Thomas Cook India eyes the high potential student travel segment for its Foreign Exchange business

 Mumbai, July 18, 2018: In a strategic move to capitalise on the significant and growing student travel segment, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd., India’s leading integrated travel and travel related financial services company, has launched “Study Buddy”. This is an exclusive student focussed Foreign Exchange promotion available across Thomas Cook India’s omni-channel network, including over 150 foreign exchange outlets pan India, and extends over a 3 month period ending September 30, 2018.

Highlights

 

·   Study Buddy offer continues till September 30, 2018

·   Attractive  rates on every foreign exchange purchase

·   Assured gift vouchers 20% off on Myntra + 10% on Skybags

·   Special Student fares; 10% discount on base fare

·   Daily Mega prize – One lucky winner wins a laptop

Against the backdrop of a steady increase in Indian students opting to study abroad for graduate and post graduate studies, Thomas Cook India has registered an impressive 20-25% YoY growth in its foreign exchange student business over the last 3-4 years. Given the strong growth potential and in a focussed initiative to catalyse demand and expand its student market-share, Thomas Cook India has launched a 3 month strategic Study Buddy promotion- timed strategically to target the critical booking window for student travel. Study Buddy’s attractive offers and deals intend to inspire student foreign exchange transactions with a range of assured gifts, including a 20% discount Myntra gift voucher, a 10% discount on Skybags, and a laptop every day to a lucky winner.

In addition to the Study Buddy offers, Thomas Cook India’s Student portfolio offers a range of significant benefits:

  • Attractive rates on purchase of foreign exchange
  • Doorstep delivery
  • Zero charges on Remittances for university/ tuition fees and living expenses
  • The convenience and security of Thomas Cook India’s Borderless and One Currency Prepaid cards
  • Free ATM withdrawals
  • Currency Notes across all global currencies and Demand Drafts
  • Special Student airfares; 10% discount on base fare
  • Excess baggage allowance on select airlines
  • Overseas Travel Insurance

 

Thomas Cook India’s omni-channel presence (its portal www.thomascook.in backed by its Call Centres  and its extensive network of over 150 retail outlets) offers students ease and convenience in booking their student travel products/services. The Company’s Online Forex Store and Forex app are handy tools to equip the digitally savvy student segment with foreign exchange bookings on-the-go, coupled with the added advantage of doorstep delivery.

Mr. Deepesh Varma, Senior Vice President, Foreign Exchange – Sales & Relationship Management, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd. said, The student travel market in India is a significant opportunity and at Thomas Cook India we have already witnessed impressive growth of 20-25% YoY. Hence in an initiative to inspire demand and maximize transactions, we conceptualized “Study Buddy”, timed to coincide with the student travel season. Study Buddy’s attractive offers and assured gifts are intended to delight the value seeking student community!”

He added, “Being a specialist in Foreign Exchange, our core product-service offering includes Remittance of University/Tuition Fees, Forex Prepaid Cards and Currency Notes backed with years of experience in guiding students and parents on changing forex regulations and the safest way in carrying foreign exchange abroad. This together with our “Study Buddy” offers creates a compelling proposition for students and parents to fulfil all their foreign exchange requirements through us, and with ease- via our omni-channel network.”

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.

The Thomas Cook India Group spanning 21 countries across 4 continents, a team of over 6,625 and a combined revenue in excess of Rs. 11,411.6 Cr. (over $ 1.75 Bn), operates leading B2C and B2B brands including, Thomas Cook, SOTC, TCI, SITA, Asian Trails, Allied T Pro, Australian Tours Management, Desert Adventures, Travel Circle International Limited, Private Safaris East & South Africa. The Group is today one of the largest travel service provider networks headquartered in the Asia-Pacific region.

ICRA has placed the long-term rating of ‘ICRA AA’ assigned to the non-convertible debenture programme of TCIL on ‘rating watch with developing implications’. CRISIL has placed its rating of ‘CRISIL AA–’ on the long-term bank facilities of TCIL on ‘rating watch with developing implications’, while reaffirming its ‘CRISIL A1+’ rating on the short-term bank facilities and short-term debt of the Company.

Thomas Cook (India) Ltd has been felicitated with The Best Outbound Tour Operator and Leading Company with Cutting Edge Travel Innovation at the Times Travel Awards 2018, Excellence in Domestic Tour Operations at the SATTE Awards 2018, Best Travel Entrepreneur of The Year at TTG Travel Awards 2017, The French Ambassador’s Diamond Award for Exemplary Achievements in Visa Insurance– 2015, 2016 & 2017 and the Condé Nast Traveller – Readers’ Travel Awards from 2011 to 2016.

For more information, please visit www.thomascook.in

Thomas Cook (India) Limited is promoted by Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Fairbridge Capital (Mauritius) Limited and its controlled affiliates which holds 66.99%. Fairbridge is responsible for the execution of acquisition and investment opportunities in the Indian subcontinent on behalf of the Fairfax family of companies.

About Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited: Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited is a holding company which, through its subsidiaries, is engaged in property and casualty insurance and reinsurance and investment management.  The company was founded in 1985 by the present Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Prem Watsa.  The company has been under present management since 1985 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.  Its common shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol FFH and in U.S. dollars under the symbol FFH.U.

 The company, through Thomas Cook (India) Ltd., owns 49.02% of Quess Corp Limited, a provider of integrated business services, and 100% of Sterling Holiday Resorts Limited , a company engaged in time share and resort business.

About Quess Corp: Quess Corp Limited (BSE: 539978, NSE: QUESS), is India’s leading business services provider. At Quess, we excel in helping large and emerging companies manage their non-core activities by leveraging our integrated service offerings across industries and geographies which provides significant operational efficiencies to our clients. Quess has a team of over ~261,700 employees across India, North America, South America, South East Asia and the Middle East across segments such as Industrials, Facility Management, People Services, Technology Solutions and Internet Business. Quess serves over 1,700+ clients worldwide. Established in 2007, Quess is headquartered in Bengaluru, India and has a market cap of overUSD 2.3 Bn as on March 31, 2018.

http://www.quesscorp.com

 About Sterling Holiday Resorts Limited: Sterling Holiday Resorts Limited, a leading holiday lifestyle company in India, was incorporated in 1986 with the vision of delivering great holiday experiences to Indian families. To achieve this vision, the company pioneered Vacation Ownership in India and set about building a network of leisure resorts at some of the best holiday destinations in India. Currently, Sterling Holidays has an inventory of 2124 rooms across 32 resorts.

In March 2016, Sterling Holidays acquired ‘Nature Trails Resorts Private Limited’ – an adventure holiday company that operates resorts at four unique destinations in Maharashtra. For more information, please visit www.sterlingholidays.com

About SOTC Travel Limited: SOTC Travel Limited (formerly known as SOTC Travel Private Limited) is a step-down subsidiary of Fairfax Financial Holdings Group; held through its Indian listed subsidiary, Thomas Cook (India) Limited (TCIL). SOTC is a leading travel and tourism company active across various travel segments including Leisure Travel, Incentive Travel and Business Travel.

TCIL through its Subsidiary holds100% stake in Travel Circle International Limited, which has an attractive business in the travel sector backed by a trusted brand name, and a stable and motivated professional management team. The company is a premium outbound travel operator in Hong Kong. For more information please visit www.sotc.in

About the recent acquisitions: TCIL recently completed the acquisition of TC Forex Services Limited (Formerly known as Tata Capital Forex Limited) (TC Forex) and TC Travel and Services Limited (TC Travel). TC Forex offers travel related foreign exchange products including Currency notes, Travel Cards and Traveller’s cheques and TC Travel offers a wide range of services including Airline ticketing, Booking Hotel accommodation, Visa and Passport facilitation, Travel insurance etc.

About Manish Mathur