With the easing of restrictions, as Indians seek the freedom of travelling again, Thomas Cook India and its Group Company, SOTC Travel, have announced the first physical holiday roadshows since lockdown – Thomas Cook India’s Freedom Month Celebrations and SOTC’s Freedom Month Carnival. The series of customer centric roadshows, in association with Accor and Marriott hotels, will be held on November 8, 2020 from 11 am to 5 pm across key source markets – Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Pune, Kochi, Jaipur and Baroda.
The Holiday Readiness Travel Report – Future of Travel post COVID-19, has revealed that Indian consumers are in need of reassurance, expertise and human touch to help them plan their holidays, and more so during the COVID era: 58 per cent preferring to book holidays at physical outlets/home service. Thomas Cook India’s Freedom Month Celebrations and SOTC’s Freedom Month Carnival have thus been designed to incorporate the reassurance of an in-person holiday booking experience within easy access, coupled with the hygiene-safety protocols of Accor and Marriott venues. Thomas Cook India and SOTC holiday experts will be present to guide and assist customers with important elements, including health and safety protocols, etc. – aimed at bringing back customer confidence in travelling during the COVID era.
Rajeev Kale, President & Country Head – Holidays, MICE, Visa, Thomas Cook (India), said, “To assist our customers plan their perfect holiday and guide them through the new/updated travel protocols, we have simplified the booking process by bringing our Freedom Month Celebrations right to our customers’ doorstep! Held at Accor and Marriott hotels across India, we intended to provide Indians with a safe and smooth holiday booking experience and the assistance of our holiday experts, while availing of great offers.”
He further added, “Our Assured Program in partnership with Apollo Clinics ensures meticulous health & safety protocols. To further assist our customers, we have tied up with ICMR accredited labs to offer end-to-end COVID-negative certification services with contactless facilitation – across India. Our Safe Holiday Helpline is yet another meaningful consumer initiative – a free service to support customers in safe holiday planning.”
Daniel D’souza, President and Country Head, Leisure, SOTC Travel, said, “Travellers are looking for holidays that are safe and offer exceptional experiences, but planning their trip during COVID times is a daunting task. So at SOTC Travel, we’ve introduced our unique Freedom Month Carnival to support our customers with safe travel planning with our holidays experts and benefit from an exciting range of products and offers. The Accor and Marriott hotels further ensure our customers the assurance of high levels of hygiene and sanitation at each venue.”
Kerrie Hannaford, Vice President Commercial, Accor India & South Asia, said, “The Freedom Month Carnival roadshow in association with Thomas Cook India & SOTC is a testimony that the industry is progressing and provides us an opportunity to showcase our services to guests. It is heartening to see the event is being conducted in real locations and not virtually as is the current norm. The event will be a steppingstone to further boost the leisure segment and also provide an assurance to travellers about the safety standards being followed across hotels as per Accor’s ALLSAFE label. We are certain that this roadshow will be successful and prove to be beneficial for all the stakeholders.”
Ramesh Daryanani, Vice President, Global Sales – Asia Pacific, Marriott International, said, “As travel routes and borders open up, we are seeing customers slowly yet surely starting to travel again. We continue to reiterate our commitment to responsible travel, wellbeing and ensuring we follow the highest cleanliness protocols for our guests. We continue to evolve and enhance our hospitality experiences, initiating engagements through partnerships with leading and trusted travel institutions like Thomas Cook and SOTC, in order to provide our guests with more informed choices to work with, making travel not just safer, but better.”
