According to an estimation of VTB24, the VTB Group’s retail banking arm, Alipay will be in high demand in Moscow, St Petersburg, Khabarovsk, Vladivostok, Blagoveshchensk and Irkutsk. “We see the number of Chinese tourists is increasingly growing,” said Alexey Kirichek, VP, Director of Merchant Acquiring Department, VTB24. “Potential volume of this market is approximately 300 billion rubles per year. Average ticket size of Alipay users is 2-3 times higher than in other payment methods, hence we expect high demand for the new service from merchants.”