Now seems a better time traveling overseas for Chinese people since the price for international flight tickets and hotels is much lower than that during the Spring Festival. UnionPay cardholders can make online bookings at favorable prices on the official website of several major OTAs, 10 international hotel groups, and more than 70 airlines. UnionPay Online Payment service makes travel booking much easier and beneficial; therefore, it is popular among more and more Chinese outbound tourists. The transaction volume of UnionPay Online Payment (UPOP) in travel booking sector grew by more than 60% year-on-year.

UPOP meets the basic online booking demands of FIT travelers by covering fields of transportation, accommodation and visa service. Through UPOP service, tourists can make payments safely and quickly at the merchants’ website by selecting “UnionPay Card” as the payment option. Currently, UPOP is available for visa fee payment when Chinese tourists apply for the visa of Austria, Great Britain, Turkey, and India. It is also available at leading travel booking websites such as Booking, Agoda, Expedia and Hotels, the official website of hotel groups including Four Seasons, Peninsula, Mandarin Oriental, as well as the official website of over 70 international airlines, such as Swissair, Qatar Airways, AirAsia, and United Airlines. 

Mr. Chen, visited Iceland during this Spring Festival, purchased a glacial tour via a local OTA, Arctic Adventures. “The tour is a minority. You can only book it at this website and it accepts UnionPay cards,” he posted on social media. As its online acceptance continues to optimize, UnionPay is offering better to FIT travellers who demand for in-depth and individualized travel experience. In the second half of 2018 alone, UPOP is newly available at many OTAs, such as Travelzoo and Flugladen.de, boutique hotels such as Silica Hotel and Excalibur Hotel, as well as regional airlines such as Air Astana.

Meanwhile, with more than 100 million UnionPay cards issued outside mainland China, more and more global leading OTAs started accepting UnionPay cards issued outside mainland China to facilitate global UnionPay cardholders to make online travel booking. For instance, agoda.com has accepted UPOP at its websites in all languages available. In addition, airlines including Cathay Pacific have also realized UnionPay acceptance at websites in all languages. The better online acceptance environment of UnionPay helped driving the online transaction volume of UnionPay cards issued outside mainland China more than tripled in 2018.

Besides the relatively low booking prices during the off-seasons, tourists can enjoy special online booking discounts offered by UnionPay as well. For example, customers can enjoy up to 50%-off discount when using UnionPay cards to book rooms of New World Hotels & Resorts, Avani Hotel etc. When booking for more than two nights at Preferred Hotels & Resorts, UnionPay cardholders may get loyalty points. Tourists can also get benefits when purchasing flight tickets online via UnionPay cards: 15%-off special discount for booking flight tickets at Ethiopian Airlines official website; voucher code for free three-hour inflight wi-fi service is offered for any purchase of tickets on EVA Air official website or EVA Mobile APP made with UnionPay cards.