Leisure tour operator Thomas Cook is eyeing over 20% growth in its outbound travel business, company's managing director Madhavan Menon has said.
Fairbridge Capital, an arm of Canadian company Fairfax Financial Holdings took control of Thomas Cook India from its UK-based parent company for Rs 810 crore two months ago. " The way Fairfax works it leaves you to run the business..They do not bring change. They do not drive change. We are now looking at technology in a big way. We will invest in technology and bring more services online,'' Menon said. Thomas Cook launched its multi currency travel card on Thursday and will compete with banks including State Bank of India, Citibank and ICICI sell travel cards. Thomas Cook is only non banking institution to partner with Master Card to launch it.
"We are seeing growth in outbound travel over last year. It has grown at about 22-25%. We are also seeing pattern change. This year we are receiving requests from customers to travel to Europe in winter. Australia has come into focus as a destination. People want to travel to South Africa and Kenya,'' he said and added there was no dip in demand despite rise in airfares.
Foreign exchange business contributes 60% of Thomas Cook's business and the rest comes from travel. Within travel outbound leisure, meeting and incentive tours and corporate business makes up 80% of revenue and the rest comes from inbound tourism.
Thomas Cook posted a net profit of Rs 12.15 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2012, down 50 per cent from Rs 24.51 crore in the corresponding period last year. Menon said there were several one off transactions in September and excluding that there is growth of 9% (in profit). He said the July-September is lean period for company and it was expecting to register double digit growth this year.
"Our forex volumes have grown 14% this year,'' he said. Menon expects the travel card to push up the volumes further. "The demand is encouraging,'' he said. Card users need not worry about exchange rate fluctuations or merchant charges applicable to credit cards. "In many ways it looks like a debit card and need not worry that it will get rejected,'' he said.
