Google launched Android Pay yesterday in Hong Kong to speed through purchases in stores and in apps.

Hongkongers can now use Android Pay at over 5,000 locations in Hong Kong where contactless payments are accepted, including stores such as at 7-Eleven, Circle K, Fortress, Mannings, Maxim’s Cakes, MX, McDonald’s, Pacific Coffee, PARKnSHOP, SmarTone, Watsons, Wellcome and more. Android Pay also stores your gift cards, loyalty cards and special offers right on your phone.

Android Pay works with MasterCard and Visa cards from BEA, DBS, Dah Sing Bank, Hang Seng Bank, HSBC, and Standard Chartered Bank in Hong Kong.

The total number of 19.74 million foreign tourists visited Japan with a total consumption of 3.47 trillion yen (US$0.03 trillion) in 2015 according to Japan Tourism Organization. China was the largest inbound travel market of Japan in 2015.

Among foreign tourists consumption in Japan, Chinese tourists accounted for about 40% with 1.41 trillion yen (US$12.25 million) in 2015. Average per consumption of Chinese tourists reached 283,800 yen far higher than the average consumption in Japan. The number of Chinese tourists visiting Japan was predicted to reach 5 million in 2015 according to Japan Tourism Organization.

Japan introduced a number of preferential policies in order to attract more people to travel to Japan in 2015. The number of duty-free shops increased including food product duty-free shops. Japanese visa policy towards Asian countries was also relaxed.

Data has become essential for Japan to understand their tourists. Home appliance stores, duty-free shops have already started their own large collection and analysis of data in order to better meet the needs of tourists. Japan Tourism Organization has collected data of shopping travelers to boost inbound consumption.

Also read: China Outbound Travelers Shopping Overview 2015

In H1 2015, the total number of outbound and inbound tourists in China reached 127 million, with an increase of 9.8% year over year according to China Tourism Academy. The number of inbound tourists reached 65.1 million, with a YoY increase of 4.5%, which exceeded outbound tourism (61.9 million visitors) by 3.2 million. After several years of sluggish, China’s inbound tourism was beginning to show a momentum of steady recovery.

While in the past nine quarters, the number of inbound tourists showed a downward trend, which was in obvious contrast with the thriving outbound market. Statistics show that since 2012, the number of China inbound tourists kept declining, with the decrease rate of 2.5%, 2.2% and 0.45% respectively each year, while the increase rates of outbound tourists were 16.7%, 18% and 16% respectively.

The increase of China inbound market was influenced by the recovery of the market in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. In recent years, tourists from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan have always been the main source of tourists to the mainland, and the tourists number of the three regions was much higher than other foreign inbound tourists.

In 2014, nearly 130 million people came to China, among which Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan tourists in total accounted for 79.49%; and foreigners totaled 26,360,800 passengers. The top three inbound countries were South Korea, Japan, and the United States according to China Tourism Board.

To attract travelers from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan to the mainland, the tourism administration has made some efforts. From July 1, 2015, Taiwanese who hold a valid mainland entry permit could enjoy the visa-free policy.

Also read: China Tourists Travel Intention Study 2015

In Q1 2015, China UnionPay’s total transaction value exceeded USD$1.9 trillion globally according to the latest data, which also means China UnionPay surpassed VISA for the first time in transaction value, becoming the biggest card liquidation organization in the world. According to the financial report of VISA, the total transaction value of VISA was USD$1.75 trillion in Q1 2015.

Besides, in terms of the number of issued cards by China UnionPay, it has already surpassed VISA, becoming the biggest international bank organization by total number of issued cards and transaction value in Q1 2015.

At present, China UnionPay card can be used in 150 foreign countries and regions with over 26 million merchants and 1.8 million ATMs all over the world. China UnionPay issued 5 billion cards in 40 foreign countries.

In 2014, China UnionPay debit card and credit card’s total transaction volume increased by 52.3%. Further, it is still keeping rapid development in transaction volume.

Also read: E-banking Replacing Over 80% of China’s Banking Transactions

China Tourism Academy’s latest report shows total revenue generated from China inbound tourism market reached $51.646 billion with an increase of 3.27% year on year, ranking 4th in the world, following America, France and Spain in 2013.

China received 129.0778 million foreign travelers with a decrease of 2.51% YoY, ranking 4 in the world, following France, America and Spain in 2013.

In 2013, top 10 countries by foreign travelers were South Korea, Japan, Russia, America, Vietnam, Malaysia, Mongolia, the Philippines, Singapore and Australia. It is estimated that foreign travelers from South Korea will exceed 4.3 million in 2014. The report also shows that China inbound tourism market suffered decline in 2013, and there were 651.7 thousand travelers from Thailand with an increase of 0.63% YoY, 625 thousand travelers from Britain with an increase of 1.07% and 533.5 thousand travelers from France with an increase of 1.66%.

At present, inbound travelers’ consumption is relatively weak and 70% of them spend between $501 and $3,000. The inbound travelers’ satisfactory index was 75.46 in 2013, which was in a basic satisfactory level. Chinese tourism destinations still need to improve in some aspects like city management, public service, industry service and so on.

Foreign travelers favor Chinese traditional destinations like Beijing, Xi’an, Shanghai, Guangzhou, the Yangtze three gorges and etc. They tend to know about Chinese culture mainly involving Chinese art, historic landmarks and sites, traditional cuisines, shopping and so on. Some Chinese travel agencies develop various tourist products like skiing and hiking to meet foreign travelers’ needs.

Till now, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing, Shenyang, Dalian and Xi’an have implemented policy of Visa-free within 72 hours transit, opening to 51 countries in the world. This policy can be helpful to China inbound tourism market.

New media and event marketing have been new methods to promote China inbound tourism. China tourism department has carried out online and offline marketing. China has launched promotional website about tourism in other countries and opened official Wechat, Facebook and Twitter account to improve digital marketing system for China tourism industry.

Also read: Rise of the China Outbound Tourism