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New offices

C&K opens regional office in Dubai

Peter Kerkar at the press conference in Dubai

Cox & Kings has announced the opening of its regional office in Dubai. The office will initially cater to the travel requirements of the UAE. It is fully operational and is headed by Mahesh Ammanath.

Peter Kerkar, Global CEO of Cox & Kings, said that the company plans to promote a host of travel services using the B2B and B2C model. It has also developed an online portal that includes holidays, sightseeing, cars, hotels, transfers, insurance and other ancillary travel services. It is backed by a 24x7 call centre. The online platform would also be made available in the UAE.

Among its many brands that C&K plans to introduce in the UAE market are:

• Duniya Dekho: Group tours to Western and Eastern Europe, China, India, Egypt and Turkey.
• Flexi Hol: For travellers who would like to design their own holiday.
• India Tours: A range of options is available for the travelers: escorted tours, private journeys and tailor-made holidays. These tours cover the entire Indian sub-continent.
• Business Travel: The company is a partner of Radius, which is a consortium of leading travel agents across the world. International travellers enjoy certain privileges due to this strategic partnership.
• World Wide Cultural Journeys: Cox & Kings will introduce its worldwide cultural and adventure programme, which it sells in the UK and USA. It will also feature its exclusive guest lecture programme with guest lecturers such as Lord Hurd, Kate Adie, Sir Roy Hattersley among others.

Tourism Victoria opens India office

Tourism Victoria is among the last few Australian tourism boards to enter India and set up shop. It has opened office in the suburbs of Mumbai. The tourism minister of Tourism Victoria, Tim Holding was in Mumbai recently to inaugurate the office.

CIBT establishes presence in India, to introduce organised travel documentation

CIBT, a player in visa and travel document services, has announced its entry in the Indian market with full-fledged operations in five cities in the country - Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Jeff Fine, president and CEO of CIBT Holdings, said that the time was right to enter India because of the sharp increase in international travel. CIBT India presently services the visa and travel documentation requirements of travel management companies, leisure travel agencies and corporate customers.

Sharing the growth plans for India, Gopinath Nair, senior vice president of CIBT India, said, "We would like to establish our presence even smaller cities and towns as they generate a growing number of international travellers. We are associating with tour operators, visa agencies and travel agents. We provide our franchisees extensive training, visa management technology and practices, and access to visa database and customer service support from various CIBT locations."

CIBT India is collaborating with professional visa and travel agencies throughout the country to reach the travellers in smaller cities and towns across the country. CIBT India seeks to rapidly expand the network through a comprehensive retail agency support package. This includes support in the areas of technology, training, global best practices and customer support from CIBT offices around India.

CIBT India offers a nationwide visa solution based on exclusive software technology proven in the US market, the management technology - TravelPass, which has been custom-made to take care of all possible visa management situations. The software provides instant visa information from a single source, the potential for integration into the company's intranet for simplicity of use, and sophisticated reporting capabilities that allow the company's management to track usage.