Category Archives: Agents

The Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE), recently held its networking meeting in Delhi. Speaking at the event, Anup Nair, President, SITE said, “We have invited people from different fields of the industry. We are hoping to introduce SITE to them and bring the India chapter to limelight. We have 40 members in India, and with more people being aware of the value of this membership, I hope there will be more traction.” On the value of this membership, he said, “The value is in education in the field of incentive travel. Since incentive travel is such a powerful tool for driving business results. So incentive travel business results is what SITE is about, giving education to use incentive travel to drive business results.” Shoba Mohan, Founder-Partner, RARE India has been appointed as the Director Communication for SITE India chapter. She said, “When I learnt of what SITE does globally, it just seemed like the kind of things we love to do at RARE. We would be definitely doing the SITE members meet every month. SITE believes in a lot of education content, empowering people with a lot of knowledge based around incentives. That is something we will be focusing on.”  

Indian start-ups Sakha Consulting Wings: Women on Wheels and Global Himalayan Expedition were awarded this year’s highest grants of €325k and €400k respectively by Booking.com. The company has announced the 10 sustainable tourism start-ups receiving scaling grants as part of its 2018 Booking Booster accelerator programme. After three weeks of workshops and intensive coaching sessions, the programme culminated in a final pitch to receive grants of up to €500k from Booking.com’s €2 million fund to help support the next stage of the startups’ projected growth. The 10 teams of finalists pitched their scaling plans to a live audience and panel of expert judges in Amsterdam. “We are delighted that two startups from India with great ideas focused on sustainable tourism were a part of the grand finale and both have received a combined total grant of €7.25 lakhs. Our aim is to build a network of like-minded organisations and individuals that are leveraging technology to create a more sustainable future for destinations worldwide,” said Ritu Mehrotra, Country Manager – India, Booking.com on the sidelines of the Booking Booster finale held at Tobacco theatre, Amsterdam. All the startups that participated in the program will receive 12 months of ongoing mentoring and coaching from a strategic mix of Booking.com experts representing all parts of the business, as well as opportunities and access to collaborate with Booking.com on potential innovation initiatives and experiments to help accelerate their future growth.

As Russia looks forward to welcoming football enthusiasts for the FIFA World Cup 2018, VFS Global offers extra convenience to football fans by providing access to more than 165 of its Visa Application Centres across the globe as distribution points for Fan IDs. A Fan ID is a personalised spectator’s card, which provides fast and convenient access to the stadium. Fans have the option of selecting their nearest most convenient Visa Application Centre for delivery of their FAN IDs. In addition, with a Fan ID foreign spectators can enter Russia visa-free. It also entitles spectators to free travel on special trains connecting the host cities and on public transportation of the host cities on match days. Entry and exit to the Russian Federation with a Fan ID will be possible starting ten days prior and after to the date of the first and last matches of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Prabuddha Sen, Chief Operating Officer – CIS & Eastern Europe, VFS Global, said, “We are delighted to be working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and offer our services to facilitate Fan IDs for the upcoming 2018 FIFA World Cup. Fans can collect the spectator’s card from our 165 application centres across 72 countries worldwide. Vast network of centres, easy accessibility, online tracking, amongst other advantages, will make it much more convenient for visitors, providing them with greater speed and transparency in the process, thereby enhancing their overall World Cup experience.”

Cox & Kings Global Services (CKGS) has recently opened a new Thai Visa Application Centre (VAC) in Chennai. Located at Wellingdon Estate Building, the centre will serve as the Hub VAC for its South India operations and cater to all categories of visas such as tourist, transit, non-immigrant, business, work, crew and medical visa. The new centre was inaugurated by Her Excellency Krongkanit Rakcharoen, Consul-General, Royal Thai Consulate-General, Chennai in the presence of senior CKGS officials. Speaking on the occasion, Rakcharoen said, “Thailand has emerged as one of the most favourite destinations for Indians with the number of travellers crossing a million mark. Considering the growing number of travellers from Chennai, it was essential to start the visa application service centre for this region. With CKGS, we aim to continue hassle-free visa processing for Indian travellers and maintain high professional standards.” Commenting on the opening, Venku Murthi, Chief Operating Officer, CKGS said, “We are expanding out footprints in south India with the commitment to ensure excellent visa services to applicants who want to travel to Thailand.’’ The visa application form can be filled online but the applicants would have to visit the VAC to submit printout of the duly signed application form along with other required documents and collect them once the visa has been issued.

Setting off a new trend of self-drive holidays, Self-Drive 365 powered by Cox & Kings, aims to encourage travellers to discover and be a one-stop road trip planner while offering a wide array of road-trips within India and across the globe. The new segment will ensure a 24*7 support crew that will never throw a spanner in the works of a road-trip be it in any part of the world. The brand allows customisation basis experiences, terrains and several enticing activities. Be it a winding hill-climb, arrow-straight highways, tunnel of trees or beach-hugging coastal roads, each route is fun for a different reason. Speaking at the launch, Debolin Sen, Business Head, Self-Drive 365 said, “With a highly experienced expert panel, round-the-clock assistance, hassle-free paperwork and series of thematic routes, Self-Drive 365 is set to be the pioneer of self-drive tours in the country”. Karan Anand, Head, Relationships, Cox & Kings said, “In line with the emergence of experiential travel, the market for self-drives is growing. Through this unique offering, we wish to ensure, our travellers don’t miss the important part of local exploration.” ‘The USA – The Great Pacific Drive’, ‘Spain – Spanish Tango’, Ireland – The Wild Atlantic Drive’ are few of the international drives whereas the ‘Heart of the Himalayas’, ‘Into the Tiger’s Lair’ and ‘East Coast Life’ are some that lets the enthusiasts explore India by road.

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.”