According to Abhijit Chakravorty, MD and CEO, the travel, hospitality and entertainment segment accounted for 33% of SBI Card’s total card usage in FY24.9 million.
“In our portfolio as of December 2023, in the first nine months, 33 per cent of spend across our various cards was in travel, hospitality and entertainment,” Chakravorty said, adding that travel industry data It added that it shows that “the travel bug is biting Indians” and that Indian travelers are big spenders globally.
SBI Cards continues to analyze spending behavior, market expectations and societal trends and what has emerged is an increase in travel, he said, adding that in addition to business travel, leisure and leisure travel has also increased significantly. He added that this is happening both domestically and internationally.
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Mr. Chakravorty spoke at the SBI Card MILES launch event. SBI Card MILES is the company’s first travel-centric core card that offers features such as travel reward redemption, conversion of travel credits to air miles and hotel points, early bird benefits, and complimentary airport lounge access.
This card comes in three variants: Air Vistara, Air India, SpiceJet, Air France KLM, Etihad Airways, Air Canada, Thai Airways, Qantas, ITC Hotels, IHG Hotels & Resorts, and Accor.
Chakravorty adds value to cardholders’ travel aspirations through perks and miles, promoting and encouraging travel, and the card adds value to both regular and travel-related expenses. He added that it is aimed at
Dinesh Kumar Khara, Chairman, SBI, said there has been an increase in travel since COVID-19 and coupled with the desire of young people for convenience, the desire to travel in the country has increased. SBI Cards is evolving as a company and working on finding opportunities in the card space and we should be able to offer hyper-personalization in this card variant as well in the future.
“This is more than just travel. The kind of value proposition embedded in this card is really addressing the needs of a complete ecosystem, not just travel,” he said. The ‘Concept of Substitutability’ is unique in many ways and cards the USP of a product that has ‘probably never been tried before’.
SBI MD Ashwini Kumar Tewari stressed that it is difficult to make a profit in the card business as customers have high expectations such as unlimited lounge access, discounts on flight tickets and zero to no fees.
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“It’s hard to make money on credit cards because the segment we’re targeting doesn’t evolve, but as long as it’s an aspirational card and brings value, this card will sell.” And SBI Cards will learn how to recover their value from customers, and customers will be willing to pay for it.”
SBI Cards’ active card spend is around 50%, which is “important in this market,” Chakravorty said, adding that SBI Cards is meeting customer demands through its own products as well as through co-branded cards. He added that the company is constantly considering customer requirements in order to meet the needs of customers.
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Published April 24, 2024
