Thomas Cook collapse could hit India’s inbound travel, with Goa to suffer a big blow

With British travel giant Thomas Cook going belly up, India's inbound travel could be severely hit and hence adverse impact on foreign exchange (forex) earning too in the months to come.

Travel industry sources said that Thomas Cook sends a lot of high-spending tourists to India from countries such as UK, Germany and France. Countries like UK, Germany and Italy where Thomas Cook has good presence are the key source markets for India.

The collapse of Thomas Cook, one of the oldest tourist travel companies in the world, will be a "big, big blow" to the tourism industry in Goa, president of the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa Savio Messias said on Monday.

The head of the travel and tourism industry association in Goa, a state where nearly 1.48 lakh British tourists landed on holiday in 2018, also said, that flights chartered by the UK-based Thomas Cook ferried nearly 2,000 tourists every week to Goa, during the tourism season from October to March.

"The shutdown of Thomas Cook would certainly impact inbound travel. The whole travel industry is struggling," said Harjinder Singh, Director of Delhi-based 24*7 Travels.com.

As per the latest official data, UK's share into India's total foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) was 8.01 per cent in August, 2019.

Among the top European source markets, German tourists accounted for 1.85 per cent of the total FTAs in the previous month. The total FTAs in August 2019 were 7,98,587 as compared to 7,86,003 in August 2018 registering a growth of 1.6 per cent.

With global slowdown casting its shadow on travel business, the FTA growth is likely to be tepid in coming months. With one of the world's top travel firm Thomas Cook going bankrupt, the travel business is certainly going to see tough time.

While Thomas Cook India is a completely separate entity from Thomas Cook UK post-acquisition in 2012 by Canada-based Fairfax Financial Holdings, reaching out each wary customer following the recent development would not be easy for the Indian firm.

"With the recent developments relating to the iconic British Travel Company, Thomas Cook PLC, being reported in the media, it is imperative to highlight that Thomas Cook India Group is a completely different entity since August 2012 when it was acquired by Fairfax Financial Holdings (Fairfax), a Canada-based multinational with varied interests across the globe as well as in India," Thomas Cook India said in a statement allaying fears of its clients and customers.

An industry insider, however, said it is a big task for Thomas Cook India to convince common people that it is not related to the ailing UK travel firm.

He further said that most of the organized players in the travel sector were struggling due to slowdown as travel spend is the first thing people put a break on when going is tough. Besides, the demand has already been low and the same reflects in the FTA data compiled by the government.

"Thomas Cook is a very reputed company, bringing in British tourists. British tourists are loved by the local Goans and the hotel industry. Thomas Cook has been operating for the last 25-30 years in Goa. And losing out on Thomas Cook is a big, big blow to the industry," Messias said.

"Last year, they were getting around 2,000 passengers per week. On an average, a passenger stays for around 14 days, sometimes 21 days and sometimes seven days also. If you count the number of room nights, it is very, very large," Messias also said.

British tourists rank second in the list of international arrivals in Goa, after Russians.

Goa has been a traditional winter vacation for Europeans, especially from Russia and UK, who arrive in the coastal state to beat the freezing cold winters in their countries.

Several hotels, according to Messias, were likely to face hardship in Goa, because they were entirely dependent on Thomas Cook for filling up their accommodation.

"Many hotels were depending entirely on Thomas Cook and they had built up a very good rapport. Repeat clients were coming back to the same hotels. It was a very good business which we are going to miss," Messias said.

The reports of the collapse of the 178-year-old travel company come on the heel of dipping international tourist arrivals numbers over the last two years.