China Unionpay, the country’s leading payments network, saw an eightfold increase in the volume of contactless payments made last year by Chinese people travelling internationally.

The company wants to expand its Cloud QuickPass technology further, based on an analysis of where the country’s tourists go.

Cloud QuickPass supports offline and online payment by mobile phones and other mobile devices.

The company has enabled nearly 180,000 point-of-sale terminals in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore for QuickPass technology. By comparison, there are more than seven million such terminals in China.

Users with UnionPay contactless cards, as well as those with Cloud QuickPass-enabled devices, can make payments at QuickPass POS terminals.

In 2015, the volume of transactions at QuickPass terminals showed a year-on-year growth of eight times, “and it has been rising rapidly since the beginning of this year,” the company said.

Among the handset brands supported by Cloud QuickPass are Huawei, ZTE and Apple.

Australia, a popular destination for Chinese travellers, is the overseas market with the largest number of QuickPass terminals. Since the launch of the service last June, 30 per cent of UnionPay-enabled physical stores in Australia can also accept QuickPass, including Myer, Captain Cook, chain pharmacies and other places which are typically visited by tourists.