Card Companies' Summer Marketing Disappears Amid Second Wave of COVID-19

Indoor Vacation Including Hotel Promotions
Events Targeting Next Year's Holidays

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] As the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) shows signs of spreading again, summer vacation marketing, one of the peak business periods for credit card companies, has disappeared. Instead of marketing related to water parks and overseas travel, events targeting those planning indoor vacations or next year's holidays are being launched.

According to the industry on the 24th, Shinhan Card recently introduced a hotel bingsu promotion. This event, running until August, targets customers holding event cards such as The Premier and The Lady Best. Customers can enjoy free beverage service at hotel lounges and receive bingsu provided by the hotel lounge upon paying an additional fee. Hyundai Card will hold the 'Korean Air Card Travel Preparation Project' event starting on the 27th. This event targets customers who purchased the Korean Air Card launched in April and offers mileage accumulation for airline tickets. Since the mileage does not expire, it can be quite beneficial for those planning next year's vacation.

Normally, this would be the time when events targeting summer vacations are launched one after another, but this year only a few credit card companies have released such events. Moreover, all marketing is limited to domestic hotels. This is because it has become difficult to even consider domestic travel, let alone overseas travel, due to COVID-19. The summer vacation season is an indispensable peak period for credit card companies. Every year, they conduct large-scale events targeting overseas and domestic travelers to compete in sales. However, this year, related marketing is virtually impossible. As COVID-19 shows signs of re-spreading recently, the scope of activities has become even narrower. Since places with large crowds, such as water parks, have a high risk of infection, there is also a significant risk in conducting marketing itself.

In particular, events for overseas travelers are practically rare. In fact, as social distancing has been strengthened due to COVID-19, the proportion of people planning summer vacations has greatly decreased both domestically and internationally. According to the June consumer behavior survey released by the Korea Broadcast Advertising Corporation, 32% of respondents traveled overseas during last summer vacation, but only 8% expressed an intention to travel overseas this year. For domestic travel, 67% of respondents traveled domestically last summer, but only 33% said they plan to travel domestically this year.

An industry official said, "It has become difficult to hold water park events due to COVID-19," and added, "We are considering events that reflect the changed vacation patterns due to COVID-19, but it is not easy to find items that can attract customers."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.