India's digital payment system UPI reaches Eiffel Tower

Mumbai: Tourists visiting Paris' Eiffel Tower will now be able to book their trip to the iconic monument using India's Unified Payment Interface, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) said on Friday.

The NPCI said its arm NPCI International Payments (NIPL) has tied up with French e-commerce and proximity payments Lyra, which will help ensure that the UPI payment mechanism is accepted in the European country, starting with the Eiffel Tower.

"Indian tourists can now book their visit to the Eiffel Tower by purchasing tickets online using UPI (Unified Payment Interface), making the transaction process quick, easy, and hassle-free," an official statement said.

The announcement was made in Paris at an event organised by the Indian Embassy in France to celebrate India's Republic Day, it added.

At present, Indian tourists rank as the second largest group of international visitors to the Eiffel Tower, it said. Indian tourists can simply scan a QR code generated on the merchant's website and initiate a payment.

Eiffel Tower is the first merchant to offer UPI payments in France, and the service will soon be extended to other merchants in the tourism and retail space across France and Europe.

NIPL's chief executive Ritesh Shukla said the entity aspires to enable acceptance of NPCI's payment solutions in international markets to create an interoperable global payment system.

"We aim at actively collaborating with financial institutions worldwide to establish partnerships and provide consumers with convenient and secure cross-border payment solutions," Shukla said.

Lyra France's commercial director Christophe Mariette said the company has been present in India for 17 years.

"For the players in the French and European tourism ecosystem, this partnership represents a major advancement and the promise of new business opportunities to come," he said.