KTC to spur travel spending of high-income cardholders
Krungthai Card is adopting a more aggressive marketing strategy to bring more high-income earners into its cardholder base, expecting them to use its credit cards on tourism activities.
Although there are signs of falling consumer spending in general, the high-income group will still enjoy travelling in the remaining months of the year.
While the economies at home and abroad face many threats, the tourism outlook is still positive. Travel sentiment in the high-income group has not been affected by economic woes, said Pittaya Vorapanyasakul, the company’s executive vice president for credit-card business.
Travel is part of the lifestyle of high-income Thais and 40 per cent of them choose to go abroad. Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and China including Hong Kong are their favourite destinations in Asia, while London and Paris are popular cities in Europe.
She said KTC would launch marketing plans throughout next year to keep in touch with this group.
Currently, about 1.5 million people hold KTC credit cards, and 3,000 of them are in the high-end category, preferring KTC Visa Infinite and KTC World MasterCard.
Of the total, 600,000 cardholders use them on tourism activities. Such spending accounts for 9 per cent of the total and is projected to increase to 10 per cent by year-end.
Yesterday, the firm launched a promotional campaign with Thai Airways International, the national carrier, aimed at boosting tourism spending on its credit cards. KTC-Royal Orchid Plus cardholders can get credit for a maximum of 400 per cent of their collected air mileage when they spend more than Bt100,000 on the card and buy a KTC World Travel Plus package, starting at Bt118,000. The package also offers discounts and rewards.
Currently, more than 100,000 people hold KTC-Royal Orchid Plus credit cards and average spending per person per month is Bt20,000. More than 1,500 of them hold a premium KTC Royal Orchid Plus World MasterCard a KTC Royal Orchid Plus Infinite, with spending of Bt120,000 per person per month.
Despite the slumping economy and contraction in consumer spending, there is no sign of irregularities in card repayment. However, Pittaya said the firm would watch cardholders’ accounts carefully to prevent such a problem. At present, 60-70 per cent of KTC’s cardholders are in the lower-end market.
Besides the high-income group, she expects ordinary people as well to travel during the holiday season, but they may adjust their travel packages to keep their costs down. For example, they may choose to fly with low-cost carriers.
