Mumbai: Thomas Cook India’s continued focus on the Foreign Exchange segment has ensured sustained leadership in the Forex services space. The strategic intent of specialisation has been driven along 4 key axes of scale, speed, skill and service – making it the largest non-bank Foreign Exchange services provider in India.
The Company’s Foreign Exchange business today serves over 1 million retail customers every year, via its website and over 100 Forex stores located across 65 metros, Tier 2-4 cities/towns pan India. The business also serves over 1000 corporate clients, issued 1 million+ Forex prepaid cards and over 1 lakh students studying overseas using fees and other remittance services of the Company. The Company operates 21 counters at leading airports and collaborates with over 1500 Forex agent partners across the country.
With a clear intent to leverage the opportunity of India’s rapidly growing digital ecosystem and drive scale and speed, Thomas Cook India’s Forex business embarked on a journey of digitalisation pre-pandemic; and leveraged the lockdown to accelerate its digital transformation. The Forex business pivoted to enhanced digital models to deliver on the imperatives of contactless and safe transactions: launched the Virtual Forex Branch equipping its teams with VPN telephony/auto dialers to stay connected and assist customers from the safety of their homes; the innovative FXMate digital tool to support B2B partners with virtual Foreign Exchange services; online remittances and card top-ups that proved invaluable for students stranded overseas with quick/seamless and secure transactions.
Today the Company’s unique Omnichannel model empowers customers with choice and convenience: simple, secure and quick bookings via its Online Forex Store; support through its call centre or by walking in to their closest Forex outlet to transact with an in-store expert.
Thomas Cook Forex’s focus on digital transformation has helped the business significantly. Helping the business register a growth for Q3 FY22 at 2x in value Vs. Q3 FY21; strong QoQ transactions with a 72% increase vs Q3 FY21; increase in card loads by 140% QoQ. The education segment has even surpassed pre-pandemic 2019 levels by 111% over Q3 FY20 and recovered in Q3 FY22 by 174% over Q3 FY21 and has signed up over 1600 FXMate partners who operate via a digital platform, generating sales of Rs. 375 Crore.
Thomas Cook India is even more bullish about the space than ever before and to coincide with the re-start of travel, has launched a marketing campaign that positions the brand as India ka Forex Specialist, inspiring confidence with everyone and ensuring a seamless-secure experience. In essence communicating that – with Thomas Cook, all the complexities regarding Forex requirements are taken care of via a simple, smooth process to ensure an unparalleled customer commitment in the form of Gharpe Forex – doorstep delivery in 2 hours!
Abraham Alapatt – President & Group Head, Marketing, Service Quality, Value Added Services & Innovation, Thomas Cook (India) Limited said, “Buying Foreign Exchange was historically perceived to be the most complex and tedious part of the travel process. At Thomas Cook Forex we have changed that with our fast, seamless digital capability and want to drive that message home –while reiterating our category leadership as India’s Forex specialist.
For this film, we tapped into the insight that in every family, there are official/unofficial specialists for various aspects of the holiday journey from shopping, to packing, itinerary planning etc., But when it comes to Foreign Exchange requirements, everyone in the family agrees that Thomas Cook is THE Foreign Exchange specialist!
While this campaign communicates that with Thomas Cook Foreign Exchange, the Forex buying process is now simple and seamless, it also communicates our promise of Forex home delivered in 2 hours anywhere in India – making an even more important leadership statement. All this is delivered in a light, humorous manner via this campaign where metaphorically, Thomas Cook Foreign Exchange is likened to a family member with its very own specialisation – of India ka Forex specialist!”
Deepesh Varma, Senior Vice President, Foreign Exchange, Thomas Cook (India) Limited said, “Forex is a key business line for the Company and our strong focus has ensured our leadership – as India’s largest non-bank Foreign Exchange service provider. We have worked untiringly in our position as Specialists by honing our skills in the domain, leveraging our significant size- scale (across our retail and virtual network), our diversity of services and speed of delivery.
With reopening of borders and easing of protocols, we wanted to capitalise on positive sentiment/pent-up demand to accelerate our Forex business. As experts and leaders in the space, we want our customers to leave all their Foreign Exchange concerns to us. And our campaign serves to do just that by positioning us as India ka Forex Specialist. This message hence comes as a strong reassurance – to the diversity of our consumer segments, be they holiday makers, business travellers or students.
We offer an extensive range of end-to-end Forex services to suit every customer need. Additionally, our omnichannel model offers the reach of over 100 retail stores, 21 counters at leading airports and the ease of online bookings with our Gharpe Forex promise – a 2 hour doorstep delivery.“
