Bigger M!CE groups in 2024

Hopeful of sustained demand, Thomas Cook (India) is keen to collaborate with M!CE convention centres at the central and state levels to bring business back into India, says Rahul Shinde, GM, M!CE & Exhibition, Thomas Cook (India).

Hazel Jain

Rahul Shinde, General Manager, M!CE & Exhibition, Thomas Cook (India), anticipates sustained demand from corporates in India with increased participation from tier II and III markets in 2024. He expects that the number of participants in trips organised by the corporates will also increase. “We are keen to collaborate with India’s M!CE convention centres at the central and state levels to steer the powerful corporate M!CE business back to our own country. We also look forward to higher demand for adventure tourism, sporting events and luxury M!CE,” he says.

G20 events a gamechanger

Shinde says that 2023 was a year of exceptional wins, especially for Thomas Cook (India). “We are honoured to have been a partner with the Government of India at milestone events. We managed to successfully deliver on big marquee initiatives like managing 41 events across 31 cities for India’s G20 Summit, exclusively managing accommodation, catering and transportation services for approx. 17,000 guests at the 37th National Games in Goa, and handled 20,500 customers for Khelo India 2023. We also witnessed unprecedented travel demand from India’s corporates keen to incentivise their high performers – this includes key stakeholders, channel partners and employees,” he says.

Over the last year, Thomas Cook (India) spent considerable time to innovate when planning group itineraries. In line with its Digital First strategy, it spent the past year to further strengthen robust backend systems and conducted training exercises for teams to increase efficiency.

Tech streamlines operations

The M!CE business has witnessed a digital transformation in recent years. Automating time-consuming, manual processes, including sales, contracting, operations and visa processes have increased efficiency. Shinde says, “We launched dedicated platforms for international and domestic sales that helped minimize manual processes and eliminate duplication of tasks by automating detailed customer information and documentation, file management, visa quality control checks and process management, invoicing, etc. We also created a product repository with seamless access to M!CE teams. We launched a dedicated customer self-service app for uploading documents, visa coordination, handover of tickets, itinerary, insurance, visas, tour coordination and feedback.”

Activity-based itineraries on cards

Going forward, Thomas Cook (India) plans to add experience and activity-based itineraries. “We are also focusing on incorporating more interactive team-building sessions for corporate engagement. From a product point of view, we are expanding our portfolio of thematic locations, venues for R&R, conferences and gala dinners, moving away from the standard hotel ballrooms. We are also collaborating with destinations through marketing campaigns, subsidies, visa waivers/ eased processes, thus creating an extensive array of itineraries that can be offered across different segments,” Shinde adds.