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Thomas Cook collapse may hit India's inbound travel and its forex earnings

Agencies
September 24, 2019

New Delhi, Sept 24: With British travel giant Thomas Cook going belly up, India's inbound travel could be severely hit and hence adversely impact foreign exchange (forex) earnings 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 a good presence are the key source markets for India.

"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 in 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 Thomas Cook, one of the world's top travel firms, going bankrupt, the travel business is certainly going to see a tough time.

While Thomas Cook India is a completely separate entity from Thomas Cook UK post its acquisition in 2012 by Canada-based Fairfax Financial Holdings, reaching out to 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 to allay 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.

Madhavan Menon, Chairman and Managing Director, Thomas Cook (India), however expects other tour operators in the UK to fill the gap and said that the situation would settle down in the "medium term".

Speaking to IANS, Menon said: "In the UK, I expect that other tour operators will take up the capacity. It will not be a problem, there are many tour operators."

"In the immediate terms there may be rise in prices... or the yields for the tour operators in UK, but in the medium term I expect things to settle down," he added.

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News Network
July 13,2020

New Delhi, July 13: The number of active Covid-19 cases in India crossed the 3 lakh mark on Sunday even as fresh infections during the day surged to another new peak, crossing 29,000 for the first time. After staying over 500 for the past two days, the daily death toll came down slightly to 492.

While the focus has been on recoveries, the number of active Covid-19 cases in the country has been steadily rising. It hit the 1 lakh mark on June 4 and went past 2 lakh 23 days later. It has taken just 15 days more to reach 3 lakh.

India reported 29,271 new cases on Sunday, the fifth straight day of record rise in daily infections. With this, the country’s coronavirus caseload has risen to 8,79,060, two days after hitting the 8 lakh mark, as per data collated from state governments. Active cases stood at 3,02,466 while more than 5.53 lakh people were declared cured of the infection.

Covid-19 deaths in the country rose to 23,175 after 492 fatalities were added on Sunday, translating to a case fatality rate of 2.6%. The CFR has been steadily dropping with the surge in cases.
 

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News Network
February 18,2020

New Delhi, Feb 18: India emerged as the world's fifth-largest economy by overtaking the UK and France in 2019, says a report.

A US-based think tank World Population Review in its report said that India is developing into an open-market economy from its previous autarkic policies.

"India's economy is the fifth-largest in the world with a GDP of $2.94 trillion, overtaking the UK and France in 2019 to take the fifth spot," it said.

The size of the UK economy is $2.83 trillion and that of France is $2.71 trillion.

The report further said that in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms, India's GDP (PPP) is $10.51 trillion, exceeding that of Japan and Germany. Due to India's high population, India's GDP per capita is $2,170 (for comparison, the US is $62,794).

India's real GDP growth, however, it said is expected to weaken for the third straight year from 7.5 per cent to 5 per cent.

The report observed that India's economic liberalisation began in the early 1990s and included industrial deregulation, reduced control on foreign trade and investment, and privatisation of state-owned enterprises.

"These measures have helped India accelerate economic growth," it said.

India's service sector is the fast-growing sector in the world accounting for 60 per cent of the economy and 28 per of employment, the report said, adding that manufacturing and agriculture are two other significant sectors of the economy.

The US-based World Population Review is an independent organisation without any political affiliations.

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Agencies
June 19,2020

Srinagar, Jun 19: Suspended Jammu and Kashmir DSP Davinder Singh, arrested while ferrying two Hizb-ul-Mujahideen terrorists in a vehicle on the Srinagar-Jammu Highway earlier this year, was granted bail by a Delhi court on Friday, his lawyer said.

Singh and another accused in the case - Irfan Shafi Mir - were granted the relief by the court in a case filed by special cell of Delhi Police, noting that the probe agency failed to file charge sheet within 90 days from his arrest, as prescribed under law, their lawyer M S Khan said.

The bail was granted on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh and two sureties of like amount.

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