TravTalk India Online Magazine
In order to grow its network of business-to-business travel agents, Cozmo Travel has been eying the potential that tier II and III cities offer in India. The company has now diversified its focus to include holiday packages, as well as corporate travel, and invites these agents to be part of the Cozmo family.
Hazel Jain
Santosh Kanchan, Country Head – India, Cozmo Travel, is excited about its renewed focus on holiday packages and corporate travel. Explaining the reason behind this, he says, “We are looking at changing our entire product segmentation. No business can rely on just one business and the pandemic has taught us that. So, we want to expand our focus from just visas to corporate travel, global visas, and holiday packages. We have a global visa portal for travel agents. We also have an online tool called TravTrolley, which allows corporate clients to issue tickets on their own.”
Exceptional service to agents
Highlighting the renewed focus on holiday packages, Kanchan adds, “We are focusing on packages where we have our own offices. These includes Dubai, Egypt, Oman, Jordan, Armenia, and Georgia. All our offices are headed by a country manager, who is from that country, which gives Cozmo an advantage when it comes to promoting that destination to B2B agents. Therefore, we don’t call ourselves a DMC. There will be cross-promotion and we will promote India holiday packages in these other destinations where we have offices.” Explaining why this will give Cozmo an advantage, he adds, “We will not work with third-party vendors, but with our own people and our own team at these destinations. This will assure our travel agents the guarantee of great service for their clients.”
The company has a presence in more than 30 cities in 11 countries, including India.
Agent network in tier cities
Cozmo Travel is also looking to grow its travel agent network, especially in tier II and tier III cities. “Agents in these cities need a quality brand they can trust on, and agents already know of us. Service and trust are our most important traits. My request to all our agents is – don’t focus too much on the cost. Look at the service and quality. It’s a huge market, and everyone will get their share. Compete with good service, not cost,” he explains. Another important focus for Cozmo Travel is the bottom line. “Our focus now is very clear – the bottom line. Pre-COVID, our focus was on top line but the pandemic showed us that the top line can vanish. That is when we realized that the bottom line – the revenue – is the most important aspect in business. If we are making revenue in any segment, we will keep it. If we are not, we will not think twice before exiting it,” Kanchan states.
Cozmo Travel recently further invested in the India market by opening a new office in Mumbai. Deepa Rajesh, Director– Sales & BD, Cozmo Travel, based in the UAE, says, “We have also strategically consolidated our operations and finance from the new office in Mumbai. The India market is not easy; it’s a very competitive market. But competition keeps us going. We are trying to be part of COP28 UAE, which is taking place from 30 November to 13 December. Like every big player we are trying to get a small piece of pie in the segment.”
