A customer conducts a QR payment. Cross-border QR payments are making it easier for international visitors to spend in Việt Nam. — VNA/VNS Photo

HCM CITY — Cross-border QR payments are making it easier for international visitors to spend in Việt Nam, allowing them to use familiar payment apps from home while giving local businesses a new way to capture tourist spending.

International visitors no longer need to rely solely on cash or cards. Singaporean tourists can use LiquidPay, Aleta Planet and DCS DeCard, while Chinese visitors can scan VietQRGlobal codes with WeChat and WeChat Pay.

Similar QR payment links are available to visitors from the Republic of Korea, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand.

Việt Nam welcomed around 13.9 million international visitors in the first seven months of 2026, up 6.6 per cent year on year, according to the National Statistics Office under the Ministry of Finance.

NAPAS said transactions by visitors from Thailand, Laos and Cambodia in Việt Nam surged nearly eightfold in volume and sixfold in value in the first eight months of 2026 from a year earlier.

Chinese visitors using domestic payment apps to scan VietQRGlobal codes also tripled their transaction volume and quadrupled transaction value compared with April 2026.

The payment links are spreading beyond hotels and shopping centres to traditional markets, restaurants and souvenir stalls.

More than 20 Vietnamese banks and payment intermediaries are now involved in developing cross-border QR payments.

BVBank has integrated WeChat Pay with VietQRGlobal, enabling Chinese customers to pay directly through WeChat or WeChat Pay. The system automatically converts yuan into Vietnamese dong and credits the merchant's account, eliminating the need for foreign-currency cash or additional POS terminals.

Similarly, Sacombank has enabled Chinese visitors to pay via Alipay by scanning VietQRGlobal codes at participating outlets.

Duyên, a food-stall owner at Bến Thành Market, said around 70 per cent of her customers pay cashlessly, with the rate rising to 80–90 per cent among younger customers. International visitors, particularly those from other Asian countries, are also increasingly opting to pay via QR codes.

For small businesses, the shift means a simpler way to serve foreign customers and fewer lost sales simply because visitors do not have Vietnamese đồng. — VNA/VNS