As the tourism industry becomes a new highlight of the China-South Korea strategic partnership, UnionPay cards are also becoming an important tool for the exchange and cooperation between the two countries. On January 23, the "Tourism Year of China" which aims at attracting more South Koreans to travel to China opened in Seoul where Chinese Vice-Premier Wang Yang attended the opening ceremony. UnionPay International and tourism service institutions including the China International Travel Service were invited to attend the ceremony.

In 2014, the total number of tourists coming from China to South Korea and South Koreans visiting China exceeded 10 million for the first time. Specifically, Chinese tourists who visited South Korea exceeded 6.1 million, and the tourists from South Korea traveling to China were about 4.2 million. China and South Korea have become each other’s largest tourist source country and outbound tourism destination and the scale of bilateral tourism exchange between the two countries ranked first in Asia. In addition, China and South Korea are also each other’s No. 1 foreign student source country. In this context, the demands of cross-border consumption payment are becoming increasingly strong.

Cai Jianbo, CEO of UnionPay International, said: “Traveling for a tour is a way of living increasingly preferred by people. We wish to take advantage of the ‘Tourism Year of China’ on the one hand to provide South Korean tourists visiting China with considerate services to let more overseas consumers get to know UnionPay, and on the other hand to expect to make contributions to improving the tourism exchange services between the two countries.”

The UnionPay card services were first launched in South Korea since 2005. While improving the UnionPay card acceptance environment for tourists travelling to South Korea, UnionPay also cooperated with local institutions for issuing multiple kinds of cards (card number starting with 62) tailored for local residents, including debit, credit, business, platinum and diamond cards to meet the card-using requirements of different cardholders. At present, major institutions of South Korea have issued UnionPay cards on a large scale.

As the products of UnionPay cards and the system of rights and privilages in South Korea have been enriched continuously, the UnionPay brand of has gained more recognition from local residents. Data showed that in South Korea, which has a population of only 50 million, more than 11 million UnionPay cards have been issued, meaning one in every five South Koreans holds a UnionPay card. Currently, the transaction volume of UnionPay cards issued in South Korea has exceeded that of the volume contributed by Chinese tourists visiting South Korea. This is the result of the continuous improvement of the environment for accepting UnionPay cards and the level of services in South Korea, where almost all the signature-based merchants accept UnionPay cards, and about 1.20 million merchants accept UnionPay cards with payment by passwords.

Besides been frequently used in daily consumption by South Korean cardholders, UnionPay cards have also become the preferred payment tool for South Koreans travelling to China because of the conveniences and benefits it brings to cardholders. Meanwhile, UnionPay cards issued in South Korea are used in more than 60 countries and regions to enjoy a wide array of special privileges.

During the one-year period of "Tourism Year of China" 2015, China National Tourism Administration will hold more than 110 activities relating to tourism and exchange with South Korea, including inviting more than 100 journalists from South Korea to make interviews and report in China, inviting more than 100 South Korean business vendors to experience the tourism products in China, and holding photography exhibitions with the theme “Discovering China by South Koreans”.