Under an ongoing campaign to encourage more Myanmar tourists to experience the benefits of digital payments while travelling overseas, locals visiting Thailand can collect a THB500 discount voucher at the Yangon International Airport.

The voucher can be used to offset payments when making purchases with Myanmar-issued Visa cards at Emporium, Emquartier and Paragon department stores in Bangkok. A total of 4000 vouchers are available from October to December.

Thailand is ranked among one of the most popular international destinations for shopping, medical treatment or leisure for travellers from Myanmar.   

According to Visa’s Global Travel Intentions Study, which examines international travel trends and behaviour of 17,500 global travellers from 27 countries around the world, cash is the most preferred payment method for more than half of global travellers when making purchases at their destination.

Cards, including credit, international debit, and prepaid, are the second most preferred method followed by digital wallets.

Although more than 40 percent of Myanmar consumers expect to utilise cashless payment in the coming year, awareness of contactless and QR systems is still low, according to a study by Visa exploring Myanmar consumers’ perception, attitudes, and behaviours towards payment and new payment systems.

Some 42pc of the respondents said that they expect to use cashless payments more in the coming year with 69pc stating that convenience is the top reason to go cashless. 58pc said security is the reason to use cashless methods and 52pc said not having to carry physical cash is the reason.

Source: https://www.mmtimes.com/news/myanmar-tourists-encouraged-use-visa-thailand.html