MIAMI, May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Carnival Corporation
& plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK), the world's largest leisure
travel company, today announced it has signed an agreement to offer
Alipay payment services onboard its cruise ship fleet in
Asia, including multiple ships in
China. The partnership will enable
Chinese guests sailing with Carnival Corporation's brands in
Asia to pay for onboard products
and services using the convenience of Alipay, China's most popular mobile payment and
lifestyle platform operated by Ant Financial Services Group, a
related company of Alibaba, the largest online commerce company in
China.
As part of this agreement, Carnival Corporation'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 cabin folios. All onboard
spending – including shopping, activities, excursions, food and
drinks – 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 of
this year.
Based on the terms of the agreement, Carnival Corporation's
other leading brand in China and
Asia, Princess Cruises, will also
have the potential to offer Alipay onboard its ships sailing in
Asia, including the all-new
Majestic Princess that begins its first homeport season in
Shanghai in July 2017 as the first cruise ship tailor-made
for the Chinese market. Details of future rollout plans may be
released at a later date.
Alipay is China's most popular
mobile payment and lifestyle platform with over 450 million users.
It presents a significant opportunity for Carnival Corporation to
ride on this digitalization trend and provide an upgraded
experience for its cruise guests, offering Alipay as an additional
payment option for onboard purchases.
"We are excited that our guests will now have the opportunity to
use Alipay onboard our brands sailing in China and Asia," said Michael
Thamm, group CEO, Costa Group and Carnival Asia, who
oversees operations in China for
Carnival Corporation. "As we continue to grow interest and demand
for cruising within the larger vacation market in China, this is another example of being able
to stay close to our guests – understanding their needs and
tailoring our offerings to their preferences. 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 onboard
purchases even more convenient as we work hard to continually
deliver a great experience to our Chinese guests."
"Partnering with Carnival Corporation is yet another milestone
for Alipay," said Angel Zhao, COO of
International Business Unit and Vice President of Ant Financial,
"Since this Lunar New Year Chinese
consumers were able to shop up-in-the-air via Alipay on some
flights between China and
Europe, and now they are able to
pay via Alipay on cruises in the middle of the sea. One of the most
important goals of Alipay going overseas is to provide convenient
and efficient 'cashless' experiences for both Chinese tourists and
global merchants."
Carnival Corporation is the leading cruise operator in
China with six ships based in the
market across its Costa and Princess brands, representing four
million passenger cruise days and nearly half of the overall cruise
market in China. Based on
increasing consumer demand for cruising in China, Princess Cruises will expand further
this year when Majestic Princess will sail on her first cruise from
Shanghai on July 11, carrying 3,560 guests to a variety of
destinations.
About Carnival Corporation & plc
Carnival
Corporation & plc is the largest leisure travel company in the
world, with a portfolio of 10 cruise brands in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia that includes Carnival Cruise Line,
Fathom, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Seabourn, AIDA
Cruises, Costa Cruises, Cunard, P&O Cruises (Australia) and P&O Cruises (UK).
Together, these brands operate 103 ships visiting over 700 ports
around the world and totaling 231,000 lower berths with 17 new
ships scheduled to be delivered between 2018 and 2022. Carnival
Corporation & plc also operates Holland America Princess Alaska
Tours, the leading tour companies in Alaska and the Canadian Yukon. Traded on both
the New York and London Stock
Exchanges, Carnival Corporation & plc is the only group in the
world to be included in both the S&P500 and the FTSE 100
indices.
In 2017, Fast Company recognized Carnival Corporation as being
among the "Top 10 Most Innovative Companies" in both the design and
travel categories. Fast Company specifically recognized Carnival
Corporation for its work in developing Ocean Medallion™, a
high-tech wearable device that enables the world's first
interactive guest experience platform capable of transforming
vacation travel into a highly personalized and elevated level of
customized service.
Additional information can be found on www.carnival.com,
www.fathom.org, www.hollandamerica.com, www.princess.com,
www.seabourn.com, www.aida.de, www.costacruise.com, www.cunard.com,
www.pocruises.com.au, and www.pocruises.com.
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SOURCE Carnival Corporation & plc