Meituan Dianping and Chope form partnership to tap into Chinese tourists love for food
Meituan Dianping, the Tencent-backed Chinese food delivery giant, has announced a partnership with Singapore-based dining platform Chope to help Chinese tourists make reservations at restaurants around Asia Pacific.
Both parties decided to integrate their apps as Chope currently operates countries which are seeing a flood of Chinese tourists.
Both parties decided to integrate their apps as Chope currently operates in Singapore, Bali, Jakarta, Bangkok, Phuket, and Hong Kong, countries which are seeing a flood of Chinese tourists who are willing to spend a big chunk of their budget on food, according to the World Trade Organisation and Nielsen.
“We’re extremely excited to embark on this new venture with Meituan-Dianping, an industry heavyweight in their own right,” said Arrif Ziaudeen, the founder and chief executive of Chope.
“We are confident that Meituan-Dianping’s platform will contribute significantly to outbound destination discovery and that the integration will help match tourist dining demands to our exciting network of over 4,000 restaurants regionally. Ultimately, I believe the partnership will strengthen our vision of creating seamless and memorable dining experiences for more people, more often.”
A joint report by Nielsen and Alipay, the Alibaba-owned financial services company, previously found Chinese tourists were spending more money when traveling, with more tourists using mobile payment while overseas.
Chinese mobile payment methods also help to boost business for overseas merchants with 58% stating that after adopting Alipay, their foot traffic increased, while 56% claimed their sales improved.
Businesses have been quick to tap into this opportunity, with the likes of Sentosa working with its merchants to go cashless with Alipay to entice Chinese tourists to spend on the attractions, F&B, and retail outlets around the island.