Chinese Firm Eyes Elite Card Stake

[george]

Chinese firm eyes Elite Card stake

Deal could open door to investment

BANGKOK: -- State-owned China International Travel Service (CITS) has expressed interest in taking a 20-25% stake in Thailand Privilege Card Co, the operator of the Thailand Elite Card programme.

Jean-Cristophe Iseux, an adviser to the Chinese government, said a joint venture offered a ''win-win'' situation, with CITS helping to draw wealthy Chinese to the Thai government-backed programme. Other Chinese companies, meanwhile, could tie in with CITS to expand investments in Thailand.

''The Chinese government has a clear policy to encourage Chinese investors to go overseas,'' said Mr Iseux. ''And I see opportunity for them to invest in a Thai firm given the good potential of Thailand Privilege Card Co.''

CITS is China's largest travel agency, and is run under the Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (Sasac), a Chinese agency that supervises state investment within China and overseas.

Sasac currently oversees 182 companies and has overseas investments of more than $50 billion.

According to Mr Iseux, Chinese companies are increasingly looking to invest overseas in power, mining, telecommunications, energy, real estate and services.

Large companies under Sasac include as Sinopec, China's leading oil refinery company, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), and the Lenovo Group, China's largest computer company which recently bought the PC business of IBM.

Mr Iseux, in Bangkok to attend the Asia Leadership Forum this week, plans to visit several service companies in Phuket for possible investment opportunities.

Juthamas Siriwan, the governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, said she would meet Sasac executives at the end of the month on a possible joint venture.

She said the TAT would also hold talks about improving tourism cooperation, with CITS providing group tour services for Chinese visitors to Thailand.

Choksiri Rodboonpha, the president of Thailand Privilege Card Co, said a joint venture could significantly help the Elite Card programme raise its membership.

TPC was established by the TAT two years ago with 500 million baht in paid-up capital to help draw wealthy businessmen to the country.

The privilege cards sell for one million baht each and offer a number of privileges, including fast-track immigration processing, discounts at local spas, golf courses and hotels and limited land ownership. The current membership is 824.

--Bangkok Post 2005-06-15

[sriracha john]

The privilege cards sell for one million baht each and offer a number of privileges, including fast-track immigration processing, discounts at local spas, golf courses and hotels and limited land ownership. The current membership is 824.

The well-dead horse lifts an eyelid...

so far, so good, guys....only 999,186 more cards to be sold to meet the "expected" one million cards Mr. T proudly proclaimed two years ago... If they are averaging 412 cards per year, how many decades before they reach 1,000,000?

[Khutan]

I am still trying to find where I can download an application form

[kreon]

and where have the 824m baht gone to

[george]

The maligned Elite makes a comeback

BANGKOK: -- Two gentlemen stood at the arrivals gate at Don Muang Airport dressed in grey Thai silk uniforms waiting for passengers disembarking from the Bangkok Airways flight from Guilin, China. They held up a sign in bold script that identified the twins as representatives of "Thailand Elite".

If memories of this particular experiment have dimmed, Thailand Elite refers to a project to entice wealthy travellers to part with Bt1 million to gain entry to a candy store of goodies that boasted free golf, cheap hotel accommodation and even land purchase as long as you were not too fussy about the title deeds.

It was the first time I had ever seen a welcome committee from a company that by now is supposed to have a million happy followers.

I was curious to know which of the 100 passengers had spent Bt1 million on a lifetime membership. At Guilin airport I had noticed an elderly Chinese lady struggling through the security checkpoint with a wicker basket covered with a neat white towel. Well, she wasn't on her way to the market that was for sure, but she managed to squeeze her basket into the overhead locker for the two-hour flight to Bangkok.

I am not sure if she was wearing a particular badge that identified her as elite, but the two Thailand Elite uniforms rushed to her in a deep bow and "wai".

She gratefully handed over the heavy basket and proceeded to the Thailand Elite check-in counter. Of course, she had long disappeared by the time the rest of the passengers got to the luggage carousel. Thailand Elite staff had travelled less than 500 metres with this particular member, carrying a basket and depositing their charge at the door of a limousine on the doorstep of the arrivals hall.

I recalled that local travel agents, critical of the Thailand Elite project, had two years earlier observed that the company's promotions were off target. They had suggested that the key to success was how much mileage a member could gain from the Bt1-million membership.

Claiming visitors from "long-haul markets" (flights that exceeded six hours) would not be able to visit Thailand frequently enough to make it pay, they recommended a target closer to home.

As unpopular as it sounded at the time to the Thailand Elite inventors, the travellers who would benefit the most reside in neighbouring countries _ Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam and south China, including Hong Kong and Macau.

I would guess the Chinese lady dressed so traditionally, carrying a wicker basket stuffed with staple foods and preserves, was a frequent traveller.

She might not look too ambitious on a Thailand Elite advertisement or brochure cover, but she probably represents the true market for this product.

Travel agents who know the inbound travel market inside out always insisted that to turn the Thailand Elite card into a successful venture, its sales team would have to concentrate on neighbours. Unfortunately that did not fit with the decision to invest in global TV advertising on CNN.

Subsequently it was reported the advertising failed to deliver a single member from the high-profile markets across distant seas.

We can all recall the fuss reported in the newspapers over payments due and the rush for the board room door when someone asked the directors: "Who signed away our budget on TV advertising."

No one owned up of course, but as a footnote I was told by a CNN representative, recently, that the bill was paid. Happy ending for everyone involved.

But apart from the two gentlemen standing near the immigration checkpoint holding up sign, just what else does this great project do to justify its existence?

There is a travel association or sub-group representing every nook and cranny in tourism these days. One such group is the Greater Mekong Sub-region, which represents the interests of six countries: Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Yunnan province, China. It got substantially bigger last April when China decided Guangxi province bordering on Vietnam was in fact eligible for Mekong region membership too.

Last week tourism representatives visited Guilin, the main tourist destination in Guangxi province, to tidy up the script of a US$720,000 tourism strategy and action plan that seeks to cover development over the next 10 years.

It was a time of rejoicing and the clinking of crystal wine glasses at banquets hosted by the mayor of Guilin and high-ranking officials from Guangxi province.

It's not every day that a region gets a new member that boasts annual tourists arrivals of over 1 million and the mayor of Guilin wanted to ensure that none of the delegates would forget "we are all part of a happy family".

Every time the glass clinked in a toast a high-ranking Chinese through an interpreter told us "we are family". I had never thought of it that way before. Business associates maybe, but family? This was a new angle on tourism relationships.

After almost a year a team of consultants hired by the Asian Development Bank had almost completed the task of writing the mother of all reports when China announced it had a new member for the Mekong region.

There were doubters who asked how a Chinese province hundreds of kilometres from the Mekong region basin could be embraced as family?

The apologetics quickly pointed out that the Andaman coast provinces of Thailand had found a place in the Mekong region tourism strategy so why not a Chinese province that bordered Vietnam?

By the time the Mekong tourism executives met in Guilin, reservations over their newest partner were replaced by enthusiasm. Did we know that Guilin is home to the largest tourism-related university in Asia with courses in English and a research department second to none?

Then there are the minority groups in the mountains of Guangxi that have similar ethnic backgrounds to communities across the Mekong region.

"Why, we even share a waterfall with Vietnam," a Chinese official stressed.

Guilin is tiny compared with most Chinese cities having less than 800,000 residents. Its green valleys and limestone outcrops have inspired artists while there is still evidence of an ancient settlement that dates back over a 1,000 years.

Chinese from other provinces travel here for a vacation while the four weekly flights of Bangkok Airways means you can often bump into a Thai group chattering away about the shopping and the clean, ordered streets and pavements.

The Mekong region now has two Chinese provinces, Yunnan and Guangxi, as members with potential to deliver a million tourists. At the close of the meeting, delegates pondered over the words of the commitment of a high-ranking China National Tourism Administration official who noted that his country would assume a responsible and supportive role in Mekong region tourism.

My thoughts were that the simple addition of Guangxi province into the region is a milestone in regional tourism. It will lead to a boom in overland tourism over the next 10 years that will reshape tourism patterns all the way overland to Singapore.

--Don Ross/Bangkok Post 2005-06-16

[mnoorsapl]

BANGKOK: -- Land for the wealthy Chinese.