March 9, 2018 TnH Global

Thomas Cook India leverages strong growth potential of Uttar Pradesh market

Opens two new Foreign Exchange outlets at Varanasi Airport

Thomas Cook (India) Ltd., India’s leading integrated travel and travel related financial services company, has identified the state of Uttar Pradesh as a significant growth market for its Foreign Exchange business and to leverage this opportunity, has opened two new counters at Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport, Varanasi. The outlets were inaugurated by Mr. Anil Kumar Rai – Airport Director in the presence of Shouvik Chatterjee and Amit Gupta, Associate Vice Presidents of Thomas Cook India’s Foreign Exchange business.

Industry data highlights that Varanasi Airport has witnessed strong growth in passenger numbers- from 1 Million in 2014–2015 to 1.9 Million passengers in 2017–2018. In addition, Thomas Cook India’s internal research has reiterated the strong and growing potential of India’s Tier II & III source markets and based on high potential, Varanasi airport was selected for its new Foreign Exchange outlets.

Varanasi is a key destination for foreign tourists visiting the famous Kashi Vishwanath Temple; equally for its significant and growing market of outbound travellers. The two new airport counters extend Thomas Cook India’s Foreign Exchange distribution and reach for Uttar Pradesh to a total of 12 consumer access centres: 7 owned branches and 5 Gold Circle Partner (franchise) outlets.

The consumer empowering Foreign Exchange Product-Service portfolio available at the airport includes:

A range of key global currencies including US Dollar, Euro, Pound, Australian Dollar, Yen, Canadian Dollar, Singapore Dollar.
Prepaid Travel Cards

- Multi-currency Borderless Prepaid Card in partnership with MasterCard- with 8 global currencies

- Thomas Cook One Currency Card – India’s first prepaid card with Zero cross currency conversion fees

Deepesh Varma, Sr. Vice President & Head – Sales & Relationship Management Foreign Exchange, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd. said, “Varanasi is a key and high growth opportunity for our Foreign Exchange business being a prime gateway airport for the Buddhist Circuit, also for Uttar Pradesh’s strongly emerging outbound travel segment. At Thomas Cook India, we have identified Varanasi as a powerful source market given strong growth continuum of 17% YoY for our Foreign Exchange business.”

He added, “Our two new Foreign Exchange outlets at Varanasi’s Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport, will offer travellers easy access to Thomas Cook India’s range of Foreign Exchange products and services- right at the airport on arrival or departure.”