Paytech firm Viva Payments has launched Alipay acceptance in Greece through a strategic partnership with Alipay, extending mobile payment access for Chinese visitors to the country.
Under the agreement, Alipay users can make payments for the first time while visiting Greece, with transactions routed through merchants using Viva Payments’ cloud-based platform, Viva Wallet. Acceptance is focused on touristic locations, reflecting Greece’s reliance on international travel and seasonal spending.
Panos Tsakos, chief marketing officer at Viva Payments, said the partnership reflects the company’s internationally oriented strategy and responds directly to changing visitor demand. Greece was expecting more than 150,000 visitors from China in the year of the launch, a figure that was projected to rise, making support for familiar payment methods increasingly important for local businesses.
Founded in Athens in 2010, Viva Payments operates across the European Economic Area under a licence from the Central Bank of Greece, with offices in the UK and Belgium. The company has positioned Viva Wallet as a unified, cloud-based payments solution for both consumers and merchants.
The Greek rollout forms part of Alipay’s broader expansion across Europe, which has included partnerships in Italy, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, France and the UK, as Chinese payment platforms follow outbound tourism flows into major European destinations.