SHENZHEN – AlipayHK, the Hong Kong version of mobile payment tool Alipay, and HopeGoo, an online travel booking platform under Tongcheng Travel, have joined forces to make Hong Kong residents’ travel in the country easier.

Under the agreement, Hong Kong residents can use AlipayHK to purchase train tickets to anywhere in the country, making it more convenient for them to travel to the Chinese mainland.

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They can book tickets on the “transportation” page at the bottom of AlipayHK’s homepage, or by searching for “high-speed rail” and entering the departure point, destination and departure time, with no need to register for the mainland’s train-booking platform 12306 and fill in mainland phone numbers.

The new ticket-buying service will enable Hong Kong residents to “explore the new mode of multi-stop tourism in small and medium-sized mainland cities, said the AlipayHK CEO

Venetia Lee, CEO of AlipayHK, said high-speed rail plays an important role in cross-boundary travel between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland, as the data from May Day and Easter holidays made apparent.

The new ticket-buying service will enable Hong Kong residents to “explore the new mode of multi-stop tourism in small and medium-sized cities on the mainland through convenient and intelligent choices, in addition to the first-tier cities and tourist cities that they are familiar with,” she said.

The partnership is an important step in HopeGoo’s overseas expansion, as the company is optimistic about the prospects of the international travel market, it said.

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According to statistics from Tongcheng Travel, the number of searches for accommodation, transport and other tourism products in Guangdong’s major cities by Hong Kong and Macao users surged by nearly 300 times in the first quarter compared with the same period a year earlier.

Hong Kong ranked among the top five sources of tourists of Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai.

Contact the writer at sally@chinadailyhk.com