Computop Participates at Seatrade Cruise Global with Partner PAPAGENA

Computop Paygate Provides Payment Processing Via PAPAGENA for Close to 200 Ships

NEW YORK, April 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Computop, the international payment service provider (PSP), announces that it will be at Seatrade Cruise Global with partner PAPAGENA, at the PAPAGENA booth, #3811. The conference is being held April 8-11 at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami, FL. 

Since 2008, PAPAGENA has been helping river and ocean cruise providers to optimize their booking and payment processes. Around 200 ships, including AIDA Cruises, TUI Cruises and A-Rosa River Cruises, are connected via PAPAGENA to Computop Paygate as a technical omni-channel platform. This enables PAPAGENA to merge payments for a provider's customer's travel, e.g., for booking the trip online and with Point of Sale (POS) transactions during the cruise, to obtain a holistic picture of a passenger's payments.

It's particularly important to shipping companies that their customers can pay conveniently throughout the entire process. Payment for the voyage by credit card is common, and this card is often used for payments on-board the ship. It's therefore essential to have a transaction processing system that covers channels such as online booking and on-board POS card terminals, consolidating all payments in the company's monitoring system.

A particular challenge with this is the network coverage. Cruise ships travel all over the world, and there isn't always an internet connection to the mainland that allows live authorization of payments. This is where PAPAGENA benefits from tokenization by Computop Paygate where a token (i.e., a pseudo card number) is assigned to the card number when the customer makes the initial booking. As the loss of this number does not represent any risk, it can be stored by the organizer - without any PCI certification - for later use on board. During the cruise, all issues of this token are stored and transmitted to the acquirer as a MOTO transaction (Mail Order / Telephone Order) either upon land contact or once before the end of the cruise.

With this convenient billing system, PAPAGENA also solves the second challenge: if several thousand passengers check out at the same time, billing via card terminals would be far too time-consuming. Computop Paygate handles the necessary transactions in the background. As early as the morning of check-out, passengers receive their bill as a receipt in the cabin or as a display on their TV set. Even before they leave the ship the bill is transmitted so that check-out can be carried out quickly without long queues and there is enough time to deal with any discrepancies in capturing the amount. In order to secure the expenses on board, an advance authorization can be made on the credit card.

"The long-standing, very professional and productive partnership between our two companies is characterized by a trusting, cooperative and reliable relationship," said Björn Schlesselmann, Managing Director of PAPAGENA, acknowledging how PAPAGENA and Computop work closely together to ensure smooth payment processing in the cruise business. "Thanks to Computop's international orientation, we can continue our growth from Europe into the global cruise industry unimpeded. The smooth handling of projects with customers in North America, Canada and for Asia proves this."

To learn more about the Computop and PAPAGENA partnership and the benefits to the cruise industry, visit booth #3811 or contact Henning Voss at +49 162 2345150.  

About Computop

As one of the very first payment service providers, Computop offers its customers around the world local and innovative omnichannel solutions for payment processing and fraud prevention. The internally developed Computop Paygate payment platform enables seamless integrated payment processes for e-commerce, at POS and on mobile devices. Retailers and service providers have the flexibility and freedom to choose from over 350 payment methods enabling them to specifically tailor their payment options per country. Technologies such as biometric authentication and self-learning algorithms improve security and convenience for retailers and consumers alike.

Computop, a global player with its head office in Germany and locations in China, England, and the USA, has been servicing large international companies in the service, retail, mobility, gaming and travel industries for more than 20 years. These companies include global brands such as Amway, C&A, Fossil, the entire Otto Group, Sixt, Swarovski and Wargaming. Computop also provides its payment system to banks and financial service providers as a white-label solution. In total, the certified carbon-neutral company processes commercial payment transactions with a combined value of USD 36 billion annually in 127 currencies. With its individual and secure solutions, Computop makes a major contribution to the future of international payment processing. www.computop.com

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