It's an increasingly common sight shopping malls and at ATMs and in hotels from Okinawa to Bangkok to Manila – the logo of the Chinese payment system UnionPay, making it easier for the growing ranks of visitors from China to spend their money overseas.

Last week AIB Merchant Services, a merchant acquiring joint venture between Allied Irish Banks and First Data Corporation, became the first Irish merchant acquirer to add UnionPay to its list of available card schemes. AIBMS has signed an agreement with UnionPay International to provide Irish businesses with the ability to accept transactions made using UnionPay debit and credit cards.

We have been going on about this for a while at Asia Briefing, about how introducing UnionPay would be a great way of opening up Irish retailers to the booming China market. Some shops, including Brown Thomas, accept UnionPay credit cards.

In a survey by Tourism Ireland of 1,000 Chinese adults acceptance of Chinese bank cards was named by 81 per cent as a key factor in destination choice.

And Chinese tourists are reportedly the fourth-biggest spenders internationally.

Currently there are almost as many UnionPay cards globally in circulation as the two leading payment cards combined, and UnionPay is projected to grow 51 per cent by 2017, according to a Nilson report from November last year.

"We are delighted to enable Irish businesses to accept the preferred card of our Chinese guests," said David Courtney, general manager of AIB Merchant Services.

Irish visitors

About 19,000 tourists from China came to

Ireland

last year, and the number is expected to increase to 50,000 by 2017.

“Relations between the Republic of Ireland and China are strengthening all the time and trade is increasing, potentially adding to corporate visitor numbers,” he said, adding that AIBMS has brought UnionPay facilities to a number of businesses to date and expects many more hotels and retail businesses to follow soon.