Category Archives: Agents

Thomas Cook (India) has identified Maharashtra as a significant growth market for its foreign exchange business and to leverage this opportunity, it has opened a branch at Hinjewadi, Pune. Hinjewadi, one of the India’s largest Special Economic Zones (SEZ), is home to India’s corporate houses and MNCs, including top IT majors. Via its new outlet, the company aims at harnessing this significant yet underleveraged opportunity for its foreign exchange business. The new branch takes the total foreign exchange network for the company in Pune to six and and 30 in Maharashtra. The outlet will also offer prepaid travel cards. Thomas Cook India also has a forex app. Mahesh Iyer, Chief Executive Officer, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd said, “Maharashtra has been identified as a key source market and Pune is a strong growth driver that continues to deliver over 30% YoY for our Foreign Exchange business. We have hence selected the prime location of Hinjewadi for our new outlet in Pune- its viable catchment of consumers across families, young professionals and business travellers offers us significant opportunity.”  

Sports tourism is witnessing 10-12 per cent growth as Indians are showing more enthusiasm for visiting a country to attend sports event, according to industry experts. “Globally, sports tourism is a multi-billion dollar industry. According to estimates, global sports tourism was worth USD 7 billion in 2017. While it is a mature industry overseas, in India it is in infancy (stage),” says Karan Anand, Head of Relationships, Cox and Kings. The first love for Indians is cricket and they travel to watch the game, whether in India or overseas, he added. “There has also been a shift in the interest for other sporting events like the Soccer World Cup or the Olympics. We see 10-12 per cent growth in arrivals to these destinations, when a major sporting event takes place,” he said. Indians travel to Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and England to watch cricket matches. However, over the last 10 years, there is a growing interest to watch the Olympics, the Soccer World Cup and Grand Prix Formula One motor events. The Olympics or Soccer World Cup are highlights for Indians and they love the atmosphere associated with the games, Anand said, adding that there are people who travel to specific sporting events during the Olympics or a few of them only travel for the opening ceremony. He said this segment is primarily dominated by men who come together to watch the sporting event. Source: PTI

Celebrating 260 years, Cox & Kings Ltd has won ‘The Champions of Chinaplas 2018’ title that is given to the tour operator who brings the largest number of overseas delegations for the event. The award was presented by Adsale Marketing, the event organisers of Chinaplas, in Shanghai. Commenting on the achievement, Ajay Seth, Head- Outbound Travel MICE, Cox & Kings said, “We have been successful in bringing a large number of delegates for this event and we are thankful for the recognition bestowed upon us.” Chinaplas 2018 was the 32nd International Exhibition on Plastics & Rubber Industries and it was held at Shanghai in China.  

On the occasion of its 15th anniversary, Alliance International Tours & Travels recently held an open house session in Mumbai. The day was graced by all the senior management from airline, hotels and cruises and colleagues from the travel fraternity. The company handles various types of traffic, namely, religious groups, MiCE, corporates and charters to Saudi Arabia, besides providing other travel related services like visa, hotel bookings, foreign exchange and luxury cruise bookings.

SOTC Travel has ventured into the forex business to provide travellers with a one-stop solution for their entire travel related requirement. Users can see the best rates for foreign exchange and based on customer requirement, they could either collect it from the store or have it home delivered. To bring complete transparency, SOTC showcases the exchange rates in real time and delivers the order to the customer’s doorstep. SOTC engages in the FFMC business which enables it to not only service such requirements internally but also make an entry into retail and wholesale foreign exchange business, thereby opening up another revenue stream. Speaking on the launch, Vishal Suri, Managing Director, SOTC Travel said, “The main priorities of Indians travelling abroad are secure and hassle-free travel, easy access to foreign currency and convenience of making payments. With the launch of the forex business, SOTC offers all these benefits and more. It aims to provide the ease of travel with utmost security feature to the target audience. As a company, SOTC is focusing on the growing travel requirements of the millennial and looks forward to making a mark in this segment.”  

The official destination marketing organisation for the five boroughs of New York City – NYC & Company – recently invited a select group of travel agents in Mumbai for an evening of cocktails and meet Makiko Matsuda Healy, Managing Director (Tourism Market Development), NYC & Company who was in the city for a quick visit. The evening also involved a quick run through of some of the new tourism projects that are taking shape in New York, particularly the new hotels that have come up, new attractions, and the airport that is getting an upgrade. Making this short presentation was Christopher Heywood, Senior Vice President, Global Communications, NYC & Company, who also took questions from the agents. There were about nine agents from eight agencies who focus on leisure FIT and group holidays to North America.

Cox & Kings Global Services (CKGS) has opened a new Morocco Visa Application and Information Centre (MVAIC) in Mumbai. The office was inaugurated by Moroccan Ambassador to India, Mohamed Maliki. It currently has centres in Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Pune, Goa, Indore and Bengaluru. CKGS is set to open a new MVAIC in Hyderabad in June 2018. Speaking on the occasion, Maliki said, “The ties between Morocco and India go back over several centuries and both the counties have enjoyed cordial bilateral relations over the years. The government of India and Morocco have agreed on a newly revised air service agreement which will have certainly a positive impact on facilitating and boosting tourist movement between the two countries. Foreseeing the growth in the number of Indians travelling to Morocco, we needed to create a seamless experience for Indian travellers in applying for visas.  The Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco is glad to entrust the responsibility to CKGS by appointing them as our representatives to open visa application centres in India.” Commenting on the mandate, Venku Murthi, Chief Operating Officer, CKGS said, “We are happy that the Embassy of Morocco has put their trust in our proven expertise. Our offices across 12 centres in India will seamlessly facilitate visa processing, thereby accelerating outbound travel to Morocco. This is an opportune time to tap the growing Indian outbound travel market, which is growing in double digits.’’

Ctrip.com International has signed a partnership with AccorHotels which will allow Ctrip’s over 300 million registered users to access and enjoy personalised experiences from AccorHotels’ global brands portfolio, ranging from internationally acclaimed luxury brands as well as the popular midscale brands to the much-prised economy brands. AccorHotels operates 4,300 hotels and 10,000 private homes in 100 countries. The MoU is a milestone for both companies to embark on a deeper cooperation which will greatly enhance the growing Chinese travellers’ journey  globally. The partnership will focus on four strategic pillars, including highlighting AccorHotels accredited hotels more prominently, building a flagship store for AccorHotels, joint development of loyalty programmes and cooperation on IT. “We are very excited to be deepening our partnership with AccorHotels. With the ever growing number of outbound Chinese travellers, we are always looking for ways to provide better services for our customers and with the deepened AccorHotels relationship, we are able to offer magnified experiences and property choices,” said Jane Sun, CEO of Ctrip. “We are pleased to take the partnership with Ctrip to the next level, and proud to be a priviledged hospitality partner of Ctrip, ” said Sebastien Bazin, Chairman and CEO, AccorHotels. “Our role is to provide hospitality expertise to all segments of the market. We want to offer Chinese guests our knowhow and service skills in order to become their preferred hospitality group.”  

With a vision to strengthen its pan-India service network, Travkart has signed on its first franchise in Mumbai. The move is in line with Travkart’s endeavour to tap the immense potential that Mumbai offers. What also makes the launch of Travkart’s franchisee programme in Mumbai an interesting development is the end-to-end business support that it offers to partner travel agencies. As part of the programme, the company will provide assistance to the associated travel agency to help it deliver better end-customer services. It provides comprehensive training spearheaded by a qualified in-house franchise manager, in addition to extensive operational assistance, to ensure seamless operations. The platform plans to undertake similar expansion in cities such as Chennai, Chandigarh and Nagpur. Manheer Singh Sethi, Co-founder, Travkart commented, “As India’s business hub, Mumbai is one of the most promising travel markets in the country. There exists a growing demand for travel packages within the city, which is why we are delighted to have signed our first franchisee here. While we received a large number of requests, we closed a franchising agreement with The Kangaroo Travels based on its commitment to the brand’s long-term growth and the end-customer’s satisfaction. Our aim is to expand our presence in all major cities in India and build 100 Travkart franchisees by 2020.”  

The Board of Thomas Cook (India) (TCIL) has approved (subject to regulatory approvals) a corporate restructuring exercise aimed at streamlining its businesses into four key verticals namely, Travel (outbound, domestic, business travel & MiCE), Foreign Exchange, Destination Management Services and Portfolio Investments such as Sterling Holiday Resorts. In its current structure, TCIL along with its subsidiaries and associate companies such as SOTC, TCI, TC Travel (earlier Tata Capital Travel) and Sterling Holidays are engaged in various travel and travel-related financial services, vacation ownership and resorts while Quess Corp is engaged in human resource and business related services such as industrial asset management, integrated facility management, and technology solutions. In order to streamline the various businesses of the group, both from operating and management perspective, the restructuring will consolidate like businesses into identified entities creating a simpler and more efficient operating structure with dedicated and focused business verticals. Madhavan Menon, Chairman & Managing Director, TCIL said, “This proposed restructuring with the realignment of the travel businesses of TCIL and consolidation of the  human resource services business into Quess Corp, will simplify the group’s structure, enabling both TCIL and Quess to grow independently and consolidate their positions in their segments with far greater clarity of focus from an industry and growth/opportunity point of view – for investors, management and teams.”