Bangkok--20 Feb--Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide
Visa Preferred Merchants program offers tourists attractive benefits when they spend with their Visa card
Visa has teamed up with more than 300 merchants across Thailand[1] to offer attractive Visa cardholder promotions as a way to help boost local tourism revenues.
The Visa Preferred Merchants program offers cardholders discounts when they use their cards at participating restaurants, shopping malls, spas and tour operators. Designed to extend a cardholder’s budget, the program targets goods and services most commonly used by travelers and offers discounts of between 10 and 50 percent off purchases made at participating merchants.
Findings from the Visa and Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) ‘Determining Travel Preferences in 2009 and Beyond’[2] survey found that 31 percent of respondents across Asia-Pacific have visited Thailand in the past two years. Respondents from across Asia-Pacific named accommodation (31 percent), food and beverages (22 percent) and duty-free goods (10 percent) as the top three items they will spend on when on holiday.
Through the launch of the Visa Preferred Merchant program, Visa aims to provide travelers to Thailand with opportunities to stretch their spending dollar. For example, Visa cardholders arriving at Bangkok can enjoy special promotional rates at hotels with possible savings of up to 50 percent off the hotel rack rates. These promotions will run until 14 November 2009.
Mr. Somboon Krobteeranon, country manager, Thailand, Visa said: “People want value when they travel and never more so when times are uncertain. In the current economic climate, travel is often one of the areas where people cut back or look for cheaper alternatives while on holiday. With the Visa Preferred Merchants program, Visa, local tourism operators and retail merchants are responding to existing travel preferences by working together to help stretch cardholders’ budgets further.”
Merchants participating in the program can be identified via the ‘Visa Preferred Merchants’ logo displayed in their window or online at www.visagreatbreaks.com.
Note to editor: List of Visa Preferred Merchants attached
About Visa: Visa operates the world’s largest retail electronic payments network providing processing services and payment product platforms. This includes consumer credit, debit, prepaid and commercial payments, which are offered under the Visa, Visa Electron, Interlink and PLUS brands. Visa enjoys unsurpassed acceptance around the world and Visa/PLUS is one of the world's largest global ATM networks, offering cash access in local currency in more than 170 countries and territories.
[1] In Thailand, the program centers on merchants in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Hua Hin, Pattaya, Phuket and Samui.
[2] Commissioned by Visa Asia Pacific and PATA, the Determining Travel Preferences in 2009 and Beyond was an online survey conducted by Synovate from 7 to 28 August 2008. The survey asked 5,554 respondents from 11 key Asia Pacific travel source markets (Australia, China, Chinese Taipei, France, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States) about past and future travel plans. For each market, respondents were internet users, aged 18 years or above, had travelled for holidays in the past two years or have the intention to do so in 2009 or 2010.
For more information, please contact:
Visa:
Mr. Mark Thomson
Communications Director
Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide
P: 662 205 6000
E: [email protected]
KASIKORNBANK:
Mr. Rungsee Buranaprapapong
Head of Public Relations
KASIKORNBANK
P: 662 470 2653-8
E: rungsee.b@kasikornbank.com