Visa, USSC Money Services, Inc. (UMSI) and the Department of Tourism (DOT) have expanded digital payment acceptance among tourism businesses in Siargao, Surigao del Norte, ahead of the island’s hosting of the World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour.
The Siargao contactless payments expansion uses U Accept, a Visa Accept-powered feature within UMSI’s uGrow app. According to the companies, the feature lets MSMEs accept contactless card payments on an eligible smartphone instead of using a traditional point-of-sale card terminal.
Visa and UMSI said they had onboarded 100 tourism merchants in the weeks before the tournament. The group includes homestays and accommodations, restaurants and cafes, surfing instructors, and souvenir shops. Visa said the rollout gives tourists more ways to pay at local businesses and gives merchants additional opportunities to serve domestic and international visitors.
What the uGrow app offers
Visa said uGrow can send digital receipts to buyers by email and lets users check transaction history. The app also includes sales monitoring and inventory-management features, while allowing near-real-time settlement to merchants’ U Visa Prepaid Card.
The Siargao contactless payments expansion is part of Visa and DOT’s broader collaboration on digital payment acceptance and digital capabilities for tourism MSMEs, according to the release. UMSI and Visa have also participated in capacity-building roadshows across DOT regional offices, conducting workshops on how uGrow works.
The WSL Championship Tour event will bring 40 elite surfers to compete at Siargao’s Cloud 9 reef break, Visa said. The companies positioned the merchant onboarding as support for businesses serving visitors during the competition.
DOT Secretary Dita Angara-Mathay said the public-private collaboration forms part of the agency’s effort to build a resilient, tech-enabled tourism sector. She said enabling MSMEs and tourism frontliners to accept digital payments can help them keep pace with evolving tourist preferences.
Merchant figures cited by Visa and UMSI
Since uGrow’s launch, UMSI said it has onboarded more than 1,500 merchants nationwide: 40% in Luzon, 31% in Mindanao and 29% in Visayas.
Visa also cited its 2023 Philippines SMB Digital Payments Insights Study, conducted with Clear Ideas Pte Ltd. and based on a survey of 503 micro and small businesses in the Philippines. Among Filipino SME owners surveyed, 83% reported an increase in turnover after accepting card payments, while 41% said customers spent more when using cards. Of those that did not accept cards, 67% said they would adopt a solution if given support.
For the Siargao contactless payments expansion, the immediate change reported by Visa and UMSI is the addition of tourism merchants able to accept card payments through the uGrow app.
