Category Archives: Agents

South African Tourism has joined hands with Thomas Cook to offer travel packages and deals for Indian travellers especially during Diwali and Christmas holidays. They can now have the opportunity to take advantage of the special, fun-filled, activity and experience rich holiday itineraries from Thomas Cook in association with South African Tourism. Hanneli Slabber, Country Manager, South African Tourism,said, “We constantly endeavor to create exciting and innovative experiences for our visitors. We would love for more Indians to come and witness the wonder that is South Africa – to truly experience and know the country like the locals. In close partnership with a leading travel trade partner like Thomas Cook, we hope to ensure that our Indian visitors have the best and most memorable experience from the minute they begin planning their trip. With a favorable exchange rate, Indian travellers going to South Africa will get an exceptional value on the ground as they can partake in so many more activities and experiences in their desired budget.” Rajeev Kale, President and Country Head – Leisure Travel & MICE, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd says, “For our Teams at Thomas Cook India, our partnership with South Africa Tourism has had a significant positive impact- South Africa has now emerged as one of our fastest growth long haul destinations for Indian outbound travelers!  Our upcoming campaign is strategic and focused on a 3 pronged delivery: strong growth of over 15%; inspire demand not only for  popular choices across individual and group travellers (Cape Town, Garden Route, Johannesburg, Sun City), but equally showcase newer regions like Kruger, Franschhoek, etc., and thirdly, catalyse uptake for fresh new opportunities like self-drives and winter-travel.”

Cox & Kings opened its first dedicated foreign exchange branch at Panjim in Goa. The branch designed as a one-stop-shop for all foreign exchange requirements was inaugurated by Ravi Menon, Head, Foreign Exchange, Cox & Kings. The flagship store located at Magnum Centre, First Floor, Shop 20, MG Road, Panjim will offer a slew of products – buying and selling of all frequently traded foreign currencies, sell pre-paid cards, enable Money Transfer business where tourists can receive money from overseas, as well as provide domestic money transfer facilities.  Students who desire to travel overseas from Goa for further studies can avail Foreign Currency Draft and Outward Remittance facilities through this outlet. According to Menon, “Goa is a key market as it receives a large number of foreign tourists. Our bouquet of foreign exchange products and services are designed to cater to this segment. Our branch will cater to all the requirements which are allowed under Authorised Dealer CAT II activities.” It has been observed that foreign tourists need help to exchange and exhaust their money when on their holiday. Cox & Kings will cater to both these needs, where these guests can exchange their money as well as use the money transfer facility to receive money from overseas. In case foreign tourists need help with their domestic holiday they can approach this branch, which in turn will refer them to the nearest Cox & Kings store. According to data released by the department of tourism, government of Goa, in 2015, Goa received 5.40 lakh international tourists, an increase of 5 percent over 2014. This year the state is expected to attract even more tourists especially from traditional markets such as …

Goibibo has now launched a new feature of live flight tracking for 1824 daily flight schedules, for both domestic and international flights. With the new feature passengers are enabled with three key aspects—get real time data on the flight schedule, air craft type, gate number, baggage carousel information; get notified on delays with estimated time of departure and arrival, change in terminal and gate information; and enable friends/ families of the passenger to track their journey as well as get notified on arrival information or change in schedules. Ashish Kashyap, Founder & CEO, Ibibo Group, said : “Flight tracking and status information is first of its kind. This is in line with our focus of constantly delivering unique consumer experiences and at the same enhancing our travel social network, GoContacts. We have an exciting line up of innovative product releases for all our categories comprising air, hotels, bus and cars”

Honorable Mayor of Paris and Yash Raj Films launched the Ranveer Singh and Vaani Kapoor starrer ‘Befikre’ at the iconic Eiffel Tower in Paris on October 10 evening. Set entirely in France, ‘Befikre’ embodies the French freedom of expression through a contemporary story of two young protagonists. Sheetal Wadhwa Munshaw, Director Atout France India – France Tourism Development Agency, said, “This is the first ever Bollywood movie to have been truly “Made in France” right from romancing at myriad locations in Paris, Picardy and Cannes, to personifying the quintessential French lifestyle. It has been a delightful experience for us to have been a part of this journey right from handpicking and showcasing locations in France with the Yash Raj team to now embarking on this path breaking launch pad of releasing the film’s trailer in Paris as hospitality partners alongside Accor group of Hotels. To showcase the film to a diverse audience, Atout France in association with Accor group of Hotels and Yashraj will organise a special screening for the travel trade fraternity and select media in December. We hope travel companies are motivated to create a Befikre trail which includes destinations shot in the movie such as Picardy, Cannes and Paris which will spur the avid traveller to embark on a new Befikre experience in France.” Full of Parisian spirit, the movie celebrates love – sensual, carefree and focused on living life to the fullest celebrating the renowned French art de vivre or unique way of life. The ‘Befikre’ cast touched down in France in early May and shot the film entirely Made in France for 52 days. The movie is slated to be released in India on December …

In order to ease travel booking Cleartrip has launched two new features- Price Lock and Pay@Hotel. Price Lock will allow clients to lock prices by paying a fee and pay only if the plans are confirmed. Thus a traveller can hold the lowest price well in advance and be protected from price increases. Pay@Hotel, on the other hand, lets the traveller book now and pay later at the hotel. The traveler pays only after he stays. Also, in case the hotel turns out to be different from what he saw at the time of booking, Cleartrip offers a ‘Sleep promise’ feature and will find another hotel that is more suited to the traveller’s needs. Cleartrip currently offers the largest collection of Pay@Hotel inventory in India. Subramanya Sharma, Chief Marketing Officer, Cleartrip said “Travel bookings are generally associated with anxiety. Travellers worry whether they are getting the right price, the right hotel and whether it is the right time to book. With Price Lock and Pay@hotel features, we believe that we are solving for the core anxiety moments in flight and hotel booking.” Cleartrip is also releasing two television commercials to educate the clients about the new features. The films will be launched across offline and online mediums including television and popular digital platforms.

The Sri Lankan carrier, Mihin Lanka will stop its services effective October 30, 2016. This decision has been made by the Government of Sri Lanka, as part of its long term strategy to restructure the local aviation industry and strengthen the national carrier’s offering and efficiency. Chinthaka Weerasinghe, Manager Northern India, SriLankan Airlines, says, “There are four routes that we will be taking over in India itself; Madurai, Kolkata, Varanasi and Bodh Gaya. With these operations we will be having overall 103 flights in a week from 11 destinations in India. This will make us one of the top five international airlines operating into India in terms of frequency as well as seat capacity.”

FCM Travel Solutions, the Indian arm of the Australia–headquartered Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG), announced an agreement to acquire the business interests of South India’s premier travel company, the Rs 750 crore Travel Tours Group (TTG), in a cash and stock deal. Led by Shravan Gupta, TTG is a four decade old company offering a gamut of travel services including leisure, corporate travel, MICE, Visa, inbound, wholesale and FOREX. Commenting on the acquisition, Rakshit Desai, Managing Director, FCM Travel Solutions said “We are thrilled to welcome TTG into the Flight Centre family.  This partnership propels us into an Rs 3,000 crore enterprise and one of the top three players in all the core travel segments we operate in. India is poised to become one of the world’s major travel markets and this partnership will enable us to achieve our goal of being the largest customer focussed travel player in the country.” Shravan Gupta, Managing Director, Travel Tours Group, who joins the board of FCM and assumes leadership of the leisure business said, “We are very excited to be a part of the Flight Centre group and confident that our combined strength will help achieve our ambitious growth plans at a much faster pace. I’m personally looking forward to leading the leisure business, sharing insights and product knowledge, as well as gaining from the global best practices of the Flight Centre group”. The combined strength will give FCM India a national distribution network and strong leadership across businesses and functions. Upon successful acquisition, FCM India will employ over 1,600 travel professionals across 44 locations in 16 cities. The partnership will bring on-board TTG’s brands, that include – Travel Tours, Travel Air, …

Thomas Cook (India) has chosen Rudrapur for the launch of its ‘Thomas Cook Mini’ in Uttarakhand-a strategic deployment of small technology assisted outlets to aggressively harness the growth potential emerging from India’s Tier III markets like Rudrapur. The Thomas Cook Mini outlet at Rudrapur was inaugurated Tilak Raj Behad, Chairman of Uttarakhand State Seed and Organic Production Certification Agency and former Cabinet Health Minister, Govt. of Uttarakhand, in the presence of Ambreesh Rastogi and Ankul Kumar, Associate Vice Presidents, Foreign Exchange, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd. Thomas Cook India’s internal research having highlighted the powerful growth potential of Rudrapur (a significant source market for Foreign Exchange segments of Overseas Study/Students, Outward Remittances and Prepaid Cards), the Company conceptualised a strategy of small technology assisted outlets to rapidly penetrate this underserved market, and hence the launch of its innovative Thomas Cook Mini. The Thomas Cook Mini outlet at Rudrapur has been designed optimising space and will be manned by a 2 member team, equipped with technology via mobile devices/tablets for seamless online connectivity to central systems, thus facilitating quick customer transactions.

The Institute of Hotel, Cargo and Tourism Management (IHCTM), a training division of Namaste Tourism, has announced a special trade discount for those who wish to attend its ‘Managing the Travel Business’ program with diploma awarded by International Air Transport Association (IATA) Montreal, Canada. The total fees for the course including the training, examination and registration for IATA along with applicable service tax is Rs 71,300. However, the institute is offering members of the trade a 20 per cent discount on early enrolment before 26 November, 2016. This will take the total course fee to Rs 46,900. This offer is exclusive for the travel trade. Subhash Motwani, Director, IHCTM, says, “The travel industry is changing every day and the Management – level 3 IATA program can equip a tourism professional with the latest global trends of travel and tourism industry. The course will include topics such as Managerial Skills, Negotiation Skills, Special Interest Tours, MICE, Technology In Travel Industry, Financial Management & Accounting, BSP Agent, Billing Reports & Remittance and Marketing.” Classes will be held in Mumbai at Colaba and Mahim centres starting from December 5 onwards.

TrawellTag Cover-More has partnered with Yatra.com as it establishes itself in the e-commerce segment. TrawellTag Cover-More India Founder & CEO, Dev Karvat, said “We will now provide our travel insurance and global assistance services to Yatra customers opting for both domestic and overseas travel. The association enables us to provide customised benefits for both leisure and corporate travellers. Our business model for Yatra.com focuses on changing customer needs and forecasted travel risks. The backbone of this model is a one-of-its kind software IMPULSE, an analytics engine that collects a feed of traveller data from the booking platform and crunches this in real time to generate customised offers for the travellers. With ease of integration, this cloud hosted tool customizes travel protection products with an exceptional speed of customer data processing.” Dhruv Shringi, Co-founder & CEO, Yatra.com said: “TrawellTag Cover-More was a natural choice as we share a common commitment; creating the most convenient travel experience for our customers. They bring along with them an impressive product range and technical know-how, more than a decade of domain expertise and a global presence which extends their service offering worldwide.”