Worldline enables UnionPay and Alipay acceptance at over 20 POS terminals in the Duty Free stores at

Worldline [Euronext: WLN], the European market leader in payment and transaction services, announces the introduction of its acquiring services for the Chinese's favourite payment brands at Budapest Airport. This is the first Alipay acceptance location in Hungary and the second collaboration of Worldline with Heinemann Duty Free after the launch of Alipay at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in January 2018.

Budapest is one of the 'must-see' destinations in tours around central Europe and, in recent years, has seen a significant increase in tourists from China. In 2018, some 250.000 Chinese tourists visited the Hungarian capital, with a growth rate of more than 11%. As purchase behaviour is nowadays largely driven by smooth end-to-end customer experience, it is a logical move that Heinemann, Budapest Airport's central Duty Free partner, wants to provide a familiar, simple and fast check-out process for its Chinese customers including their favourite, trusted payment solution.

Vincent Roland, Managing Director Merchant Services at Worldline says: "While UnionPay is the most widespread Chinese credit card, more and more travellers skip the physical card and go straight to mobile payment options through Alipay. This is a trend hardly any retailer with a focus on Chinese tourists can afford to miss out on. We are supporting all of our merchant customers with innovative payment solutions including these brands."
Ildikó Jankovich, Managing Director Heinemann Duty Free at Budapest Airport says: "We are delighted that we can now make both UnionPay and Alipay payments available to Chinese customers in our Duty Free Shops in Budapest. We see great potential in this customer segment, and we want them to enjoy the best customer experience. By partnering with Worldline, we can be sure to smoothly expand the offering to other countries as well as broaden the range of acceptance services."
As a central acquiring partner for both Alipay and UnionPay, Worldline is enabling merchants at airports in Amsterdam Schiphol, Basel Mulhouse, Bremen, Brussels, Burgas, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Geneva, Helsinki, London Heathrow, Luxembourg, Malmoe, Malta, Martinique, Munich, Stockholm Arlanda, Toulouse, Varna, Vienna and Zurich to offer their Chinese traveling customers the same payment methods they normally use at home.