Krungthai Card puts faith in travel spending
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KRUNGTHAI CARD PLC predicts that online travel spending would remain vibrant this year despite the economic instability.
Pittaya Vorapanyasakul, executive vice president of KTC’s credit-card business, said last week that people have already got used to online shopping and have adjusted their daily lives in line with the tougher situation.
A lot of operators such as hotels, spas, airlines and restaurants are also pushing more marketing and promotions through online channels.
“Average spending of KTC cardholders in the first quarter of this year grew by 11 per cent. Spending on travel alone increased by 14 per cent compared to 8-9 per cent at the same time last year.
“We expect that online travel spending will continue growing in the second quarter as well as the second half of this year,” he said.
Last month, KTC’s World – the online travel package and promotion – generated sales of Bt35 million-Bt40 million, up 70-80 per cent from Bt20 million in April 2014.
About 40 per cent of KTC’s travel cardholders spend an average Bt6,000 per card per month on hospitality. This has not changed over the past few years, but overall spending increased as more cards were issued.
Out of the 20 million cards in the market, 1.8 million were issued by KTC to 1.4 million customers.
The company last year issued 300,000 cards and expects to approve more than 400,000 this year.
KTC ranks fourth in the market by cardholders with a share of about 10 per cent, behind Kasikornbank, Bank of Ayudhya and Siam Commercial Bank.
KTC plans to launch more card products this year and diversify its marketing tactics by joining forces with the national tourism organisations in Thailand from countries like New Zealand and Japan, besides the Tourism Authority of Thailand, to overcome the tough competition, attract more members and drive card spending.
KTC’s stock has catapulted to Bt100 this month from Bt28-Bt30 back in March and April of last year.
“Shareholders have confidence in our strategy and first-quarter results,” he said.
KTC aims to bulk up net profit to Bt2 billion this year from Bt1.7 billion last year.
