India’s Unified Payment Interface (NPCI) will now be used by Indian tourists visiting the Eiffel Tower in Paris to schedule their visit, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) announced on Friday.
The emblematic Eiffel Tower will be the first location in France where the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) payment method is accepted, according to NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) in collaboration with Lyra, a French leader in securing e-commerce and proximity payments. Indian visitors can now reserve their trip to the Eiffel Tower by buying tickets online with UPI, which streamlines and expedites the transaction procedure.
It also stated that the revelation was made in Paris during a Republic Day celebration hosted by the Indian Embassy in France.
Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel CEO Patrick Branco Ruivo, President of Lyra Group Alain Lacour, and Commercial Director of Lyra France Christophe Mariette graced the occasion.
Given that Indian tourists make up the second-largest group of foreign visitors to the Eiffel Tower, this statement is especially important. With this advancement, travellers from India may now safely conduct online transactions by merely scanning the QR code produced on the merchant website with their UPI-enabled applications to start a payment.
In addition to giving Indian tourists a convenient way to make payments, France’s acceptance of UPI presents a plethora of prospects for businesses in the travel and retail industries around the region. Although Eiffel Tower is the only retailer accepting UPI payments in France, more retailers and travel agencies will soon be able to take advantage of this service.
Travelling Indians will find it much simpler to arrange hotels, museum visits, and other activities for their stay in France thanks to this.
“At NIPL, our ambition is to enable acceptance of NPCI’s payment solutions in international markets and create a truly interoperable global payment system,” stated Ritesh Shukla, CEO of NIPL. Our goal is to aggressively engage in partnership-building with financial institutions across the globe in order to offer consumers safe and easy cross-border payment options. We have made progress towards this objective with this strategic alliance with Lyra.”
“Having the trust of the Indian government and NIPL to launch UPI in Europe is a great pride,” stated Christophe Mariette, Commercial Director of Lyra France. After 17 years of presence, this alliance attests to the depth of our cooperation with this large nation. Additionally, we exhibit our capacity to anticipate market developments and reaffirm our commitment to provide all widely accepted payment options. This alliance promises new commercial potential and is a significant advancement for the participants in the French and European tourism ecosystem.”
