Government Freezes All Activities Of Thailand Elite Card

[sriracha john]

THAILAND ELITE CARD

Issuer told to freeze all activities

Cabinet to decide ultimate fate

Thailand Privilege Card (TPC), issuer of the Thailand Elite Card, yesterday was ordered to freeze all activities, including selection of a new President and recruitment of new members.

The move comes as the Cabinet decides the company's future.

TPC must not sign any new contracts or other agreements with any organisation and must halt all purchasing procedures. Moreover, the company cannot sponsor any events, Tourism and Sports Minister Chumpol Silapa-archa said yesterday.

The government earlier wanted to shut down the company, due to criticism about its transparency. However, the Cabinet is studying the company to determine whether it should continue operations or be frozen or even privatised.

If the company is closed, it will need to refund the leftover value of its membership fees, expected to be close to Bt3 billion.

The company has run without a President for some time now. Chairman Suraphong Triamchan-chai is acting President. TPC has 2,500 members worldwide, mostly from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Middle East.

Initiated by the government of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra to promote Thailand to wealthy foreigners, the programme has suffered from continuous losses.

It lost 134 Million Baht in 2003, 384 Million Baht in 2004, 843 Million Baht in 2005, and 1.14 Billion Baht in 2006.

TPC also recorded losses in 2007 and last year, but exact figures are not yet available.

- The Nation

[dee123]

THE CREDIT CRUNCH IS...........as said on UK Newsnight last night......finding out all the dodgy deals worldwide...... "it's like the tide going out and finding that many people were swimming naked" ......

Edited February 18, 2009 by dee123

[yabaaaa]

I mailed them last week asking about membership and they seemed keen to proceed asking for my full information. I didnt want to join but see if they were still taking new members.

[sriracha john]

I mailed them last week asking about membership and they seemed keen to proceed asking for my full information. I didnt want to join but see if they were still taking new members.

well, as of today, that's stopped...

[surface]

<deleted>?

Assuming the loses didn't go up in 07 and 08, they lost $32M USD/yr with 2,500 members. At that rate they'd lose about $650M USD each year with 50,000 members. Could someone remind me what the target membership was please.

What exactly were they spending over $32M USD on each year with only 2,500 members? That's over $13k USD per member each year in loses, potentially much higer. That's A LOT of massages and golf.

A round of golf being 4,000 baht or so makes a good 130 rounds of golf per year for each member. Those Elite card holders must be dam_n fit!

Edited February 18, 2009 by surface

[sriracha john]

<deleted>?

Could someone remind me what the target membership was please.

1,000,000 members generating 20,000,000,000,000 baht....

A historical perspective....

TAT says Elite Card well received

Target of selling 1 Millon cards likely to be met

The project is making a good start and attracting interest from well-to-do foreigners, according to Juthamas Siriwan, Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).

Brochures outlining privileges and other related services, including offers at 20 top golf courses, 60 luxury hotels, are ready for distribution.

However, the official opening of the programme will be chaired by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra as the project is the brainchild of the premier.

Mrs Juthamas said she was confident that One Million Cards would be sold within five years as targeted, generating One Trillion Baht for Thailand.

With the One Trillion Baht in revenue from Cards and One Million Cardholders visiting Thailand, spending and shopping, she estimated that spin-off revenue generated from the activities could reach 20 Trillion Baht.

- Bangkok Post / September 16, 2003

============================================================

Imagine that..... 20 Trillion Baht.... brainchild, indeed.

Edited February 18, 2009 by sriracha john

[dave111223]

<deleted>?

Assuming the loses didn't go up in 07 and 08, they lost $32M USD/yr with 2,500 members. At that rate they'd lose about $650M USD each year with 50,000 members. Could someone remind me what the target membership was please.

What exactly were they spending over $32M USD on each year with only 2,500 members? That's over $13k USD per member each year in loses, potentially much higer. That's A LOT of massages and golf.

A round of golf being 4,000 baht or so makes a good 130 rounds of golf per year for each member. Those Elite card holders must be dam_n fit!

I can only assume the huge loses are due to spending tons of money on marketing/sponsorship and getting absolutely no sign ups in return. As you said there is no way they are spending 456,000 Baht a year on each member for golf and massages.

Plus they've probably got 25 employees for every 1 member, sitting around doing f*ckall.

Quite incredible that they have been able to make those kind of loses each year with no return and still the government keeps giving them more money to lose?

[aussiejosh]

Well that was a fast expensive lesson for some people...

[AussieFarang]

Looks like all of Thaksins friends are on the out too.

But really how could you ever trust the permanence of any government decisions here regarding government, business, property or immigration.???????????

Total about faces are not common they are normal.

[sriracha john]

TAT passes Elite Card ball back to cabinet to decide

The Tourism Authority of Thailand Board is reluctant to make a final decision on the fate of the troubled Elite Card programme, saying the Cabinet should have the final say. "As the project was born from politics, its fate should also be decided by politics," Board Chairman Weerasak Kohsurat, himself a former Tourism and Sports Minister, said yesterday. Weerasak said the TAT would propose choices based on a recent study of Thailand Privilege Card Co (TPC), which operates the Elite Card program for wealthy tourists and investors. According to the study, the government would need to pay 2.43 billion baht in compensation to 2,570 Elite Card members and clear outstanding debts if TPC is wound up. Alternatively, TPC would require a major business overhaul to increase income and control costs if it is allowed to stay in business. Another solution would be to allow the private sector to take up to a 49% stake in the state-owned company or sell out to the private sector. Pending a Cabinet ruling, the company would be ordered to suspend all new transactions including new membership and procurement, said Tourism and Sports Minister Chumpol Silpa-archa. Thailand Elite Card was launched by former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2003. Thaksin confidently predicted it would attract one million cardholders by 2008, but to date it has drawn just

Continued here:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/touris...binet-to-decide

[sriracha john]

According to the study, the government would need to pay 2.43 billion baht in compensation to 2,570 Elite Card members

Why the "need"? Especially since they've all gotten their money's worth out of it with 6 months of possessing one (well, at least according to multiple posts by multiple owners of the Card in previous threads).

Besides, as with any number of other situations, one of the conditions of the card was that privileges are subject to change at any time...and the government could very easily say... "Well, guess what... things have changed and in these tough economic times, we hate to say it... but sorry, no refund."

Do they continue to throw good money after bad to keep it afloat? When the losses are already in the billions, if for some strange reason they actually did decide to give a refund, it'd be cutting their losses to finally toss it on the huge scrap heap of bad Thaksin ideas.

Edited February 19, 2009 by sriracha john

[slackula]

It lost 134 Million Baht in 2003, 384 Million Baht in 2004, 843 Million Baht in 2005, and 1.14 Billion Baht in 2006.

- The Nation

Wow! It lost roughly 2.5 Billion Baht in four years and it has taken them another two plus years to figure out that perhaps it wasn't such a great idea after all?

[bearhunt]

THE CREDIT CRUNCH IS...........as said on UK Newsnight last night......finding out all the dodgy deals worldwide...... "it's like the tide going out and finding that many people were swimming naked" ......

LOL!!! brilliant quote haha!!! but i seriously dont know how they could lose so much money, so far ive only used the visa part and a couple spa treatments! at least it seems likely that members will get a refund or that the visa will still be honored somehow.

what a mess -.-"

[Ga-gai]

Corruption as usual!

When even the tsunami aid money went into the wrong pockets so why shouldn't these as well?

[dotcom]

Tonight they are sponsoring an ad blitz on CNBC Asia.

LOL.

[bkk_mike]

Saw the TV ads myself today (on CNBC).

Isn't this how they got into trouble in the first place. They placed ads that they didn't actually have the money to pay for...

[MeetJohnDoe]

According to the study, the government would need to pay 2.43 billion baht in compensation to 2,570 Elite Card members

Why the "need"?

Maybe because the official membership application and supporting documentation for Elite Card program made specific mention of compensation if the program was ever terminated. Now, figuring out what that amount should be for people who have bought memberships at various times over the past half decade will be interesting to see.

Also the fact that the Thailand Privilege Card Company, the company behind the whole Thailand Elite Card program, is apparently a 100% government owned entity (I believe by the Tourism Authority of Thailand or the Tourism and Sports Ministry) it would be quite a black-eye for the Thai government if the program were canceled and no fair compensation were provided to members. Also, mention of civil liability for breach of contract has been mentioned by some government ministers if no compensation were provided.

Edited February 25, 2009 by MeetJohnDoe

[sriracha john]

Saw the TV ads myself today (on CNBC).

Isn't this how they got into trouble in the first place. They placed ads that they didn't actually have the money to pay for...

Yes, as below illustrates...

It's probably good for ManCity games because if I'm right Thaksin created it.

Correct. He was the Flop Meister...

An article from one year in on the program....

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, above, speaks at the launch of the Thailand Elite Card

Playing with the wrong card

Even those rich enough to have bought a Thailand Elite Card are too embarrassed to talk about it. And even after it was put on the market a year ago with overt government backing - including the imprimatur of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra - not even the government bodies responsible for the card want to talk about it now.

Launched with great fanfare ahead of Thailand's hosting of last October's APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation) summit, the card confers exclusive benefits such as discounts on spas, a fast-track line at airport check-in and business introductions for "VIP foreigners who have high purchasing power'' and want to buy into what promotional materials say is the world's first "countrywide country-club.''

Costing US$25,000 (HK$195,000) each, the Elite Card promised a whole new level of service and special perks, backed by powerful government support for self-identified "high-quality tourists'', in contrast, presumably, to the hordes of downmarket visitors already spending their vacation dollars in Thailand.

But the golden bloom logo - the pat bok, or ceremonial palm-leaf fan which "has been reserved throughout Thai history to designate VIPs'', according to the Elite Card website - is already looking tarnished.

The reason, at first, appears to be an unpaid bill for Elite Card advertisements broadcast on CNN. Local news reports say this amounts to 140 million baht. There's no problem in paying the bill, officials say, but it's a puzzle how the spending was authorised.

An investigation was launched. Three current and former directors of Thailand Privilege Card (TPC), the company set up by the government to run the Elite Card, are being questioned about the advertising expenditure in an inquiry expected to last several months. Six resignations from the board of the state-owned TPC have now left it temporarily without a quorum and Tourism Authority of Thailand Governor Juttamas Siriwan *currently under indictment for corruption on other charges* has disclaimed responsibility.

After local papers claimed that "a minister'' had authorised the ads, it's become unclear whether an investigation is ongoing, or even if talks are under way about better management of TPC.

Requests to TPC for interviews and information went unanswered.

The professionally charming people answering the phones at the TPC office say: "We really can't answer this, maybe later.'' A quick peek behind the gauzy golden image used on its website and brochures shows the Elite Card concept faces bigger hurdles than a few unpaid bills.

Early targets of one million members have been revised downward; insiders suggest 10 per cent of that would be more realistic. *currently they are somewhere around 2/10ths of 1% of their goal.* The hope is that marketing agents for the card in Europe and East Asia - including Hong Kong - will collect at least 2,000 new members each over the next few years. *currently they have a bit more than 2,000 members.... world-wide... over the past 5 years*

So far the website says that 660 people have signed up - and some of those members were given their cards free as a promotional gesture.

One person quoted as a satisfied backer of the card in promotional materials was contacted and said he had not said anything about the card recently and was unaware that his name was being used for promotion.

"I certainly wasn't so stupid as to buy one,'' he said when asked if he was an Elite Card holder.

It was an exciting idea at first, not least because it was widely seen as the brainchild of Prime Minister Thaksin, a leader who has shown that he is not scared to think outside the box.

Said one veteran foreign businessman in Thailand who asked not to be named: "Friends of mine liked the ease of getting through the airport. But the real thing was the right to own land.''

Not so. Thai law still prohibits the ownership of Thai land by foreigners, so this promise of the Elite Card was flawed from the first.

As for the golf courses, news reports say TPC has cancelled its golf course-building and expansion plans around the country. Card holders do get privileged access to some existing courses, however. *originally there were grandiose plans to build their own Elite golf courses around the country, but that plan was scrapped when they found out how much it costs to build a golf course*

A key card benefit remains having just one number to call to arrange everything one wants in Thailand, from cars to roses to dinners and appointments.

Additional scepticism exists in some quarters about some of these promises because any rich person staying at a top hotel in Thailand can enjoy such benefits through the concierge and guest services. Even non-rich people can have their own cars and drivers, and can hire fixers of many kinds.

"I think you have to distinguish between the rich and the super-rich,'' said the businessman. "The idea I think is to reach those rich people who are not yet at the level where everything happens for them automatically.

"Initially, I thought it was a good deal. But then for golfers, I think they are going to play where they want to play with or without this card so that special access is not of any use.

"I know one guy who bought the card but I reckon he'd be embarrassed to talk to you about it.''

Tourism experts and company managers who have acted as agents for the Elite Card insist the idea was novel and exciting. Only one other precedent can be recalled. This is a privilege offered in China where, for about US$5,000, fast-track passage through the airport and Immigration in Beijing is offered, said one agent.

But opinion remains divided as to whether a market exists for the concept large enough to make it viable in the long term.

"I must admit, we haven't been selling them very hard,'' said one authorised agent for the cards. "We feel that because the concept of TPC is still new it has some bugs that need ironing out.'' An editorial in The Nation newspaper argued that the card should be dropped and the TPC wound up before any more time and money is wasted on an interesting idea which did not work.

"The whole episode [over unpaid advertising bills] has severely damaged the reputation and image of the Elite Card,'' it said.

"If the Elite Card scheme were a normal business, it would have been shelved a while ago, or at the very least its business plan would be radically revised for the company to stay competitive.

"But since this project was the brainchild of the Thaksin government, nobody seems willing to stand up and admit that both the concept and the execution have flopped.'' *there's that "flopped" reference again*

- The Standard (Hong Kong) / October 24, 2004