Erste Card Club allows 7.5 million Koreans to make payments in Croatia

Croatia enjoys great popularity among Korean tourists. In the past years the number of visitors has grown significantly. Last year, Croatia was visited by around 180,000 Koreans. Currently, they are ranked number one on the list of foreign tourists in Zagreb. Compared to 2010 when the country´s capital was visited by just over 5,000 Korean tourists, in 2014 already more than 68,500 traveled here. This marks an increase by almost 14-times. In order to make their payments in Croatia as convenient as possible, Erste´s subsidiary Erste Card Club together with BC Global Card and the North American Discover Network launched an initiative to make payments at all points of sale.

As of now, Korean tourists can make payments at all cash points displaying the Diners Club sign. With their BC Card, Korean tourists get a discount at 59 museums, shops and restaurants and they are able to withdraw cash at the ATMs of Erste Bank and the MBNET ATM network. The average amount spent by BC Card users when travelling is around EUR 1,360. “With this collaboration we bring added value and opportunity for improving business operations to our business partners, the points of sale in Croatia. Korean tourists who are visiting our country are made to feel welcome and provided added value offered by their payment card company", said Tihomir Prislin, Head of Sales Network Management Division at Erste Card Club.

As member of Erste Group in Croatia, Erste Card Club (ECC) ensured and enabled the accepting of the Discover Card, which the South Korean BC Card is part of, via the Diners Club card acceptance network. Overall, ECC issued more than 365,000 credit cards and recorded growth in all relevant business segments last year, having increased its market shares in acquiring transactions.