Photo provided by German department store retailer Breuninger shows a customer using Alibaba's Alipay at Breuninger store in Dusseldorf, Germany, June 29, 2018. (Breuninger/Handout via Xinhua)

by Xinhua writer Zhu Sheng

BERLIN, July 19 (Xinhua) -- "Chinese people are very welcome and we are very interested to get more knowledge of Chinese culture and to provide them with better service in Stuttgart through the introduction of mobile payment methods like Alipay and WeChat Pay," the director of tourism Stuttgart told Xinhua recently.

Armin Dellnitz, managing director of Stuttgart-Marketing GmbH, is very proud and confident to introduce his "China Pay City" project, which started since last October in the hometown of Mercedes-Benz.

China was Stuttgart's fourth largest foreign visitor market, with about 70,000 overnight stays in 2018, which equals about 35,000 Chinese tourists, Dellnitz said, adding that he is sure that China will move to the second place in five to ten years, because the number is growing steadily.

In 2000, the number of Chinese tourists' overnight stays in Stuttgart was only around 14,000. There has been a big leap in the past 18 years.

Therefore, Dellnitz and his team are focusing on the Chinese market and looking for better services, when they found the mobile payment to meet the needs of financially strong individual Chinese travelers.

In the autumn of 2018, the Stuttgart-Marketing GmbH entered into a partnership with Wirecard, a specialist for digital financial technology, in order to establish Alipay and WeChat Pay in Stuttgart.

So far, 75 partners including shops, restaurants and hotels have introduced the mobile payment methods. Dellnitz is very optimistic to raise that number to 100 next year, because he finds that local partners are willing to accept new methods for their Chinese customers.

"I have not received a single complaint since the project introduction, and local media supports and covers very positively the new idea," he said.

In the Mercedes-Benz Museum, Alipay is accepted. Monja Buedke, head of Mercedes-Benz Museum, told Xinhua that she could not remember that there was even one day, when there were no Chinese tourists in her house.

Approximate 78,000 Chinese tourists, the biggest foreign tourist group, visited the Mercedes-Benz Museum in 2018, which means 12 percent of the total visitors. Buedke said she is ready to better serve the Chinese guests in all means.

Christian Witt, director tourism marketing of German department store E. Breuniger GmbH & Co., shared the same opinion referring to Chinese guests.

Witt has traveled to China many times, because he believes China is the place to find new ideas. Mobile payment is one of the great ideas. As a result, he has asked his whole German team to create WeChat accounts, in order to have better knowledge.

"We want to provide the best service to the Chinese customers," he said, "by introducing WeChat Pay and Alipay will make them feel at home, which will of course help his company."

The "China Pay City" project is "a view of the future" in his opinion, as he believes that mobile payment is coming also to Europe in the future.

Meanwhile, hotels and restaurants in the southern German city are also offering the mobile payment and benefiting from it.

Ulrich Schwer, general manager of Althoff Hotel am Schlossgarten, said that his hotel is the first hotel in Stuttgart to introduce Alipay in 2018 for Chinese guests.

According to him, the number of Chinese guests is steadily increasing. Last year, about 1,800 Chinese guests made overnight stays. Back to 2015, the number was still 1,300.

It was clear that the participation in the "China Pay City" project would offer Chinese overnight guests better service. The implementation of Alipay guarantees a convenient payment option, which is well received, he added.

"It is time to show German people the modern mobile payment methods. I think they will like it," Schwer laughed.

In the restaurant Cube, which lies in the middle of the traditional city area, both mobile payment methods are also integrated.

According to the manager Philipp Di Mineo, Chinese guests are very open-minded and they like to get advices. After the integration, about 20 percent more Chinese customers have come to his restaurant.

"Since we have the new payment methods, we have the feeling that Chinese people are more willing to come. Maybe they feel more welcome when we have the Chinese way to provide better service," Di Mineo said.