Trade Bytes

Thomas Cook-JTB sign co-operation agreement

Chetan Kapoor - Mumbai

(L-R) Ken Hibino, executive director, Travel Marketing & Strategy, JTB Corp., Udayan Bose, chairman, Thomas Cook and Madhavan Menon, MD, Thomas Cook at the MoU signing

In what could be a milestone in Indo-Japanese trade relationship, two travel companies - Thomas Cook and Japan Travel Bureau (JTB) - have signed an MoU for mutual benefits. Speaking about this initiative, Madhavan Menon, managing director of Thomas Cook, told Express TravelWorld, "It is a co-operation agreement. We will figure out how to work together and at some stage will decide whether to grow this relationship further through equity stake or a joint venture. We will start by sending our clients to Japan, China and Korea where they have JVs and look at their clients from Japan, Korea and other places."

According to Menon, the Japanese market has matured and for the last two years JTB had been growing internationally more than domestically. Being already present in China, India was its next target. "JTB came to India and met a lot of people and finally decided that it could share synergies with us - we were in the inbound and outbound and were looking at markets in Asia as targets. JTB was looking at India and sending tourists to Japan, China and other Asian countries. At the same time, it was also looking to expand its European businesses in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe where it is strong and we are trying to get into. There were common areas of interests which were mutually beneficial."

The MoU will also focus on JTB's strengths - China and corporate travel. "India has not started receiving Chinese tourists and when it happens, it will be an avalanche. India has only now started sending tourists to China, and this relationship will help us in better buying through our representative on the ground unlike today where we depend on an agent we don't even know." He adds, "In terms of corporate travel, JTB is Japan's largest corporate travel company and a lot of its partners operate in this market, enabling us to leverage on each other."

From Thomas Cook's perspective, the three-year agreement along with a renewable clause will look into winning JTB's tourists from all its strongholds. "JTB operates in 31 countries and if I can find 15 countries from which it operates and can bring passengers in, that has done the job for me," emphasised Menon, adding, "It has a software company. We will look at everything and arrive at a few areas that will actually drive this. This is a long-term relationship and we will build it over a period of time."

The partners have also set up a steering committee to manage the relationship and work on common areas of interest. Starting February, there will be exchange of people and a whole lot of activities between the two travel companies.