Bird Express TravelWorld Awards 2009

Award Winner:Car/Bus Rentals

Category: Excellence in customer experience Winner: Carzonrent (India)

"The process involved numbers, performance and actively involved the participants in the process” Sakshi Vij Head - Marketing, Carzonrent (India) Karunesh Arya COO, Carzonrent (India) On a winning note "Though we were nominated for two categories, we are extremely happy that we won the award for excellence in customer experience. This is an interesting way to judge winners. It involved dealing with numbers, performance and actively involving ourselves in the process. The jury asked for a presentation and there was a definite method to it. It was a well organised approach to the entire build up to the final moment of success." The innovation The company followed a concept to deliver end-to-end solutions for the customers by fulfilling requirements of the MIS availability to the customer at all times. It included preparing an interface which could integrate with the various travel interfaces used by corporate and travel agents. In order to implement the innovation, it followed the following steps: Testing of the applications through internal systems, providing the application to implants to test with corporates under supervision; and the application was then provided to corporate clients with SAP systems and was customised for their internal usage. "Currently, we have applications running for various large corporate clients customised for them also we have retail modules developed for various marketing alliance partners and are in talks with travel portals for the same," Vij says. The company Carzonrent (India) was launched in the year 2000 with a short-term objective of offering a safe and reliable medium of travel to customers and a long-term vision of giving form and structure to the unorganised Indian personal ground transportation industry and helping the industry get its due recognition. 'COR' the branding of Carzonrent signifies the fact that personal ground transportation is the 'core' business of Carzonrent through its fleet of 5,000 cars across the country.

Category: Excellence in operations Winner: Girikand Travels

"Winning the award is a huge encouragement for us and will undoubtedly push us to achieve more in the future” Akhilesh Joshi Director, Girikand Travels On a winning note "Winning the award is a huge encouragement for us and will undoubtedly push us to achieve more in the future." The innovation Developing a system which would enable customer satisfaction with minimum manual intervention and minimum paperwork. This was implemented through the company developing its own software over eight months. The systems have enabled employees to concentrate on customer service and perform better as automation has taken away all the hassles of registers and the need to duplicate data entries. The company Girikand Holidays, a sister concern of Girikand Travels, was launched in 2006 and the company started the car rental operations with a fleet of five vehicles. Today, within a span of four years, the fleet consists of 60 cars, 25 small coaches and five large coaches that are owned by the company and 180 vehicles which are subcontracted by the company. Its operations are mainly out of Pune and have spread to Mumbai, Nashik, Nagpur, Kolhapur, Solapur and Aurangabad. Girikand Travels has been active in tours, ticketing and documentation for the last 32 years.

Category: Excellence in customer experience Winner: Snow Leopard Adventures

"To be counted amongst the top players in the market who have done good work towards facilitating travel segment makes us proud” Ajeet Bajaj MD, Snow Leopard Adventures Shirly Thomas Bajaj Director, Snow Leopard Adventures On a winning note Very good, excellent and amazing! To be counted amongst the top players in the market who have done good work towards facilitating travel segment makes us proud. We applied for the first time. We felt good because there were so many deserving people around. I think due diligence was done properly and very well. The innovation Snow Leopard Adventures focused on identifying a new region for adventure getaways beyond the Himalayas. In its implementation process, the company thought of a destination with easy access from major destinations across India. It zeroed in on Orccha in Madhya Pradesh, as it was already on the Gwalior - Khajuraho - Orchha classical circuit. A detailed reconnaissance of the area was conducted to explore all adventure activities. Permissions were sought from local authorities, MP Tourism and MP Eco tourism for land acquisitions and operations. "We set up Camp Blue Bull by the Betwa River and introduced new dimension to a popular classical tourist circuit. The ancient structures, magnificent river and the nature reserve offer an eclectic mix of culture, nature and adventure," Bajaj says. The company Established in 1990, Snow Leopard Adventures is counted amongst the best adventure tour operators in India. Be it river rafting on the Ganga, trekking in the Himalayas, cycling on forest trails or rappelling down a cliff, the Delhi based company offers experiences through meticulous planning, tremendous emphasis on safety and eco-sensibility, which form the foundation of the trips.