Shanghai reinforced its status as a premier destination for international travelers during this year's May Day holiday, with inbound visitor numbers and spending both seeing robust growth.

The metropolis alone handled nearly 600,000 international air passengers, as major airports saw steady increases in arrivals.

Thanks to China's new visa-free entry policies, streamlined tax refund procedures and the growing ease of mobile payments, overseas tourists are really embracing a much more effortless travel experience — with the added convenience of making purchases directly through China's leading digital payments platform, Alipay.

Alipay supports two main cross-border payment methods. One is "overseas card binding" — where foreign tourists link their international cards to Alipay.

The other is "Alipay+ hometown wallet service" — which allows direct payments through 13 digital wallets from 10 countries and regions without requiring a separate app. Users can simply scan a merchant's QR code and pay using familiar apps from home.

According to the latest data, spending by foreign visitors using the hometown wallet service increased by 149 percent compared with the same period last year during the May Day holiday. The five most-used overseas digital wallets during the holiday were AlipayHK (Hong Kong), MPay (Macao), Touch 'n Go eWallet (Malaysia), Kaspi.kz (Kazakhstan) and TrueMoney (Thailand).

In terms of spending by international visitors, Shanghai ranked second nationwide, just behind South China's Guangdong province. Popular areas such as Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street, Yuyuan Garden, Oriental Pearl Tower, Shanghai Tower and Xintiandi topped the list of "inbound-consumer-friendly commercial zones" — with some of the highest spending volumes nationwide during the holiday.

Tourists spent the most on shopping, followed by dining and metro transportation. Alipay usage for public transit surged, with QR codes and vending machines allowing seamless access to subway systems.

Trending local brands such as Pop Mart and restaurant chains including Haidilao hotpot drew crowds of overseas visitors eager to experience firsthand China's trending culture and original flavors.

Sources: Shanghai Observer, official WeChat account of the publicity department of the CPC Huangpu district committee at "shhuangpu"