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By IZZAT RATNA
VISA Malaysia is banking on the rise of online booking for travelling necessities, wider acceptance of contactless payments and the move towards a cashless society to boost its card transactions.
Country manager Ng Kong Boon said the global payment company expects a double-digit billing transactions growth this year from the US$23 billion (RM89.7 billion) value recorded in 2017.
“We are expecting a low double-digit growth in overall billing transactions on the back of the government’s push towards digital payment,” he said at the Pick-A-Trip travel application (app) launch in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
Ng said Visa’s cashless transactions for Malaysians travelling abroad have been recording a significant rise year-on-year, particularly among the urban affluent people.
“Customers would prebooked everything from airline tickets, food and beverages (F&B), car rental and accommodation before travelling abroad,” he added.
Visa presently has 30 million debit and credit cardholders in Malaysia.
According to Visa’s internal findings, Malaysians spend more than five hours a day on their mobile devices and based on the Global Travel Intentions study, 72% of Malaysians use their mobile devices to seek information for their overseas trips.
Visa also expects a jump between 25% and 35% in paywave transactions by year-end.
“We started slightly later than our counterparts but with zero fraud cases reported for paywave transactions, I am confident we can hit the industry benchmark within the stipulated time- frame,” he said, adding that Australia’s paywave penetration rate is at 90%, Hong Kong 70% and Singapore at 50%.
Meanwhile, Visa and Corporate Information Travel (CIT) Sdn Bhd has formed a partnership for the travel mobile app Pick-A-Trip to enhance users’ experience when searching and comparing airline and hotel prices.
Ng said the new app would allow Visa to promote card spend and usage.
“We have set a conservative target to hit about 50,000 downloads over the next 12 months,” he said.
CIT ED Foo Sze Zhaun said for a start, the app is expected to service premier cardholders and the priority banking segment before other customers mainly the mass affluent.
With Pick-A-Trip, travellers do not need to download multiple apps from different airlines and manually compare the pricing and flight times.
The Pick-A-Trip app offers instant searching and booking of airfare and accommodation through the Visa checkout.
It also functions as a trip organiser with transparent fare breakdowns and easy-to-read itineraries, displaying transit points, arrival, departure times, checked-baggage allowance and seat reservation, as well as flight inclusions to aid travellers in budgeting and planning.
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