Tag Archives: Thomas Cook India

Thomas Cook (India), in a focused initiative to capture smaller, yet high potential local leisure markets, has conceptualised a unique customer outreach – going local- right to its customer’s doorstep. Given the demand for its ‘Grand Indian Holiday Sale’ Thomas Cook India has announced an extension, with a special Weekend Mega Holiday Sale, an on-ground activation across five key catchment localities in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai (Ghatkopar, Kandivali, Juhu, Fort and Vashi), carefully selected basis high potential demand. The venues are well located and popular with local consumers, offering optimal space for both the high traffic and interactions anticipated. This is targeted towards its high potential Maharashtrian and Gujarati customers. The weekend sale bonanza offers customers a range of attractive deals and the advantage of spot discounts up to Rs. 40,000 per person on Thomas Cook India’s holiday packages, with an added incentive of a ‘Child Travels Free’ or its Holiday pe Holiday Free’ offer on select international tours. For customers who pay the entire amount upfront, Thomas Cook India offers a further discount of up to nine per cent on select international departures. Rajeev Kale, Thomas Cook India’s President & Country Head – Leisure Travel, MICE said, “Our customers are increasingly emerging from small local pockets within larger cities, and our intent was to reach out to our customers by going local- right to their very doorstep! The Grand Indian Holiday Sale extension over the weekend will be available at 5 highly popular venues across key catchment localities across Mumbai and Navi Mumbai. Mumbai currently contributes more than 15 per cent to our holiday business and given the high growth potential, we intend to leverage this market to the …

Thomas Cook India’s arm Quess Corp has acquired 64 per cent stake in Singapore-based technology service provider Comtel Solutions Pte Ltd for an undisclosed sum. “Quess Corp Ltd, a subsidiary of Thomas Cook (India) Ltd, has completed acquisition of 64 per cent equity in Comtel Solutions Pte. Ltd., Singapore on February 14, 2017,” the company said in a filing to BSE. Thomas Cook India, however, did not provide any financial details on the stake acquisition. Quess Corp is a business services provider operating in four broad segments: Global Technology Solutions, People and Services, Integrated Facilities Management and Industrial Asset Management. Comtel Solutions Pte Ltd has been in business for over a decade and has expanded across Asia Pacific and several industry verticals. Its divisions work across various sectors and the solutions developed by it cover areas such as banking, high-tech manufacturing, telecommunication, logistics and healthcare industries. (Source: The Economic Times)

Thomas Cook (India) Ltd. in a strategic initiative to expand India’s travel market, has conceptualised an annual property, “The Grand Indian Holiday Sale”, carefully timed to coincide with the peak booking window for summer vacations- India’s largest holiday season. The focused intent to catalyse holiday demand is delivered via a range of specially curated offers and discounts targeting India’s quintessential ‘value seeker’. This intense 10 day sale offers India’s travellers a range of attractive deals and discounts on both domestic and international bookings, covering flights, hotels and holiday packages. To capture its diversity of customers, digitally native and retail, and ensure convenience and easy access, “The Grand Indian Holiday Sale”, is available across Thomas Cook India’s omnichannel network – its online platforms (mobile & website), call centers & extensive offline outlets. Thomas Cook India’s ‘The Great Indian Holiday Sale’ extends across the company’s portfolio of India and International destinations and will be promoted via an intense marketing blitz across outdoor, print and digital over a two week period, across key metros of Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune and Ahmedabad. Abraham Alapatt, President & Group Head – Marketing, Service Quality, Financial Services & Innovation, Thomas Cook India said, “The Grand Indian Holiday Sale’’ has been conceptualized as a powerful annual property making holidays affordable for every Indian. The initiative is designed to leverage the critical booking period for India’s peak vacation season with exciting deals, thus driving demand and conversions. As a pioneer in the industry, our grand sale in the travel and holiday category intends to build a strong annual property that Indian travellers look forward to every year.” He added, “In addition to the range of attractive …

Thomas Cook India has opened a new Gold Circle Partner outlet in Bikaner. The Thomas Cook Gold Circle Partner programme is an exclusive partner programme for tour operators and travel agents in India that helps in increasing the brand’s presence and reach across the country. With this programme, the Gold Circle Partner reaps benefits of a brand association with Thomas Cook, along with knowledge sharing, training and expertise to manage a travel business. In addition, a Gold Circle Partner is empowered to provide customers with a wide range of travel and financial products & services, including sales & marketing support for customer retention and further new business development, thereby enabling them to reach out to a larger customer base. Rajeev Kale, President & Country Head Leisure Travel & MICE at Thomas Cook India Limited said, “We have observed that India’s Tier II and III markets exhibit immense potential for growth and we want to be a catalyst in this key opportunity. Bikaner is a ]new market for our travel and travel related businesses and we believe that the city offers tremendous potential to cater to a diversity of retail consumers such as business families, government employees, and business and leisure travelers. Our newly opened outlet in Bikaner is located in a well-known commercial hub- right in the heart of the market.” With this new Bikaner outlet, Thomas Cook India’s network in Rajasthan extends to 10 locations across the state, offering its customers easy access via 2 owned branches in Jaipur and Udaipur and 8 Gold Circle Partner outlets (3 in Jaipur, and one each a Kota, Udaipur, Jodhpur, Alwar and now in Bikaner).

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.

Thomas Cook India Limited’s education and training vertical, Centre of Learning, felicitated 270 students of the 2015-2016 batch at its fifth Convocation Ceremony held at the Indian Merchants Chamber, Mumbai. The ceremony was graced by the Chief Guest Craig Astridge, Regional Head, Marketing and Commercial Services, Asia-Pacific International Air Transport Association. Other guests at the event included Lokesh Matta – Regional Training Business Development Manager, South Asia at International Air Transport Association (IATA) along with Soraya Homchuen – Director, Tourism Authority of Thailand, Abraham Alapatt, President & Group Head – Marketing, Service Quality, Financial Services & Innovation, Thomas Cook (India), and Smeeta Gulvady,‎ Vice President & Head- Centre of Learning at Thomas Cook (India). The Centre of Learning Convocation Ceremony honoured its students who had successfully completed the Travel Professional Program, a Post Graduate Course in Travel & Tourism Management, Certificate Course in World Tour Management, IATA. Scholarship certificates and special prizes were awarded to top performers of Centre of Learning’s Travel Professional Program – a Post Graduate course in Travel & Tourism Management.

Thomas Cook Tours (TCT)’s Centre of Learning, also the education and training vertical of Thomas Cook (India), intimated its holding company that a memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed between Sharad Nautiyal, General Manager Training, representing the Madhya Pradesh State Tourism Development Corporation Limited and Smeeta Gulvady, Vice President & Head, Centre of Learning, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd. in the presence of Hari Ranjan Rao (IAS,) Managing Director, Madhya Pradesh State Tourism Development Corporation. Under the MOU, Thomas Cook’s Centre of Learning will impart training programmes – ‘Explore Madhya Pradesh’ via engaging learning modules to over 660 travel agents, covering 20 cities (Kolkata, Noida, Gurgaon, Delhi, Lucknow, Varanasi, Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Pune, Nasik, Nagpur, Mumbai, Goa, Raipur, Chennai, Hyderabad, Cochin and Bengaluru) in the next two months. A qualifying evaluation will be followed post the training session and top 2 winners from amongst the 660 travel agents across 20 cities will be hosted for a 2 nights/3 days hotel stay by Madhya Pradesh State Tourism Development Corporation Limited.

Thomas Cook (India), in its bid to improving tourist infrastructure and promote better sanitation-hygiene at tourist destinations has announced the pilot launch of pre-fabricated sanitary installations. Udhagamandalam (Ooty) was chosen as the first site for this initiative. The Thomas Cook India toilet units can be used free of cost. Abraham Alapatt, President & Group Head-Marketing, Service Quality, Financial Services & Innovation, Thomas Cook (India), said, “Through this initiative, we at Thomas Cook India, intend to improve the sanitation and hygiene of prime tourist locations across India. While the choice of location depends upon various factors like community need, land availability, clearances/approvals from local administrative bodies, availability of resources, etc., we are looking at targeting major tourists hubs to further the Government’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. We have identified prime destinations in India that receive high tourist footfalls but face a deficit of sanitation facilities for this.”

Thomas Cook India’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Thomas Cook Lanka has entered into a Share Purchase Agreement (SPA) for the purpose of acquiring 24 per cent of the issued, subscribed and paid up share capital of Sita World Travel Lanka. Sita World Travel Lanka was incorporated in 1997 to promote leisure travel to Sri Lanka. The balance 76 per cent is held by SOTC Travel Service which is a subsidiary of Thomas Cook India and Travel Corporation of India. The successful completion of the acquisition is subject to statutory and regulatory approvals. (Source: PTI)

Thomas Cook India has announced the launch of exclusive international packages – ‘Sharod Shubheccha’ for avid Bengali travellers this Durga Puja, one of the most widely celebrated festivals in India offering a long holiday opportunity, especially in West Bengal. Thomas Cook India has introduced special packages to some of the top favourite international destinations like Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Egypt, China, Dubai, Hong Kong, Macau, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, U.K, etc. starting from INR 35,500/- onwards (per person on twin share basis) giving more than one reason to its Bengali travellers, to celebrate an auspicious occasion in a foreign locale. Kolkata & West Bengal, as also Bhubaneshwar & Orissa have been earmarked as an important market for Durga Puja holidays accounting for 10% of our overall leisure travel business and has witnessed an uptake of 27% in bookings y-o-y with consumers booking their holidays almost 2 months in advance. Thomas Cook India’s distribution and reach in West Bengal augments to 6 consumer access centers: 3 owned branches, and 3 Gold Circle Partner (franchise) outlets. Commenting on the Durga Puja special packages Mr. Rajeev D. Kale, President & Country Head – Leisure Travel & MICE, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd. said, “Durga Puja is one of the most significant festive occasions and is widely celebrated in West Bengal. Marked by grand celebrations, the 9-day festive extravaganza is one of the biggest holiday seasons in the state. Keeping in mind the strong support received from our discerning Bengali travellers, also considering their evolving preferences and demands, we at Thomas Cook India have designed special packages at exciting price points, to enable Bengali travelers celebrate their favourite festival at their dream destinations- with their loved …