It's been less than a decade since China made Canada 'an approved destination.' There are now dozens of non-stop flights to and from China and Canada every week. And, Chinese tourists can now spend their renminbi in Canada more easily than ever.
The Duty Free shops at Montreal's international airport offer free samples of one of Canada's most popular products-Ice Wine. And, they intentionally target Chinese tourists by providing a sales clerk who's fluent in Mandarin.
The shop also makes the process of paying simple now accepting China's largest payment card, UnionPay.
"The benefit of having the China UnionPay allows them to use their own card and to buy more in our store than they would have without it," Katherine Sullivan with Aer Rianta Int'l Duty-free, said.
Passengers using UnionPay even get a discount.
"The promotion encourages them to spend just a little more in the Duty Free than they would have," Sullivan said.
According to UnionPay International, more than 20% of Canadian merchants now accept its card.
Considered the world's third largest, behind Visa and Mastercard, UnionPay's share of the global market has been rapidly expanding thanks, in part, to its lower fees.
Last week, American retailer Walmart announced it would expand its plan to phase out Visa cards in its Canadian stores卋ecause of "unacceptably high" transaction fees.
"It's our belief that the credit card duopoly here - and they are essentially a duopoly of Mastercard and Visa, at this stage - are setting prices far higher than should be the case in a competitive market. And have pressed hard on the federal government to bring these fees more into line with our peers elsewhere around the world," Karl Littler with Retail Council of Canada said.
UnionPay is now making a big push into North America. Recently, commercial Chinese banks in Canada began issuing the card.
UnionPay International says it ultimately wants to see Canadian banks issue the UnionPay card. The brand, they say, is Chinese. But the card is truly global.
Explaining its strategy, a spokesperson told CCTV:
"What we can do is step by step. First, we facilitate the use of UnionPay cards in overseas markets for outbound Chinese nationals. And then we accelerate the localization of our product." Hou Lingwei, UnionPay International Spokesperson, said.
That includes the introduction in Canada last month of UnionPay's QuickPass - a contactless, and at times signatureless - form of payment.
"The QuickPass will allow people to pay and go much more quickly. So it is a big benefit for us because we do sometimes have long wait times," Sullivan said.
Its success, some say, could help reshape the credit market.
"The entry of new competitors into this market could ultimately - among other things - have a downward price pressure on the existing card," Littler said.
He says he's glad UnionPay has arrived.
