Alipay is operated by Ant Financial Services Group, a related company of Alibaba, the largest online commerce company in China.
As part of this agreement, Carnival Corp.'s first and largest brand in China, Costa Cruises, will give passengers the option to use their existing Alipay accounts as a payment method for on-board spending, including shopping, activities, excursions, food and drinks. These charges will be added to each guest’s cabin folio as the purchase is made, and then cleared on a nightly basis via their Alipay account.
Alipay will debut on Costa Serena in China starting in 2017 before potentially expanding to additional ships in the Costa Asia fleet, including Costa Atlantica, Costa Victoria and Costa Fortuna in China, and Costa neoRomantica, which has been homeported in Japan since April.
Other brands sailing in Asia, including Princess Cruises, will also have the potential to offer Alipay. That includes Majestic Princess, which begins its first season sailing from Shanghai in July.
Details of future rollout plans may be released at a later date.
'Alipay is a leading payment service already used by hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers, so we see this as a natural fit for us in China and a great opportunity to make on-board purchases even more convenient as we work hard to continually deliver a great experience to our Chinese guests,' said Michael Thamm, group ceo, Costa Group and Carnival Asia, who oversees operations in China for Carnival Corp.
Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. Seatrade, a trading name of Informa Markets (UK) Limited. Add Seatrade Cruise News to your Google News feed.
