As the most popular tourism destination in Europe, UnionPay’s acceptance in UK is improved continuously. UnionPay International today announced its partnership with Barclaycard, a leading global payment business, in rolling out the UnionPay acceptance among Barclaycard’s 110,000 merchants. UnionPay’s merchant acceptance rate in the UK will increase to about 70%. 

To date, UnionPay has established acceptance collaborations with four major local acquirers in UK. Now, UnionPay is accepted at over 300,000 merchants and the majority of ATMs in UK. In addition to Chinese tourists, travellers from Thailand, South Korea, Singapore and other countries and regions also frequently use UnionPay cards there. Both the amount and volume of UnionPay cards’ transactions in UK have been increasing in many consecutive years. 

According to Visit Britain’s forecast, the attractiveness of UK for tourists from Asia-Pacific will continue to grow in the future. The number of travel orders from Chinese tourists to Britain for the first half of 2019 has increased by more than 30% year-on-year. In answer to this trend, UnionPay International and Barclaycard deepen their partnership to roll out UnionPay acceptance service among Barclaycard’s merchants. Rob Cameron, CEO of Payment Acceptance at Barclaycard, said that as UnionPay is a major payment method of many global customers, this cooperation will offer cardholders a better service in UK.

The merchants that will be enabled to accept UnionPay cards in this partnership include retailers, attractions, hotels, supermarkets, restaurants, and gas stations. Meanwhile, all these merchants will support UnionPay contactless payment service as well. The two sides will attempt to further enhance cardholders' payment experience by posting the UnionPay logo and launching marketing campaigns.

To date, the UnionPay global acceptance footprint has expanded to 174 countries and regions, covering more than 26 million merchants outside Mainland China. In Europe, UnionPay is accepted at more than 3.3 million merchants in 40 countries and regions, with an overall acceptance rate of 60%. In popular tourist cities such as Rome, Milan, and Madrid, in particular, UnionPay has achieved about 100% acceptance. In addition, to meet the payment demands of FIT travellers, UnionPay International has strengthened its card acceptance in key sectors in recent year. In the field of transportation, for instance, the official website of many European airlines such as Swiss Air, Lufthansa, and Air France accept UnionPay Online Payment. Tourists can use UnionPay cards to buy tickets at the website of Eurail as well. UnionPay payment service is also available at tens of thousands of taxis in France and Spain.