On March 30th, French Department Store Printemps (Printemps) and YUN-U (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. (YUN-U) jointly held an activity in Shanghai. The heads of related business of UnionPay and its affiliate ChinaPay, the charge person of nearly 50 tour operators such as U-tour, Caesar, Tuniu and etc., as well as reporters of part of domestic media attended the activity and communicated on the innovative services that will be offered by UnionPay, Printemps and YUN-U to tour operators and Chinese outbound tourism customers. 

“Online shopping” has become the mainstream shopping model in China. In Europe, however, the online shopping is almost a market gap. In view of this situation, YUN-U cooperates with many European physical stores to provide Chinese tourists with a “one-click-connect-store” online shopping experience. Chinese tourists can navigate the goods online according to their itinerary and arrive-at-store date, and select and pre-order the goods through their mobile APPs and then pick up the goods with the “pick-up QR code” generated on their mobile phones after they arrive at the store. Through this process, the time spending on finding goods, making the payment and queuing to pick up goods are greatly saved. Meanwhile, European merchants can also get to know the shopping demands through the orders made by Chinese tourists and make restocking in time and thus, the shopping efficiency and experience can be improved. After returning to China, tourists can continue to purchase goods through the online shopping mall. Printemps will join hands with YUN-U to launch a “Printemps online shopping mall” in the near future. 

UnionPay International enables YUN-U to access the UinonPay QR code development and mobile payment channel, UnionPay RMB cross-border payment channel and UnionPay Quick Pass cross-border channel, and provides foreign currency settlement services for Chinese outbound tourists and Printemps, offering an efficient, convenient and safe payment environment. Through YUN-U payment channel, Chinese tourists can make the payment by scanning the UnionPay QR code with mobile phones and pay for the orders on the “Printemps online shopping mall” APP. When tourists making B2C payments overseas, the amount in foreign currency such as the Euro will be converted into the equivalent amount in RMB, and thereby, the tourists can make the real-time payment online. 

Printemps will also take the lead in applying YUN-U’s “Intelligent Tourist Reception System”. After the “Operator System” is imported by the travel agency, forms with various formats will be automatically generated and sent to Printemps. After arriving at the store, tour leaders scan the check-in QR code to realize real-time update of group information and data tracking. Thereby, the accuracy and timeliness of both parties will be guaranteed and the quality of reception service will be improved further. 

Laurent Schenten, the Director of Printemps’s Customer and Service Department, welcomes Chinese tourists to visit Paris. He said:” In order to be closer to customers, Printemps has redecorated and functionally repartitioned, and the service time has increased to 7 days a week. Besides, we additionally provide the French cuisines and personal shopping guide service for Chinese tourists. We fully believe in YUN-U’s technical and professional strength and we hope to build a mobile internet bridge connecting Europe and China through the cooperation with YUN-U and provide more convenient services to travel agencies and Chinese tourists.   

The representatives of UnionPay International and ChinaPay present at the meeting expressed their congrats on the activity and indicated that they will provide more convenient cross-border mobile payment services for European merchants, China’s tour operators and outbound tourism customers through the continuous and in-depth cooperation with YUN-U. 

As a service provider of the tourism industry, YUN-U has been committed to providing one-stop technical and financial services for travel agencies and outbound tourists. Through the mobile phone software platform, YUN-U established more completed internet application scenarios for travel agencies, tour leaders, group tourists, and overseas merchants and provide more convenient overseas consumption experience for tens of millions of Chinese outbound group tourists. It is also an innovative and competent office and management software for travel agencies and overseas merchants.  

In addition, ICBC takes YUN-U as its important strategic partner in China’s tourism industry and provides YUN-U’s cooperated travel agencies with various application scenarios including the Electronic Travel Contracts + MIS Cashier System, Acquiring of QR code Omni-channel Payment and Electronic Invoice. ICBC also provides “ICBC-YUN-U” co-branded credit cards with credit line of 20,000 to 50,000 RMB for in-service Chinese tour leaders verified by YUN-U. In the future, ICBC will further launch the electronic credit card services with which outbound tourists can directly apply to bind YUN-U pay online. In addition, ICBC overseas branch can provide corporate account set up services for overseas merchants. 

The EU-China Tourism Year is the year for China’s mobile internet to break the tourism boundary between China and the EU, and is also the important opportunity for the transformation and upgrade of tourism ecosystem with the help of China’s financial assistance. Are China’s tour operators ready to enter Europe? Let’s wait and see.