KTC reports higher tourism spending

Krungthai Card PLC announced Friday card members spent Bt9,000 million on airline and tourism related services in 2010.Krungthai card travel and leisure marketing executive vice president, Pittaya Vorapanyasakul, said KTC members’ spending improved 12% from Bt7,900 million in 2009 in the tourism sector.

Tourism and leisure spending represented just 8.5% of overall card spending, but was up from 8% in 2009. Total card spend was around Bt107,000 million.Payments made online at www.ktc.co.th  for travel, reached Bt2,300 million up 40% from 2009 mainly spent on low-cost airlines and hotel bookings.

The tourism and leisure spend broke down to 40% on hotel bookings, 37% airline, and 20% for travel agency services.The company forecasts tourism spend will improve 15% in this year.The company sponsors 300 travel related projects including the 7th Thai International Travel Fair 2011, 22 to 27 February, which was its biggest project. The event attracted 800,000 people and earned an estimated Bt275 million in travel bookings.

This year, the fair will have around 1,132 booths with 40 of the booths under the KTC brand, including for the first time a boutique hotels zone.Krungthai Card PCL is a consumer finance provider in Thailand. It was incorporated in 1996 as a servicing subsidiary company of Krung Thai Bank PCL. KTC’s business scope during the period was to operate credit card issuing and acquiring businesses on behalf of KTB.KTC has Bt1.6 million card holders. An estimated 35,000 customers use their cards to pay for on accommodation averaging Bt8,000 per person every month.

Source = ttrweekly