Category Archives: Agents

The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India awarded Abercrombie & Kent India the first prize in Category-I as the Best Inbound Tour Operator, for 2015-16. This is A&K India’s fourth National Tourism Award. The award was received by Vikram Madhok, Managing Director and Arunendu Roy, Director (Finance). Speaking on this occasion, Madhok said this award reinforces and enhances Abercrombie & Kent’s reputation for conducting our business in an honest, ethical and reliable manner, demonstrating integrity in everything we do. The award was presented by the Hon’ble President of India Ram Nath Kovind, in the presence of Minister of State for Tourism and other select dignitaries & invitees from the travel fraternity at New Delhi on September 27, 2017.

Karan Anand, Head-Relationships and Supplier Management, Cox & Kings Ltd, was conferred the prestigious Gold Medal for Tourism (Médaille d’Or du Tourisme) by the French Government during a special ceremony hosted at the French Consulate in Mumbai. This is the first-ever Gold Medal given by the French government to an Indian in the tourism industry. Anand was awarded the gold medal by Yves Perrin, Consul General of France in Mumbai, for his pioneering contribution in promoting France in India. Perrin said, “We are pleased to give the gold medal to Mr. Karan Anand for his efforts in strengthening touristic ties between our two countries. As the Consul General of France, I would like thank him for his distinguished work towards the promotion of France as a prime tourist destination.” Sheetal Munshaw, Director – Atout France, added, “We are absolutely elated that Mr. Anand is the first Indian recipient of this prestigious gold medal in tourism conferred by the French Republic. Mr. Anand has been a great friend of France since several years and has actively contributed to the evolution of tourism to France. He has lent his expertise consistently and has over the years willingly extended his unwavering support to showcasing destination France in his capacity as member of the Advisory Board for Atout France. Our association with Cox & Kings has resulted in many innovative promotional programs showcasing the myriad experiences France has to offer. The role of Cox & Kings in introducing new destinations such as Chamonix Mont Blanc, the Grevin Wax Museum in Paris has been instrumental in our showcase of France. In 2016, a joint collaboration resulted in the creation of a first ever gastronomic brochure …

Value Retail, specialists in the creation and operation of luxury shopping destinations offering outlet pricing, the Collection of 11 Chic Outlet Shopping Villages in Europe and China, has appointed AVIAREPS India to support in sales, marketing and trade promotion across India. Value Retail serves the world’s leading brands in key tourism markets in western Europe and China, working with the world’s top travel trade operators to attract customers from all over the world. Value Retail has consistently delivered double-digit growth in gross sales every year since the opening of the first Village, Bicester Village, in 1995. The Villages are widely recognised as the best performing shopping centres in terms of sales densities in the world. Speaking about the partnership, Marcelo Molinari, Group Tourism Director, Value Retail, comments: “India has been a strategic market for Value Retail for many years and we are delighted to be working with AVIAREPS to extend our presence in the region. India is rapidly becoming one of the fastest growing outbound travel markets in the world, second only to China. Our award-winning Villages are just outside the major European cities and offer guests the world’s best brands along with memorable shopping experiences supported by events, food, styling services and unparalleled hospitality – there is something for everyone.” Value Retail also has specialist in-house Groups & Events teams in every Village dedicated to serving business tourism guests. The company creates tailor-made programmes for groups of between 10 and 7,000 attendees to support the needs of the growing Indian MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Events) and luxury tourism market. Also speaking on the association, Joseph Fernandes, General Manager, AVIAREPS India, said: “Shopping is the top activity for Indians …

Global Panorama Showcase is returning for its sixth edition in 2018 with more global exhibitors and  buyers. The registrations have now opened up for seven cities starting with Nagpur (Jan 15-17, 2018), followed by Ahmedabad (July 5-7), Chandigarh (July 12-14), Lucknow (July 19-21), Kolkata (Aug 2-4), Kochi (Aug 9-11) and Pune (Aug 23-25), reveals Harmandeep Singh Anand, Managing Director, GPS.

Agents can now book holidays from October 2017 to April 2018 with Trafalgar offering confirmed departures for autumn, winter and spring 2017-18. Nicholas Lim, Trafalgar’s President-Asia, says, “With Diwali coming up and the year-end Christmas holiday season just around the corner, we believe that this will give our agents and the trade all the confidence and peace of mind when their clients decide on a Trafalgar European holiday with their loved ones.  In a world that is constantly in flux and a notoriously late booking market here in Asia, this 100% Definite Departure guarantee presents a golden opportunity to all agents who are now able capitalise on all selling opportunities as far out as April.  With an overall 98% independent guests satisfaction rating and a high 52 per cent repeat business annually, we believe we have the product that the trade can rely on.”

Thomas Cook India has announced that its Board has approved the signing of a definitive agreement with Tata Capital Limited to acquire its wholly-owned subsidiaries, Tata Capital Forex Limited (foreign exchange) and TC Travel and Services Limited (travel services). The network of the two acquired entities includes 24 locations pan India. The transaction remains subject to regulatory approvals. Madhavan Menon, Chairman & Managing Director, Thomas Cook India, said, “Our acquisition of Tata Capital’s Forex and travel companies serves to further strengthen the Thomas Cook India Group’s leadership position in the Travel & Foreign Exchange sector in the country. This also gives us the opportunity to continue to serve the strong corporate portfolio of both Tata Capital Forex Limited and TC Travel Services Limited- large corporate houses including flagship Tata Group companies; as also a set of new retail customers.” He added, “The acquisition creates clear opportunities, including a significant increase in scale and network reach, volume/ buying advantages as well as technology gains, all resulting in stronger customer service and stakeholder value.” Praveen Kadle, Managing Director and CEO, Tata Capital said, “Travel and Forex services are perfectly poised for rapid and high growth. We are confident that Thomas Cook would take this business forward and help it reach its potential.”

The Thomas Cook (India) Group is all set to host its second edition- ‘The India Travel Summit 2017-The New Age of Travel’ on September 26 at Le Meridien, New Delhi. This year’s summit centres around four panels of engaging dialogue on highly relevant and contemporary topics: easing visa processes by consular representatives, tourism boards discussing about the new-age Indian traveller, technology partners and strategists debating on the future of the travel ecosystem and senior policy makers deliberating on the India tourism story -Incredible India 2.0 Thomas Cook India’s exclusive, by-invite only business summit, offers a unique platform for exchange of ideas benefiting the travel & tourism sector and will host highly influential decision makers, influencers and captains of industry. The India Travel Summit 2017 panel discussions will be moderated by Mahesh Iyer, Chief Executive Officer, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd, Vishal Suri, Managing Director, SOTC Travel Services Pvt. Ltd., Amit Madhan, President & Group Head Information Technology and eBusiness, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd. and Dipak Deva, Managing Director, Travel Corporation (India) Ltd. Panellist will include senior government officials, ambassadors and consular chiefs, heads of tourism boards, hotels & airlines as also CXOs from highly respected brands like Facebook, Accenture, Dentsu–Aegis Network, Sabre, etc. Madhavan Menon, Chairman & Managing Director, Thomas Cook (India) Limited, said, “The India Travel Summit was conceptualised to offer cutting-edge ideation and dialogue among key stakeholders and critical decision makers across the travel and tourism eco-system – focussing on both challenges and opportunities for the sector. India’s travel story is one the world is looking forward to with excitement—a nation that is emerging rapidly as one of the critical markets for tourism, both inbound, domestic and outbound.” Menon elaborated, …

Thomas Cook (India) has strengthened its presence with the opening of four new outlets in Delhi’s Rajouri Garden, Pitampura, Lajpat Nagar localities and Jodhpur in Rajasthan. This expansion augments Thomas Cook India’s distribution and reach in North India to 42 consumer access centres: 13 owned branches and 29 Gold Circle Partner (franchise) outlets. Thomas Cook India’s data has revealed high demand from India’s north markets, with strong growth of 25 per cent for January- August 2017 against the same period of the previous year. The year has seen significant uptake for favorites like USA & Canada, UK, France, Switzerland and Asia’s Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia; equally for Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Emerging strongly are destinations like Hungary, Czech Republic, Croatia, Romania, Japan and Bali, as also exotic locales like Georgia and Azerbaijan. Rajeev Kale, ‎President & Country Head Leisure Travel & MICE, Thomas Cook (India), said “North India is a powerful source market for us at Thomas Cook India and we are witnessing strong growth of over 25% y-o-y across our leisure travel businesses lines. Our strategic intent is to maximise on this market potential via organic expansion and we’ve carefully selected high footfall centres for our new outlets in prime catchment locations within the larger NCR metro market; also Jodhpur in Rajasthan. Our new outlets give our customers in North India (across families, business travellers, millennials, senior citizens, students and NRIs) access to Thomas Cook’s experts right at their doorstep!”

With a desire to provide women with viable and interesting career options in tourism, Nirvana Excursions has launched a ‘Home Agent Programme’ aimed at housewives. This programme will allow them the flexibility of working from home, while ensuring a steady income. Nidhi Batra, Co-founder, Nirvana Excursions, says, “It is specifically designed to encourage women to use their existing network and relationships, therefore making it a point to avoid any unnecessary stress. At the same time, the agents are also provided with exhaustive and in-depth training and education. In this way, Nirvana ensures that every home agent is completely prepared to work in the travel sector regardless of whether or not they have any prior experience in this industry. Being a woman entrepreneur and a mom myself, I believe very strongly in women having the financial freedom and identity that comes with a career. That’s why, we ensure that the women of our programme receive all the help and support they need and have the confidence to create their own space in this industry.” Nirvana Excursions specialises in travel experiences and customised solutions for the discerning traveller.

Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) has launched a new vertical, a first of its kind – Educational Destination Workshop-International (EDWIN), in order to offer education and first-hand experience of various destinations across the globe to the travel agents and tour operators from Tier-II and Tier-III cities. The first workshop will take place in Ladakh from October 11-16. The workshops will be exclusively available to the attendees (exhibitors/ buyers) of GPS 2017 at any of the six cities on first-come-first-serve basis, informs Harmandeep Singh Anand, Managing Director, Global Panorama Showcase. He says, “These workshops are not familiarisation trips and are intended for educational purposes. The aim is to give first-hand experience of the destination to the tour operators and help them add new destinations to their product portfolio so that they can diversify their offerings for the travellers. There is a highly subsidised registration fee of Rs. 17,000 per person, which includes airfare ex Delhi; accommodation on twin sharing basis; meals; sightseeing and transfers and ground handling.” Singh further adds that the participants will be given an EDWIN Destination Specialist certification upon completion of the workshop. The upcoming destinations under EDWIN include Bali, Zanzibar and Malaysia, and many more are in the pipeline.