Worldline enables UnionPay and Alipay acceptance at over 20 POS terminals in the Duty Free stores at Budapest Airport, thus catering for the needs of the growing number of Chinese travellers at over 20 airports across Europe

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: “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: "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.

About Worldline

Worldline [Euronext: WLN] is the European leader in the payment and transactional services industry. With innovation at the core of its DNA, Worldline’s core offerings include pan-European and domestic Commercial Acquiring for physical or online businesses, secured payment transaction processing for banks and financial institutions, as well as transactional services in e-Ticketing and for local and central public agencies. Thanks to a presence in 30+ countries, Worldline is the payment partner of choice for merchants, banks, public transport operators, government agencies and industrial companies, delivering cutting-edge digital services. Worldline’s activities are organized around three axes: Merchant Services, Financial Services including equensWorldline and Mobility & e-Transactional Services. Worldline employs circa 11,000 people worldwide, with estimated pro forma revenue of circa 2.3 billion euros on a yearly basis. worldline.com

About Gebr. Heinemann SE & Co. KG

Gebr. Heinemann is one of the top players on the international travel retail market and the leader on the European market. It is the only family-run business among the global players of the travel retail industry. As a distributor, Gebr. Heinemann supplies more than 1,000 customers in over 100 countries. In the retail sector, the company operates more than 340 Heinemann Duty Free & Travel Value shops, fashion label boutiques under license and concept shops at 74 airports in 28 countries, along with shops at border crossings and aboard cruise liners. The company has been designing its Duty Free & Travel Value Shops since 2008 in accordance with an exceptional brand concept. Today, the Heinemann Duty Free brand is present at numerous airports worldwide and operates its biggest Airport Duty Free shop in Sydney.

In total, the retail operation now serves more than 40 million customers across more than 160,000 square metres of retail space every year. Gebr. Heinemann has had its headquarters in what is now the HafenCity district of Hamburg since 1879. The company is managed by cousins Claus and Gunnar Heinemann and Gunnar’s son and CEO Max Heinemann, the fourth and fifth generation of the family to run the business hand in hand. Gebr. Heinemann has more than 8,000 employees around the world.

Worldline Press Contact

Susanne Stöger
Phone: +43 1 71701 6524
Email: susanne.stoeger@worldline.com