Tourism Toronto announced a new strategic partnership with OTT Financial Group that introduces the Chinese mobile payment service, WeChat Pay, into local tourism businesses to boost travel and shopping consumption by Chinese travelers. 

"Through this agreement, Chinese tourists, while visiting Ontario, will be able to pay for products and services directly in Renminbi from their WeChat Pay app on their mobile phones," said Hon Michael Chan, Ontario's Minister of International Trade. 

WeChat is China's largest mobile messenger app with 840 million active users who can use the app to buy products and book travel. OTT is working with Tourism Toronto to set up the mobile payment infrastructure, making it the first partnership of its kind in Canada. 

China is the largest overseas tourism market for Toronto, which has almost tripled since 2010.  In 2016 Toronto saw more than 300,000 visitors, who spent an estimated USD 275 million in the region.

OTT Financial provides foreign exchange services. OTT Pay is the payment platform that serves Canadian merchants and Chinese consumers.

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