A dedicated welcome booth is available in each terminal at Nice Airport with an interactive Mandarin-only display-point.

Lagardère Travel Retail France is deploying the WeChat Pay secure electronic payment service in its 14 duty free and fashion shops at Nice Côte d’Azur airport.

With more than 800m users and widely used in China, where more than 70% of transactions are now conducted via mobile devices, Lagardère Travel Retail France is offering the service to Chinese PAX. The aim is to enhance their shopping experience.

This adoption of WeChat Pay is part of Lagardère Travel Retail France’s Asian client base growth strategy and plans to capitalise on the projected 5m Chinese visitors to France by 2020.

According to the company, the introduction of WeChat Pay bolsters an ambitious offer which includes Chinese sales advisers. These have already been recruited to meet the needs of Chinese customers.

EXPERT SERVICE

Anne-Gaël Normand, Director of Aeroboutique Shopping Operations at Lagardère Travel Retail France said: “This solution is a perfect fit with our promise to offer passengers entering our shops a creative, expert service which offers a simplified and pleasant shopping experience.”

With this new initiative, Lagardère Travel Retail France shares Nice Côte d’Azur airport’s ambition to ease the shopping experience in Nice and make it ‘uniquely special’ for all Chinese travellers. This is by developing new services to enable them to gain time and comfort.

Chinese passengers also have access to a dedicated website via the airport’s free WiFi, also available in Mandarin. This site gives them quick access to all the ‘essentials’ for arrivals and departures. It includes real-time flight information, transportation, information about VAT refunds and links to tourist sites among other elements.

Other services with special meaning for these customers have been rolled out in departure lounges, such as the provision of Chinese noodles, a link to the China Daily website on shared tablets and the Côte magazine in Chinese (‘Wan Jia’). 

The WeChat Pay secure electronic payment service will be deployed in all Lagardère Travel Retail France duty free and fashion shops at Nice Airport, including its Aelia Duty Free store in Terminal 2 which opened last year.

Since 2018, airport signage has been translated into Mandarin and a dedicated welcome booth is available in each terminal with an interactive Mandarin-only display-point. 

Lastly, Nice Côte d’Azur airport has also provided an E-concierge service in Mandarin which can be downloaded on smartphones to answer the various questions Chinese visitors may have. 

Dominique Thillaud, Chairman of the Aéroports de la Côte d’Azur board said: “To perfect our welcome of Chinese visitors arriving in Europe for the first time, we felt it was vitally important to improve our communication and make their journey as fluid as possible.

“Lagardère Travel Retail France’s adoption of WeChat Pay is an additional step that shows that Nice Côte d’Azur airport is now fully ready to welcome Chinese passengers arriving directly from China.”