A donkey ride firm on Blackpool beach has teamed up with Barclaycard to offer cashless and contactless payments.
Real Donkeys, which has been operating on the famous stretch of sand for nearly 20 years, has given its donkey Dillon the world’s first contactless payment saddle, allowing parents to touch a contactless credit or debit card to pay for a ride.
Mark Ineson, owner of Real Donkeys, said: “Over the years I’ve had to turn hundreds of kids away because mums and dads don’t have the cash on them to pay for a ride on Dillon – and the beach is often the last place you want to be carrying lots of change.
“So I approached Barclaycard to see whether they could help solve the problem.
“The saddle they’ve come up with means hundreds more people will be able to experience one of the great British seaside traditions and have a donkey ride along the sands. It also shows that, regardless of how traditional your business might be, there are always new things to trial that can give it a much-needed boost.”
Barclaycard technologists collaborated with designers Seymourpowell to build the saddle, creators of the world’s first cordless kettle and concepts for the interiors of Virgin Galactic spacecraft.
Tami Hargreaves, head of contactless at Barclaycard, said: “More and more of us are relying on card payments, and contactless payment – where you touch your card to pay – has come a long way since Barclaycard introduced it to the UK in 2007. Soon, we’ll be able to use contactless to get through the day – paying for travel, coffees, lunches, evening drinks, even for supermarket top-up shopping.
“We leapt at the chance to help Dillon and his owner Mark get more from his business and bring smiles to more kids this bank holiday. Now all we have to do is hope the British summer plays along.
“Assuming that Dillon’s pioneering approach in going cashless is a success, we could see the roll out of more Contactless Donkeys everywhere next summer. In fact, we’re constantly building on the market leading innovations we have delivered, and we have exciting projects in the pipeline which are set to shape the future of payments.”
There are now 45 million contactless cards in circulation in the UK and over 300,000 points across the country where consumers can make contactless payments.