According to Ms. Noppawan Jermhansa, KASIKORNBANK Executive Vice President, K-Credit Card's 1H16 card spending growth registered 7 percent YoY, versus the industry growth of 7-9 percent, to approximately 170 billion Baht, representing 3.66 million cards. Activities with the most spending via K-Credit Card were shopping, dining, traveling, fuel purchasing, healthcare and medical care. Of the total, platinum cardholders and those holding higher-ranked cards spent the most in shopping and tourism, growing at an average of 13 percent, beating the overall K-Credit Card spending increase.
Cardholders' spending in the second half of this year will tend to see a significant surge in tourism, due mainly to the government's long holiday measures, as well as heightened marketing campaigns staged by tour agents, airlines, card issuers, etc. Intensified competition with a variety of promotional campaigns will be encountered among banks or card issuers, particularly in two market segments: provincial and high-income cardholders.
To offer once-in-a-lifetime experiences to customers, K-Credit Card has introduced the "Route to Iceland" program, available from August 1 to November 15, in response to the outbound tourism boom among exotic destinations. With spending of 1,000 Baht per sales slip, cardholders will be entitled to one right under this campaign to win hot tourism items every month, while new cardholders who spend 1,000 Baht or more within 30 days after card approval will be given 10 rights. Prizes are worth 3.8 million Baht in total.
Prizes include 50 GoPro Hero4 Silver cameras from August 1-30, 30 Rimowa Salsa 22 Cabin Multiwheel Matte suitcases from August 1 to September 30, and 10 first prizes, two seats each, of the campaign: a Northern Lights hunting trip in Iceland, from today until November 15. Iceland is one of the most popular regional tourist destinations for 2016, as rated by Lonely Planet, and one of the 16 most popular attractions as ranked by CNN.
Ms. Noppawan added that the campaign is aimed at raising brand awareness and expected to encourage customers to use K-Credit Card as their main card in all spending. At least 120,000 new cards are expected to be issued under this program, with 20 percent YoY of card spending growth, thereby boosting the year-end card number to 3.86 million, with total spending of 350 billion Baht.