana Temataua (2nd right, back) witnessed the agreement signing

UnionPay International announced today it has signed MOUs with Tahiti Tourisme and Air Tahiti Nui respectively. The three will cooperate in improving UnionPay card acceptance, offering visa payment convenience to UnionPay cardholders, and conducting joint marketing campaigns. UnionPay International and Air Tahiti Nui will expand the acceptance of UnionPay cards for payment across Air Tahiti Nui online and offline customer touchpoints. Chairman of China UnionPay, Ge Huayong and the representative of the Ministry of Tourism, Vaiana Temataua witnessed the agreement signing in Papeete.

As the largest island of French Polynesia, Tahiti has become a world-renowned resort because of its rich culture and beautiful natural scenery. In recent years, the number of Chinese tourists visiting French Polynesia is growing rapidly. Merchants in Tahiti take the acceptance of UnionPay cards as an important means and basic service to attract tourists. At present, UnionPay cardholders are able to pay with UnionPay cards at about 70% of the local merchants that accept international payment cards, and withdraw cash at about 50% of the local ATMs.

According to Ge Huayong, tourism is the pillar industry of Tahiti, and efficient and convenient payment service plays an important role in promoting the sustainable development of the tourism industry. Recently, great efforts have been made by UnionPay to carry out cross-over cooperation with the tourism industry to facilitate the development of both the tourism and the payment industries. This time, the cooperation with the tourism industry in Tahiti will integrate the resources of all the parties to deliver more secure and convenient payment services to UnionPay cardholders visiting Tahiti, and bring about more clients to the local institutions and merchants, therefore realize a win-win result.

The agreement between Tahiti Tourisme and UnionPay International will improve the travel payment experience of UnionPay cardholders in three aspects. Firstly, they will enable more local merchants to accept UnionPay cards, further expanding the local UnionPay acceptance network. Secondly, they will enable UnionPay cardholders to pay visa application fees via UnionPay cards. Thirdly, they will collaborate in joint brand promotion and marketing campaigns. Accroding to the agreement with UnionPay International, Air Tahiti Nui will enable its official website to accept UnionPay cards for flight booking, launch exclusive privileges for UnionPay cards, and promote the launch of non-stop flights between China and French Polynesia.

It is increasingly convenient to use UnionPay cards in the South Pacific. In Australia, 90% of ATMs and 75% of merchants accept UnionPay cards, and over 60% of merchants accepting UnionPay support UnionPay Mobile QuickPass too. In New Zealand, UnionPay is accepted at 80% of ATMs and 30,000 merchants. Besides Tahiti, UnionPay is also accepted in other 9 South Pacific islands countries, namely Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Samoa, Tonga, Cook Islands, Solomon Islands, Kiribati and East Timor.