Magical Kenya launches branded prepaid travel card

KENYA TOURISM PARTNERS WITH UBA BANK TO LAUNCH DEBIT CARD

(Posted 21st March 2017)

The Kenya Tourism Board in partnership with the United Bank for Africa (UBA) has today launched the first Magical Kenya Prepaid Travel Card.

The Magical Kenya Prepaid Travel Card is a culmination of the partnership discussions between KTB and UBA to promote travel to Kenya by travelers across the African continent. The card, which is designed with an embedded loyalty platform, will allow accumulation and transfer of points within the hospitality sector and encourage tourists to travel freely.

The Magical Kenya prepaid Travel card is the first of its kind owing to the fact that it is the first destination card that UBA Bank has launched with a destination. Additionally, the Magical Kenya Prepaid Travel Card will be available to International and domestic travelers in Kenya. This will enable all users, whether customers of UBA or not – to have unparalleled access to its built-in benefits available across all platforms. This will further enhance the Magical Kenya’s footprint in the continent‘ Kenya Tourism Board Chair, Jimi Kariuki said during the launch, held at The Intercontinental Hotel, Nairobi earlier today.

The Magical Kenya Prepaid Travel Card will target in particular West African nationals who travel for corporate, education, medical as well as leisure purposes within Africa and will be distributed across the UBA Bank’s footprint to customers and potential customers. This translates to an untapped market of over 5 Million card users in Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal.

Tourism activity in the modern age is increasingly being shaped by price comparison and technology as new applications for mobiles – that offer a wide range of opportunities that are being developed and social networks are consolidating themselves within a more transparent market. By leveraging on innovative solutions provided by services such as the Magical Kenya Travel Card, tourism can not only lead the new frontier of fairer, stronger and more sustainable growth, but has the potential to become of one the most effective agents of development‘ did the United Bank for Africa CEO, Mr. Isaac Mwige point out.

Through selective criteria of age, deposit balance, number of types of accounts held by customer or corporate accounts the target list of customers will be engaged and enticed through registration campaigns as well as convenience for everyday use both in home market and when travelling to Kenya. This will create an appeal for the card as well as the realization, eventually that this may be the only card needed in the wallet.

The West African market is potential to us and this is the beginning of our efforts to tap into the market that has high spenders with willingness to spend. The Magical Kenya Prepaid Travel Card is therefore a great incentive as it avails to current and potential travellers exciting a value adds in terms of bonus points, discounts or gift‘ KTB Chair, Jimi Kariuki added in closing.