Alipay+ Parent Expands Into Travel Backed by Agoda, Trip.com, and Fliggy

Ant International, the company behind the Alipay+ digital payments network, will now let travelers plan, book, pay, and discover local experiences all from the same app they already use to make everyday purchases.

The company on Wednesday announced the launch of Alipay+ Voyager, an AI-powered travel assistant embedded directly into popular digital wallets.

The launch will be in Asia’s three major e-wallets: Alipay in mainland China, AlipayHK in Hong Kong, and GCash in the Philippines. The timing aligns with the region’s summer travel peak.

“The wallet partners that have currently introduced Alipay+ Voyager are the most widely used superapps in their markets,” said Douglas Feagin, president of Ant International, in an exclusive interview with Skift.

Voyager is not a standalone app. It is not trying to replace booking sites or search engines. Feagin called it, “a close collaboration between travel merchants like OTAs, wallets and Alipay+, that ultimately aims to benefit travelers.”

At launch, Voyager is backed by major travel platforms Agoda, Trip.com, and Fliggy helping to bring a wide inventory of hotels, flights, and travel products into the mix.

“The future of travel is in a transition, where several innovative forces like AI and super apps will reshape how people travel,” said Feagin. “We plan to continue working with OTA and wallet partners to strengthen the merchant-wallet-consumer ecosystem.”

The move marks a clear shift for Ant International, which has spent the past decade building infrastructure to enable seamless mobile payments across borders. Alipay+ was launched in 2020 to help travelers from Asia use their home wallets abroad, avoiding the hassle of cash or currency exchange.

Now, the company is going a step further by layering travel services on top of that payment network.

The assistant, available via voice or text, helps users plan trips, book tickets, and navigate in-destination experiences. It aims to remove friction by making the user’s digital wallet a one-stop hub for everything from planning to checkout.

In a statement, Ant said the AI assistant “intuitively understands a user’s preferences, proactively solves problems when there are issues such as flight delays or bad weather, and surfaces hyper-relevant options in real-time before a traveller even asks.”

Feagin described it as “a proactive, always-on AI travel companion.” That’s a significant evolution from just scanning QR codes at checkout.

For online travel agencies like Agoda and Trip.com, Voyager offers more than just convenience. It is also a new distribution channel.

“For our OTA partners, they can leverage digital wallets as a new channel to expand their reach and boost transaction volumes more efficiently, offering more relevant and personalized options to consumers throughout their journey,” said Feagin.

He added that Voyager offers OTAs a one-time integration with access to a growing network of Alipay+ partners, expanding reach beyond Asia. More launches are expected later this year.

In an earlier interview with Skift, Feagin had said usage of Alipay+ tripled in 2024. This growth has been driven by post-pandemic shifts toward digital-first travel habits and the decline of cash usage.

According to Visa, 97% of travelers in Asia now prefer digital payments. Cash use dropped sharply, from 79% in 2020 to just 31% in 2023.

For small businesses and local travel providers, Voyager may be just as valuable. A single integration would connect them to Alipay+’s 36 wallet partners and 100 million merchants in 70 markets.

This could be especially meaningful in countries where many small businesses don’t have websites but do accept mobile payments.

“There’s also an emergence of standardized QR standards, which makes our coverage nearly ubiquitous, and we have already enabled this in destinations like Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Nepal,” said Feagin.

Alipay+ spending data shows more travelers seeking hyperlocal experiences. In countries like Malaysia and South Korea, mobile wallet users, often international tourists, are spending more at local cafes, street markets, and transport hubs.

Feagin said, “Not only does this bring growth to small businesses as more people favor cashless payments, it enables consumers to truly travel like a local.”

That’s a big promise, but it may also signal a deeper shift in how payments, personalization, and discovery are coming together, all in the palm of your hand.