o Over 70000 students, 75 schools from Bangalore participated in Thomas Cook Travel Quest – Season III - India’s first Inter-School National Travel Quiz
o Over 900 students shortlisted to compete and qualify for the City Finals- in Bangalore
o 52 Schools compete for the City finals; Clarence High School emerges as the city winner and qualifies for Semi- finals
Bangalore, December 21, 2016: Thomas Cook Travel Quest Season III - India’s first national travel quiz for schools conducted its City Finals today, declaring Bharani Vel Karthik & Sai Harshit B from Clarence High School as the City Finals winner ensuring an entry to the Semi-finals to be held at Ooty. Present at the event were heads of the city’s leading educational institutions, parents and students. The quiz was hosted by illustrious quiz master Giri Pickbrain.
Given outstanding pan India participation for Season - I & II Thomas Cook Travel Quest Season III – is back with an interesting format this year.
The travel quiz, open to school students from classes 6 to 9, includes an extensive six month outreach across 14 cities (Dehradun, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Nagpur, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kochi, Chennai, Coimbatore, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Pune, Mumbai and Delhi) and will be held in four stages: an online qualifying test covering 1100 schools, followed by qualifiers to determine City, Semi-finals and eventually National winners. The Semi-finals and the finals will be held at Ooty in January 2017.
For this unique initiative, Thomas Cook India continues its partnership with Greycaps India Private Limited - Asia's largest on stage quizzing and knowledge Services Company, curated by noted quizmaster Mr. Giri Pickbrain. With the focus being History & Geography, the quiz revolves travel being the best teacher and hence fascinating aspects of the world we live in, its cultures, cuisines and traditions, the amazing wonders of the world, to name a few.
Having benefitted from strong student-educator-parent engagement last year, Switzerland Tourism continues being partner for the third year in a row joined by Spain Tourism for Travel Quest Season III. To deepen the focus on experiential learning, they have sponsored prize winning trips for students and teachers to Switzerland and Spain (Grand Finale and Semi-Finals, respectively).
Following an intense outreach programme via online tests at a school level, Thomas Cook covered over 70,000 students from 75 educational institutions across Bangalore. The venue Presidency School was packed with an excited audience of over a thousand students, teachers and parents.
Mr. Abraham Alapatt, President & Group Head – Marketing, Service Quality, Financial Services & Innovation, Thomas Cook (India) Limited said, “At Thomas Cook India, we believe that Travel is the best teacher that provides rich and valuable learning experience. Today, there is a trend shift from subjects like Maths-Science to History and Geography that helps students extend their outlook and explore the world. Children soak up lessons better with a touch and feel experience and that establishes the aim of Travel Quest. This initiative by Thomas Cook is part of a large social responsibility to reach out to schools. It strives to help build a better India and prepare the Young India to aspire beyond their immediate geography to be confident global citizens and feel comfortable anywhere in the world.”
He added, “Educational trips are increasing in popularity among schools since they aid in improving student engagement and provide an exciting learning experience of new cultures, lifestyle and countries. Thomas Cook has observed a growth of over 45% in Bangalore being a promising & key market for Travel Quest study tours. Europe (Switzerland & France) Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong) and USA have been top destinations.”
Mr. Claudio Zemp, Director India-Switzerland Tourism said, “Switzerland Tourism is extremely proud to be associated with the Thomas Cook Travel Quest for the third year running. This unique national travel quiz for schools is an amazing initiative to connect with youth from all over India and we wish them the very best in their quest to win an amazing trip to Switzerland. Switzerland is the ideal country to bring your children for a 'Back to Nature' holiday. Switzerland offers families an almost unlimited range of experiences not only in summer, but in winter too.”
Mr. Ignacio Ducasse Gutierrez, Director, Spain Tourism added “Spain Tourism is excited to be associated with Travel Quest for the first time- a key platform which will enable us to reach out to India’s strong and emerging student/youth segment potential. Spain has much to offer India’s Gen Next – yes ofcourse football and the Spain connect via Barca, Real Madrid etc.., but equally spanish cuisine (tapas,paella, tortillas…) history , architecture, culture and exiting experiences like bull fighting and flamenco. We are keen to showcase this opportunity to the market via this valuable initiative together with Thomas Cook”
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 232 locations (including 23 airport counters) in 92 cities across India, Mauritius & Sri Lanka and is supported by a strong partner network of 116 Gold Circle Partners and 112 Preferred Sales Agents in over 130 cities across India.
ICRA upgraded the long term rating of Thomas Cook (India) Limited’s non-convertible debenture programme to ‘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 assigned a rating of ‘ICRA AA-/Stable’ to the company’s preference share programme.
Thomas Cook (India) Ltd has been voted as Favourite Outbound Tour Operator at the Outlook Traveller Awards 2015, Best Tour Operator - Outbound at the CNBC AWAAZ Travel Awards 2015, 2014 & 2013 and Best Company providing Foreign Exchange at the CNBC AWAAZ Travel Awards 2015 & 2014; felicitated with Diamond Award for Exemplary Achievements in Visa Issuance at the French Ambassador's Travel Awards Ceremony 2015; Thomas Cook India’s Travel Quest was honoured with a Gold Award at PATA Gold Awards 2015; honored as India's Leading Tour Operator 2014, World Travel Awards Asia & Australasia 2014, Favourite Tour Operator at the Condé Nast Traveller Readers' Travel Awards 2015 - 2011 ,recognized as a Consumer Superbrand 2013-14 & 2012-2013 and National Tourism Awards 2013-2014. Thomas Cook India’s Centre of Learning has received IATA accreditation as “Top 10 South Asia IATA Authorized Training Centers”2015, 2013 & 2012. 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. 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 financial services holding company based in Canada with a global presence in insurance and reinsurance, as well as joint ventures including ICICI Lombard (India). The Company, founded in 1985 by the present Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Prem Watsa, has over the past 30 years, demonstrated a strong and consistent financial track record. For the year ended December 31, 2014, Fairfax increased book value per share at a compounded annual growth rate of 21.1% since its inception with a corresponding compounded annual increase in share price 19.8% and had over US $36 billion of assets.
Fairfax is engaged in long term investments from its own resources, with a focus to delivering long term capital appreciation through a flexible and value oriented approach. Fairfax Financial Holdings through Thomas Cook (India) Ltd. owns 69.55% of the Quess Corp Limited (formerly IKYA Human Capital Solutions Limited), a provider of integrated business services and 100% of Sterling Holiday Resorts Limited (formerly Thomas Cook Insurance Services (India) Limited) engaged in time share and resort business.
About Quess Corp Limited (formerly IKYA Human Capital Solutions Limited)
Quess Corp Limited is one of India’s leading integrated business services providers operating in four broad segments: Global Technology Solutions, People and Services, Integrated Facility Management and Industrial Asset Management. Headquartered in Bengaluru, it has a pan-India presence with 43 offices across 24 cities, as well as operations in North America, the Middle East and South East Asia. As of November 30, 2015, it employed over 118,000 employees.For further details on Quess Corp Ltd. please visit: http://www.quesscorp.com
About Sterling Holiday Resorts Limited:
Sterling Holiday Resorts Limited, a pioneer in vacation ownership and a leading leisure hospitality 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 a total inventory of 1767 rooms spread across a network of 24 resorts in 21 scenic holiday destinations in India.
In pursuance of the Order of Hon’ble High Court, Bombay, dated 2nd July, 2015 sanctioning the Composite Scheme of Arrangement and Amalgamation between Sterling Holiday Resorts (India) Limited (SHRIL) and Thomas Cook Insurance Services (India) Limited (TCISIL) and Thomas Cook (India) Limited (TCIL) and their respective shareholders and creditors (Scheme), the time share and resort business division and undertaking of SHRIL was Demerged into TCISIL and the residual business of SHRIL was Amalgamated with TCIL.
Post implementation of composite scheme, Sterling Holiday Resorts Limited (formerly Thomas Cook Insurance Services (India) Limited) continued the time share and resort business.
The company also has 16 additional sites where it plans to add new resorts in the coming years. For more information visit: www.sterlingholidays.com
About Kuoni India & Kuoni Hong Kong
Kuoni Travel (India) Pvt Ltd is a step-down subsidiary of Fairfax Financial Holdings Group; held through two companies, its Indian listed subsidiary, Thomas Cook (India) Limited (TCIL) and TCIL's subsidiary Travel Corporation (India) Ltd. Kuoni India is a leading travel and tourism company active across various travel segments including Leisure Travel, Business Travel, Destination Management Services and Distribution Visa Marketing Services.
TCIL through its step down Subsidiary Horizon Travel Holdings (Hong Kong) Private Limited holds 100% stake in Kuoni Travel (China) Limited (Kuoni Hong Kong), which has an attractive business in the travel sector backed by a trusted brand name, and a stable and motivated professional management team. Kuoni Hong Kong is a premium outbound travel operator in Hong Kong.