Travel platform Trip.com has partnered with buy now pay later (BNPL) provider Atome to offer BNPL options to its customers across the region, starting first in Singapore.
The partnership is Trip.com’s first-ever regional partnership with a BNPL platform and is expected to expand to other markets in the Asia Pacific region in 2023.
Travellers in Singapore can now pay for their flights and accommodations on Trip.com’s mobile app or website through flexible deferred payments by selecting Atome as a checkout option.
A recent study by travel tech company Amadeus found that 95 per cent of Singaporean surveyed said they would consider BNPL services to fund their travel, more than the global average of 75 per cent.
This figure also beats the 57 per cent of those polled who said they might use a credit card. Singaporeans also have the most appetite for international travel — ahead of German, French and US consumers.
Trip.com currently carries over 1.2 million hotels and flights from over 480 airlines in 200 countries. Its app was the 10th most downloaded OTA app globally in the first half of 2022 according to Apptopia.
“This new regional partnership with Atome is timely with the year-end holidays coming up and we look forward to making travel more affordable and accessible to even more of our customers in Asia,”
said Edmund Weng, Regional Director of Trip.com.
“We’re truly excited to be Trip.com’s first-ever regional BNPL partner, and to support the post Covid-19 travel recovery boom by enabling travellers to have flexible and convenient payment options to book their much-awaited holiday or business trips,”
said William Yang, Regional Head of Commercial at Atome.