INTERNSHIP REPORT ON THOMAS COOK (INDIA) LTD, CHENNAI

FROM 9TH APRIL 2015 TO 13TH MAY 2015

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of degree in

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
Of
UNIVERSITY OF KERALA
Submitted By
ROHIT SENAN C
Reg No: 59514810089
Under the Guidance of
Ms. NISA.S
(Asst. Professor Finance)

TKM INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT

KOLLAM
2014-2016

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the Internship report entitled,

INTERNSHIP REPORT AT Thomas Cook India Pvt. Ltd Chennai -is the report
in original carried out by me under the guidance of Ms. Ms. NISA.S (Asst. Professor
Finance) and Mr.Vinoth Kumar C (General Manager- Foreign Exchange)
towards the partial fulfillment of the award of Master of Business Administration of
the University of Kerala during the second semester of study in TKM Institute of
Management. I further declare that the work has not been submitted and will not be
submitted either in part or in full, for the award of any other degree to any other
Institute.

ROHIT SENAN C

Date:
Kollam

Acknowledgement
First and foremost, I thank almighty God who blessed in all ways to complete my
internship.

I express my sincere gratitude to my internship guide Ms. NISA.S (Asst. Professor

Finance) or valuable her guidance and supervision given at all stage of my internship..
I sincerely thank the management of Thomas Cook India Pvt.Ltd, Chennai for
permitting me to do the internship in their prestigious organization. I will always be
thankful to them for their valuable help and support.

I wish to express my deep sense of gratitude to Mr. Vinoth Kumar C.(General

Manager-Soft skills) and for his training, support and guidance to complete my
internship.

I also take this opportunity to thank my parents, friends and faculty members of TKM
and all those who have helped me directly and indirectly for the successful completion of
internship.

CONTENTS

Chapter
1

Title

Page No.

Introduction.

Background

Industry overview

7-12

Company overview

13-16

Internship details.

17-20

Bibliography.

21

Appendix

22-23

INTRODUCTION
The foreign exchange services has a greater impotence in the market, so the study regarding the
FOREX. Services and the usage of foreign exchange services in SMEs in Chennai. Thomas Cook
(India) Ltd (TCIL) is the leading integrated travel and travel related financial services company in the
country offering a broad spectrum of services that include Foreign Exchange, Corporate Travel, MICE,
Leisure Travel, Insurance, Visa & Passport services and E-Business. The company set up its first office
in India in 1881.
Thomas Cook (India) Limited is promoted by Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited through its
wholly-owned subsidiary, Fairbridge Capital (Mauritius) Limited. Fairbridge is responsible for the
execution of acquisition and investment opportunities in the Indian subcontinent on behalf of the Fairfax
family of companies. Also they currently extend to over 234 locations in 96 cities across India,
Mauritius& srilanka and issupported by a strong partner network of 110 Gold Circle Partners and 112
preferred Sales Agents in over 134 cities across
Thomas Cook was nationalized shortly after World War Two And was privatized in the 1970s
Midland Bank became its sole owner in 1977.It was then sold by Midland in 1992 to a German bank and
charter airline

In June 2007, Thomas Cook acquired fellow MyTravel Group for around $5.5 billion

Today the company is 50:50 owned by German retail group KarstadtQuelle and the Lufthansa airline.
Thomas Cook (India) Ltd has been voted as Best Tour Operator - Outbound at theCNBC AWAAZ Travel
Awards 2014 & 2013 and Best Company providing Foreign Exchange at the CNBC AWAAZ Travel
Awards 2014;honored as Indias Leading Tour Operator for the year 2014,at the 21st Annual World
Travel Awards Asia & Australasia 2014, Best Tour Operator at the Lonely Planet Travel Awards 2013,
Favorite Tour Operator at theCond Nast Traveller Readers' Travel Awards 2014, 2013, 2012 & 2011and
recognized as a Consumer Super brand 2013-14 & 2012-2013.In addition, TCIL has been chosen as the
Best Corporate Travel Management Company by World Travel Brands 2012.At the National Tourism
Awards 2012-2013,TCIL was the recipient of 3 prestigious awards. Thomas Cook Indias Centre of
Learning has received IATA accreditations Top 10 South Asia IATA Authorized Training Centers",
2013 &

BACKGROUND

Thomas Cook & Son started its Indian operations in Mumbai in 1881 as a branch. It was subsequently
converted into a public limited company, under the name of Thomas Cook (India) limited in 1979. In
2012, Thomas Cook (India) Limited was acquired by Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited, a Canadian
conglomerate, through its step-down subsidiary, Fairbridge Capital (Mauritius) Limited, and the
promoter equity was diluted to 75% in June 2013, in keeping with SEBI regulations
Thomas Cook (India) Limited offers a range of products and services including Outbound travel,
Inbound travel, Domestic travel, MICE, Corporate Travel Management, Foreign Exchange, Travel
Insurance, Visa & Passport Services and Centre of Learning (travel & tourism education & training
vertical

INDUSTRY PROFILE
Hospitality and Travel & Tourism
The hospitality industry is a broad category of fields within the service industry that includes lodging,
event planning, theme parks, transportation, cruise line, and additional fields within the tourism industry.
The hospitality industry is a several billion dollar industry that mostly depends on the availability of
leisure time and disposable income. A hospitality unit such as a restaurant, hotel, or even an amusement
park consists of multiple groups such as facility maintenance, direct operations (servers, housekeepers,
porters, kitchen workers, bartenders, etc.), management, marketing, and human resources.
The hospitality industry is an industry sector that consists of a wide selection of fields within the service
industry. It includes; restaurants, lodging, event planning, transportation, cruise line and relevant fields
within the tourism industry. Many countries would like to see their hospitality industry grow as it earns
revenue for the country.
The hospitality industry is in the midst of global evolution. In todays fast- changing global marketplace,
hotel companies are striving to articulate, adopt and deliver the brand promise consistently throughout
the value chain and across all stakeholder groups.
Challenges
The hospitality industry is facing several challenges such as shortage of labour and skills, delivering to
Gen X expectations, keeping pace with the global distribution revolution, ensuring consistent branding,
and measuring Green House Gas (GHG) emissions and so on.
Given below are some of the ways the hospitality industry has leveraged technology to overcome the
challenges:

Reduced operational and support cost by improving efficiencies through process excellence and

technology excellence
Provided consistent brand experience to customers by ensuring scalable infrastructure, repeatable
processes and integrated systems

Delivered truly differentiated customer experience by creating enterprise frameworks and making
use of smart technology to provide a seamless view of the customer across the value chain and at

service-delivery touch points, including those managed by channel partners

Simplified infrastructure management and operations by leveraging virtual environment that allow
properties to greatly reduce physical hardware assets on-site

Competition and usage rate

Usage rate or its inverse "vacancy rate" is an important variable for the hospitality industry. Just as a
factory owner would wish a productive asset to be in use as much as possible (as opposed to having to
pay fixed costs while the factory isn't producing), so do restaurants, hotels, and theme parks seek to
maximize the number of customers they "process" in all sectors. This led to formation of services with
the aim to increase usage rate provided by hotel consolidators. Information about required or offered
products are brokered on business networks used by vendors as well as purchasers.
In looking various industries, "barriers to entry" by newcomers and competitive advantages between
current players are very important. Among other things, hospitality industry players find advantage in
old classics (location), initial and ongoing investment support (reflected in the material upkeep of
facilities and the luxuries located therein), and particular themes adopted by the marketing arm of the
organization in question (for example at theme restaurants). Very important is also the characteristics of
the personnel working in direct contact with the customers. The authenticity, professionalism, and actual
concern for the happiness and well-being of the customers that is communicated by successful
organizations is a clear competitive advantage.
Hospitality is the business relationship transmission between the visitor, guest, customer, and host. This
includes private dinner parties, hotel chains, restaurants, and casinos. This also includes places like
Disneyland. This industry makes billions each year from disposable income.
The tourism industry is the collection of all the services related to the act of visiting other places for
pleasure. These may include services such as air transportation, accommodation, food provision in
restaurants and hotels and so on. This industry is a major foreign exchange earner in many countries
around the world.

Tourism is one of the world's fastest growing industries as well as the major source of foreign exchange
earnings and employment for many developing countries. Tourism is vital to the well being of many
countries, because of the income generated by the consumption of goods and services by tourists, the
taxes levied on businesses in the tourism industry and the opportunity for employment and economic
advancement by working in the industry.
According to world tourism organization: -

Tourists are defined as people who travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for not
more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to the exercise of an
activity remunerated from within the place visited".
Tourism is known as the collective activities and services that facilitate and attract tourists and shaped
within their participation. International Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism defined Tourism in
terms of particular activities selected by choice and undertaken outside the home environment. These
service industries include Transportation services such as airlines, cruise ships, rails, taxis and any other
mode of transportation. Accommodation such as hotel, motel, resort, dorms and any further offers that
accommodate people to stay overnight. Food services namely restaurants, bars, pubs etc. Recreation
Entertainment,

sports,

festival,

and

Treatment

service

such

as

spas

and

resorts.

Tourism industry is the industry that focuses on the operation and implementation of the above
components of service industries collectively to satisfy need and demand of tourists. In the broader
sense, at present tourism industry is the worlds largest industry, which captures about 4% share of the
worlds economy, and classified as the most employment generating industry of the world. For many
countries tourism is the dominant sector for income by the consumption of goods and services by
tourists, the taxes levied on businesses in the tourism industry, as well as the opportunity for
employment

in

the

service

industries

associated

with

tourism.

Classification of tourism:
The United Nations classified three forms of tourism 1. Domestic tourism is involves residents of the
given country traveling within the national boundary. 2. Inbound tourism involving non-residents
traveling in the given country and 3. Outbound tourism involving residents of a given country is
traveling in another country. The UN also have categorized tourism by 3 basic forms: Internal tourism,
National tourism and International tourism.
The tourism industry is based on many different components and interrelated parts. For example,
transport, accommodation, attractions, activities, marketing and government regulation. Many
businesses span more than one sector and the impacts in one part of the tourism industry have significant
implications for other sectors.
The tourism industry includes:
1. Those sectors which enable the tourist to travel to and from the destination (for example travel
agents, airlines, bus companies, tour operators and rental car companies)
2. Those sectors which are part of the product at the destination (for example, accommodation,
facilities and attractions)
3. The human component of tourism (the labor force)
4. Public sector or government agencies, regional tourism organizations, professional associations
and industry training organizations.
World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) is the most widely recognized and the leading
international organization in travel and tourism today. It is a specialized agency of the United
Nations. It serves as a global forum for tourism policy and a practical source of tourism knowhow. With its headquarters in Madrid, Spain the World Tourism Organization plays a central and
decisive role in promoting development of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible
tourism, with the aim of contributing to economic development, international understanding,
peace prosperity and universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental
freedoms.

10

Its membership includes 150 countries and territories and more than 450 affiliate members
representing local governments, tourism associations, educational institutes and private sector
companies including airlines, hotels and tour operators.
Other international organizations which have a specialized interest in tourism include the
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) which is a specialized agency of the United
Nations and is concerned with the development of international civil aviation, and the
International Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization (IMCO) which is an intergovernmental organization concerned with co-operation in sea transport.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is an association of airlines concerned with
the development and regulation of the air transportation industry. Members comprise of
approximately 80% of the worlds international airlines.
The major reason for government involvement in tourism is concerned with the welfare of their citizens
and the overall welfare of their country. This relates to areas such as economic stability, protection of
natural resources, national security, public health and employment. Tourism activity can occur in all of
these areas so governments are concerned that it is regulated and directed so as to ensure maximum
benefit for the country and the negative factors are minimized.
Virtually every country in the world has a national body responsible for tourism. It can be part of a
ministry, a constituted part of a government department or an organization with a separate legal status.
Generally the role of a NTO will be to ensure appropriate development and promotion of a nation as a
tourism destination. This can include the following functions:

Research

Information and promotion within the country

Overseas promotional activities

International relations

Development of tourist areas

11

Overall tourism policy and promotion

In supporting key tourism interests in a time of financial crisis

Below the National Tourism Organizations, in most countries, there is often a complex web of
organizations which complement the work of the NTO at the regional and local level. For
example, Tourism Dunedin is a local tourist information service under the national tourism office for
New Zealand. Their activities are often a scaled-down version of the NTOs work at a regional level;
they often implement national policy and pursue integrated activities with the NTO providing guidance.
((Presentation Key elements of Tourism to be inserted here))
Direct elements of the Tourism Industry - Those areas of the tourism industry which come into direct
contact with tourists

Sales

Accommodation

Transport

Activities

Attractions

Ancillary Services

Indirect elements of the Tourism Industry - Often called support sectors. Those parts of the tourism
industry which may not come into direct contact with tourists, but without the rest of the industry could
not function.

Infrastructure

Roads

Airports
12

Communications

Public Toilets

Signs

Manufacturing

Building Industry

Electricity

Water supply

Sewerage and waste disposal

COMPANY PROFILE

Thomas Cook India Pvt. Ltd

Thomas Cook (22 November 1808 18 July 1892) of Melbourne,
Derbyshire, England founded the travel agency Thomas Cook & Son (popularly nicknamed Cook's
Tours) that became Thomas Cook AG before eventually becoming Thomas Cook Group in 2007.
In 1872, he formed a partnership with his son, John A Mason Cook, and renamed the travel agency
as Thomas Cook & Son. They acquired business premises on Fleet Street, London. By this time, Cook
had stopped personal tours and became an agent for foreign or domestic travel. The office also contained
a shop which sold essential travel accessories including guide books, luggage, telescopes and footwear.
Thomas saw his venture as both religious and social service; his son provided the commercial expertise
that allowed the company to expand.

13

In accordance with his beliefs, he and his wife also ran a small temperance hotel above the office. Their
business model was refined by the introduction of the 'hotel coupon' in 1866. Detachable coupons in a
counterfoil book were issued to the traveler. These were valid for either a restaurant meal or an
overnight hotel stay provided they were on Cook's list.
Conflicts of interest between father and son were resolved when the son persuaded his father, Thomas
Cook, to retire in 1879. He moved back to Leicestershire and lived quietly until his death. The firm's
growth was consolidated by John Mason Cook and his two sons, especially by its involvement with
military transport and postal services for Britain and Egypt during the 1880s, when Cook began
organizing tours to the Middle East.
By 1888, the company had established offices around the world, including three in Australia and one in
Auckland, New Zealand, and in 1890, the company sold over 3.25 million tickets. John Mason Cook
promoted, and even led, excursions to, for example, the Middle East where he was described as "the
second-greatest man in Egypt".
However, while arranging for the German Emperor Wilhelm II to visit Palestine in 1898, he
contracted dysentery and died the following year.

Thomas Cook (India) Ltd. is one of Indias largest integrated travel & travel related financial services
company with headquarters in Mumbai, India.
Thomas Cook & Son started its Indian operations in Mumbai in 1881 as a branch. It was subsequently
converted into a public limited company, under the name of Thomas Cook (India) Limited in 1979. In
2012, Thomas Cook (India) Limited was acquired by Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited, a Canadian
conglomerate, through its step-down subsidiary, Fairbridge Capital (Mauritius) Limited, and the
promoter equity was diluted to 75% in June 2013, in keeping with SEBI regulations.
Thomas Cook (India) Limited operates in two segments: Financial services and Travel and related
services. Financial services Include wholesale purchase and sale of foreign currencies and paid
documents. Travel and related services include retail purchase and sale of foreign currencies and paid
documents, tour operations, travel management and travel insurance. It is a foreign exchange dealers in
both the wholesale and retail segments of the market. Its products and services include wholesale and
14

retail purchase and sale of currency notes; purchase and sale of foreign currency denominated travelers
cheques; Borderless-Thomas Cook branded prepaid foreign currency card; pre-paid international VISA
cards; foreign currency pay orders; outward remittance in 120 currencies, and MoneyGram transfer
(person-to-person money transfer service), Express Money transfer. In March 2014, Thomas Cook
(India) Ltd acquired a 23.23% interest in Sterling Holiday Resorts India Ltd.

CUSTOMER PROFILE

In retail department, all customers are walk in who approaches the company through the Brand
name he company maintain over the years.

In wholesale department customers are not walk in, but we approaches the banks and hotels for

the purpose of bulk sale or purchases of foreign currencies

In Travel sections customers are directly contacted with the Thomas Cook for their ticket

booking purposes.
In Educational consultancy & film productions the Thomas Cook has tie-up with them for selling

Foreign currencies in Forex department

In corporate department of foreign exchange, Thomas Cook has tie-up with the corporates for
selling foreign currencies with specified credit limit & credit period.
15

The main corporates who deals with Thomas cook are:

BURNDY TECH AND GLOBAL BUSINESS PVT LTD

HCL TECH LTD VADAPALANI
FORD BUSINESS CENTRE
AREVA RENEWABLE ENERGIES INDIA PVT LTD
TATA COMMUNICATION TRANSFORMATION SERVICE LTD
WARTSILA INDIA LTD
AMALGAMATON VALEO CLUTCH PVT LTD
ALFA LAVAL LTD
ATOS INDIA PVT LD
SYMANTEC SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS PVT LTD
GENPACT INDIA
WATER & POWER CONSULTANCY SERVICES(I)
GAMESA WIND TURBINES PVT LTD
ISEGEC HEAVY ENG LTD

COMMON TERMINOLOGIES
Encashment: purchasing the foreign currencies from the customers and returning them with equivalent
Indian currencies.
Credit sale: it is the sale of foreign exchange done with corporate on credit base
Credit limit: It is the limit in which the foreign currency that can be purchased by the n corporate .it
defers from corporate to corporate in accordance with their turn over and other parameters like solvency
ratio and debt equity ratio etc (Mentioned in CRF-Credit rating Form)
Credit period: it is the period in which the corporate need to pay back the equivalent INR for the
foreign currencies.
Credit Enhancement: Enhancing the credit amount under special circumstances when it crosses the
credit limit.
Code Generation: Generating code for deferent corporate as per their credit limit and credit period.
Card load: loading foreign currencies to borderless prepaid card.

16

Card Reload: Reloading the currencies to the existing prepaid card as per the new requests from the
existing customers.
Bill dispatching: Sending the bill of transactions to the concerned corporate either via courier or mail
with required statements and screen short for receiving the payment

INTERNSHIP DETAILS
Outline -the background and specific business of the company, department in
which you performed your internship?
Thomas cook India limited is basically a travel company which perform in different platforms
like Hotels, Air Ticketing, Travels-Holidays, and Foreign Exchange, insurance, visa and MICE
I did my internship in FOREX department under Thomas Cook. In FOREX
department itself, it has three vertices such as Retail, Wholesale & Corporate. Among from pure
Foreign exchange I performed with MICE Section in Thomas Cook. Each department in foreign
exchange performs their own tasks and the three vertices perform according to the customer who
approaches the company.
Whole sale foreign exchange department mainly handle with banks and hotels etc. require bulk
amount of foreign currencies for their operations and sometime company purchases currencies
from them also. Both sale and purchase are taking place here.
In order to perform the objective the questionnaire were prepared to get some response from the
companies. The personal opinions and advices also got from our company officials; we met the
appropriate persons in the organization to get the questionnaire filled up. And we did meet the
17

marketing managers and HR executives of several companies to know whether they have any
dealings with foreign exchange or they had any dealings with Thomas Cook and also to fill up
the questionnaire. We had fixed some appointments to meet the officials in big companies. The
main part of the study is Chennai based SMEs and to visit them and collect the relevant
information to fill up the questionnaire.

Outline and nature of the work undertaken(internship duties /tasks

undertaken)
The work which were assigned to me while internship was in the corporate sector, the
company guide gave us a brief idea about the task which we need to be do and understand the
nature of the task to be perform in the company. On the first week of internship they assigned me
to audit the Encashment documents, the task is about to find out the missing documents in the
file which consist of LERMS letter and the passport copies in order to provide the customer
foreign currencies according to their need (in USD, Euro etc.) and also to prepare spreadsheet
based on the missing documents and attach it. The task was very effective to about the
encashment documents and what type of documents that are needed for encashment and to know
about the format while preparing the document.
The task which assigned to me while internship was to conduct a research work in
Chennai based SMEs on usage of foreign exchange. The study was to know about FOREX
Services done by SMEs and to know about the existing FOREX Vendor of different companies.
And also to identify the major competitors of Thomas Cook & make aware about the FOREX
Services provided by Thomas Cook. My study is basically focused on the corporate sector. . The
scope of the study includes usage of foreign exchange services and customer satisfaction level of
Thomas Cook & with

reference to its Products& services. By looking over to the increasing

number of customers arrival in Chetpet Branch, Chennai. I can able to understand the
distribution channel of Thomas Cook and also to check the awareness level of brand Thomas
Cook. To find out SMEs who do not have permanent FOREX vendor and to make them deal
18

with Thomas Cook. The study has been conducted to measure the no. of SMEs use the
FOREX services with Thomas Cook and to get an appointment if needed for the companies.

An average work for the day is to fill up the questionnaire from the companies around the place
that I went and to get some new clients for Thomas Cook in the area which was went.
The work could be started within the companies which were located in Chennai in a day I need
to cover the companies which were located in a certain area.
An average week we should cover the companies in order to finish our work within a
month. The work should be reported to the company guide and to give the details what we got
and the filled questionnaire too.
The target was to cover the SMEs in several part of Chennai which has dealings with
foreign exchange. I started the market survey with reference to various SMEs in various
geographical locations like Royapettah, Anna salai, Egmore, Chetpet, Guindy industrial estate,
Nungambakkam, Ambattur Industrial estate. It helps me to know the companies situated in
Chennai and their locations, also came to know about the companies has dealings with Thomas
Cook, we selected the companies in a particular area, Visited the companies in order to know
about the foreign exchange services done by various SMEs in Chennai.
Collected the details about the companies through websites. Met the concerned
persons in companies, and contacted through personal contacts. We selected some companies
according through the geographical locations and make the action plan for the day. Some of the
companies are not interested to fill up the questionnaire because they are panicking to reveal
their information and they are not ready to provide their information to the stranger. Some
companies entirely support the research and giving the feedbacks and responses that we are
needed.

19

MY MAIN INTERNSHIP DUTIES WERE:

Preparation of the Questionnaire according to the usage of Foreign Exchange in SME
Entering datas in Excel Sheet and Auditing purchases memo
Preparing the list of SMEs in Chennai through Internet
Encashment auditing and finding out the missing documents in the purchase memo
Identifying the missing documents (i.e., A2 forms and LERMS letter)
Conducting Market Surveys in Chennai based SMEs
Explaining about various quality services provided to customers in order to get their attention on
Foreign Exchange and make them deal with the company
Study the Market competition.
To know about the limitations of company through feedback of customers
To know the Existing FOREX vendors of various SMEs
To know the effectiveness of promotion made by the company.
To find out whether customers are satisfied with the services provided by Thomas cook
Finalizing the Market Survey Report.

An average day (a typical working day)

In Corporate Department
The work starts by 10.00AM and ends nearly to 6.00PM. My job was to check the purchase
memo of three months and enter the data in a chronological order. The data to be entered in the excel
sheet such as, date, sales/encashment, corporate/individual name, memo number and also to find out the
missing documents ie, A2 form and LERMS letter and a copy of the passport who travels abroad either
for his personal or official purpose. In this department, I worked 8 days and it quite challenging and time
keeping work.
In Research & Development Department;
After two weeks, I started working on the R& D department by conducting a market research on
Chennai based SMEs and their foreign exchange usage. Here I worked rest of my 14 days.

An average week :
20

In an average week I had done multiple works. First two weeks I did my work in the office
by checking documents & entering the datas regarding to the Foreign Exchanges. By the end of second
week, I began to do Market Research on Chennai based SMEs. I collected all the other information
regarding to the research work and had started preparing questionnaire which were been useful to the
company and by weekend I reported my progress regarding survey to my company guide & he used to
give appropriate suggestions and feedbacks.

Targets& Achievements:

I started doing research work by the end of the second week and prepared a list of more than
120 SMEs in Chennai; in this limited time I accomplished my target by collecting information that is
useful for my company through questionnaire. At the end of the day I submitted all my reports of market
survey including my findings, suggestions, recommendation& conclusion. With my report I think this
could improve the present position of the company and their drawbacks and also know about the areas in
which they have to improve to have an improved customer relationship.

Learning summarization:

All the work which I did in the company were totally a learning process. I learned different
work in different field. Since the departments were shifting over a period, the chances of learning new
things were possible. Through market survey I improved my communication skill and confidence level,
It made me to work along with the team and make the work finish within the time assigned to me and
also to find out a possible solution to a problem and it also taught how to deal with the people and
interact with them in order to capture them and make them permanent customer with the company.

FINDINGS
21

We were able to find out one of the major competitor of Thomas Cook that is Centrum
Exchange

We were able to trace out that 83% of employees are been sent abroad for business related
purpose in various SMEs in Chennai.
We got certain feedbacks regarding the services of Thomas Cook.
We found the existing FOREX vendors of various SMEs in Chennai.
We understood that many of people were aware about the products and services offered by
Thomas Cook
Around 83% of the corporate officials are aware of the services provided by the Thomas Cook.
Around 83% of the companies prefer to visit abroad for business or meetings related travels.
Some of the companies prefer banks for their FOREX activities.
Most of the customers are satisfied with services provided by Thomas Cook

Many of the companies were specifically pointing out the higher cost of services by Thomas
cook.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Thomas cook official website www.thomascook.in

www.sulekha.com
www.yellowpages.com

www.travelex.co.in
www.awwwards.com
www.makemytrip.com

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23

APPENDIX

QUESTIONNAIRE
Sir,
We are doing a research work in Chennai based SMEs on usage of foreign
exchange. We request you to kindly spare your valuable time to fill up this
questionnaire

1. Name of the company :

__________________________________________________________

24

2. Type of business

___________________________________________________________
3. Contact person
Name

____________________________________________________
Designation
:
_____________________________________________________
Phone no & email id :
____________________________________________________
4. Does the company send employees abroad?
YES/NO
Countries visited frequently :
________________________________________________
Average No. of visits per year:
________________________________________________
Average No. of people travel per year :
________________________________________________

5. The purpose of visit :

a) Business related travel b) Meetings/Exhibition -

YES/NO
YES/NO

6. Existing FOREX Vendor(s)

:________________________________________________________

7. How did you know about the vendor :

a) Advertisements
b) Word of Mouth
8. Preferred mode for carrying FOREX :
9. If they use FOREX cards :

c) Others

Currency/ TC/ Cards

Single currency cards/ Multi-Currency cards

10. Does the company engaged in remittances : YES/NO

(Paying for subscription, stalls etc., other than core business transactions)

25

11. Approximate FOREX volume for last year/ quarter

:____________________________________
12. Have you heard about the products and services offered by Thomas Cook? ________________
13. If No, would you like to give them an appointment?
_____________________________________________________________________________
Place:
Date:

26