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Despite global and domestic pressures, higher costs, supply-demand mismatch and the temporary suspension of GoFirst, Thomas Cook India is confident of generating profits this fiscal, said Madhavan Menon, Chairman and Managing Director of the company. The company has made provisions of ₹2 crore on its books for GoFirst’s dues.
Speaking to BusinessLine, Menon said that post-covid, the company has been “firing on all cylinders.” This fiscal, the company reduced its losses from ₹82 crore in FY22 to a profit of ₹1.5 crore. According to him, the growth drivers are Thomas Cook and Sterling Holidays.
He said that Sterling Holidays Resorts plans to add a new hotel every month in this fiscal, while he believes that inbound travel in the coming quarter will continue to boost growth for Thomas Cook. While he expects both these companies to continue boosting growth, he also expects Asian Trails and DAE to promote growth in this fiscal.
“We have seen greenshots with both these companies and expect them to continue promoting growth. On an average, we have also reduced our costs by 30 per cent which will continue to support us over the next few fiscals,” he said.
Speaking about Thomas Cook, he said that with markets opening up, inbound travel will continue to boost growth. Closer home, inbound and domestic travel continues to be a boost for the company. Although, with GoFirst’s suspension of operations has been a dampener.
“Thomas Cook has made a provision of over ₹2 crore of the total dues owed by the company,” he said.
In the next few quarters, the inbound travel will continue to boost the company’s growth, he said. In future too, growth will continue to come from holiday segment.
According to him, outbound travel continues to be subpar given that the input costs of airfares and hotel bookings continue to be way higher than pre-covid levels.
“In some cases, prices have risen by 50 per cent to 100 per cent, and these prices are here to stay. Customers have realized this, thus, we have been able to pass these costs to our customers. However, visas continue to be a constraint, hence, travel to Europe isn’t yet a pre-covid level, although packages to the UAE and Thailand compensate for these,” he explained.
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