Madhavan Menon – Chairman & Managing Director, Thomas Cook (India) Limited
Thomas Cook (India) Ltd., India’s leading integrated travel and travel related financial services company, was conferred with the prestigious Diamond Award for highest number of visa issuances to France from India in 2016, at the French Ambassador’s Travel Awards, established to honour outstanding performers in the travel and tourism industry in India. Thomas Cook (India) Ltd. has won the Diamond Award for both years since inception. Dignitaries present included His Excellency Mr. Alexandre Ziegler, Ambassador of France to India, senior members of the French Consular Corps, Corporate India and the Travel & Tourism industry. According to Atout France, the France Tourism Development Agency: the number of visas issued by French Consulates in India increased by 48.14% in 2015, as compared to 2014; France having received 500,000 visitors from India in 2015, with significantly higher numbers expected in the current year. Thomas Cook India’s internal research highlights that France is one of the top aspirational destinations on the Indian traveller’s bucket list. The data also reiterates increased Indian traveller appetite for newer French locales and experiences; equally growing interest for non-traditional opportunities like winter holidays. Apart from Paris, the regions of Champagne, Picardy, Midi Pyrenees, Provence and Burgundy are growing in popularity, with Thomas Cook India seeing strong demand across its key segments of leisure, corporate MICE and b-leisure. Mr. Madhavan Menon – Chairman & Managing Director, Thomas Cook (India) Limited, said, “It is indeed an honour to receive the prestigious Diamond Award from The Ambassador of France to India, His Excellency, Mr. Alexandre Ziegler, and for the second time in a row. This unique award is both a recognition of our strategic focus towards Destination France, as also of the unstinted support we receive from the Visa Officers of the France Consular offices in Mumbai and across India and we are highly appreciative of all their efforts.”
Mr. Menon added, “France has always been a favourite with Indian travellers and the significant initiatives by the Government of France and Atout France have played a vital role in ensuring a strong continuum of the growth across our leisure and MICE segments. It is hence noteworthy that despite geopolitical headwinds, we have seen strong double digit growth for France this year and even more encouraging is the increased length of stay, also interest in not just the favourites of France and Nice-Cannes or the wine region of Bordeaux, but also new and strongly emerging locales like Picardy, Midi Pyrenees, Champagne and Corsica.” Expressing appreciation at Thomas Cook India’s efforts to position France as a destination of choice in India, Mr Alexandre Ziegler, Ambassador of France to India, said, “I am delighted to confer the Ambassador’s Travel Award - Diamond Category on Thomas Cook India for registering the highest number of visa issuances. This comes in recognition of Thomas Cook’s unflagging commitment to promoting France as a travel destination. France is proud to be the top global tourist destination and to welcome a rapidly increasing number of Indian travellers. After half a million last year, our objective is to welcome many more!” Sheetal Munshaw, Director – Atout France, added, “We would like to thank Thomas Cook (India) Ltd. and their teams for their unstinted support towards the promotion of France as a preferred outbound travel destination. Since the initiation of the Ambassadors Travel Awards in 2015, we’ve been very pleased to have Thomas Cook consistently bag top accolades in enhancing influx into France. We have successfully channelized our synergies towards joint initiatives including a recent multimedia campaign showcasing France, especially Paris and the myriad options the destination presents to the discerning Indian traveller. We are convinced that this showcase will help further boost Indian arrivals to France in the coming months. It has been an absolute pleasure associating with Thomas Cook and we are confident that our alliance will continue to grow from strength to strength in the coming years.” About Thomas Cook (India) Limited: Thomas Cook (India) Ltd (TCIL) is the leading integrated travel and travel related financial services company in the country offering a broad spectrum of services that include Foreign Exchange, Corporate Travel, MICE,
Leisure Travel, Insurance, Visa & Passport services and E-Business. The company set up its first office in India in 1881. TCIL’s footprint (exclusive of its subsidiaries) currently extends to over 234 locations (including 17 airport counters) in 92 cities across India, Mauritius & Sri Lanka and is supported by a strong partner network of 110 Gold Circle Partners and 111 Preferred Sales Agents in over 130 cities across India. ICRA has retained the long-term rating of Thomas Cook (India) Limited’s non-convertible debenture programme at ‘ ICRA AA/Stable’. CRISIL has assigned a long term rating of ‘CRISIL AA– / stable’ to the non-convertible debenture programme and long-term banking facilities, and a short-term rating of ‘CRISIL A1+’ to TCIL’s banking facilities. Further, ICRA has retained the rating of ‘ICRA AA– / Stable’ on the Company’s preference share programme.
Thomas Cook India sees strong potential in Rajasthan State Opens Gold Circle Partner outlet in Bikaner
Thomas Cook (India) Ltd., India’s leading integrated travel and travel related financial services company, announced the opening of a new Gold Circle Partner outlet in Bikaner. The new franchise outlet was inaugurated by Princess Sidhi Kumari, MLA of Bikaner (East), Rajasthan. With the inauguration of the 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). 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 the leading travel company in India, 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. The new Gold Circle Partner in Bikaner offers consumers a complete travel solution that includes a bouquet of travel and travel related financial services such as: • International & Domestic Holidays (Group escorted Tours, FIT Personalised holidays, Cruises, Rail and more) • Travel Insurance • Foreign Exchange • Pre-Paid Forex Cards • Remittance Services Mr. Rajeev Kale, President & Country Head Leisure Travel & M.I.C.E at Thomas Cook (India) Limited said, “We have observed that India’s tier 2 and 3 markets exhibit immense potential for growth and we want to be a catalyst in this key opportunity. Bikaner is a viable 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, business and leisure travellers.” Mr. Kale added, “Our newly opened outlet in Bikaner is located in a wellknown commercial hub- right in the heart of the market. The travel experts stationed at our outlet look forward to offer the consumers from Bikaner and surrounding areas a complete end-toend travel solution and ensure smooth and memorable holiday experiences - within India and across the world.”