Thailand Elite Card plans premium service upgrade

Thailand Elite Card plans premium service upgrade

Thailand Privilege Card Co (TPC), the operator of Thailand Elite Card, will offer more privileges and services to its premium members in a bid to boost sales of individual membership cards.

Sales of premium cards or individual memberships, which cost 2 million baht, remain low. TPC has only sold 30-40 individual memberships since it increased the fee to 2 million baht a few years ago to deal with higher operation costs.

The two current privileges -- 24 Thai massage sessions and 24 rounds of golf per calendar year -- are not attractive enough to increase the sales of individual memberships, said Pruet Boobphakam, managing director of TPC.

This prompted TPC to plan new privileges and services such as domestic air tickets, hotels and tour packages for premium cardholders, as well as allowing cardholders to tailor their own programmes.

The new service will kick off at the end of this year, and is aimed at boosting sales by at least 10% in 2017, he said.

"We want to offer more services to meet our members' lifestyles. We believe the new services will help reduce operating costs to 80,000-90,000 baht per card per year from 130,000-140,000 baht per card per year," he said.

This move is intended to reduce TPC's accumulated losses, which stood at 826 million baht as of March 31, 2016.

Mr Pruet said TPC also considered cooperating with super-car operators to offer special promotions for Elite Card members who buy or rent them while in Thailand.

TPC expected this idea to be approved by the government after it allowed members to buy property in Thailand.

The company also hopes the new services will attract millionaires in Asean countries, where potential members looking for luxury services can visit Thailand frequently because of the relatively short distance.

TPC is also working with commercial banks to introduce a Thailand Elite credit card. The privileges granted to cardholders will be finalised by May and the card is slated to be launch by year-end.

The annual fee for the credit card will be 5,000 baht, with TPC projecting revenue of at least 15 million baht a year from annual fees.

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