Thomas Cook India’s internal consumer study, while highlighting visas as a key element in travel, revealed the stress and pain involved in the entire process. 

 

In an initiative to simplify the process, Thomas Cook launched  “Online Visas” to empower its customers with detailed visa information (visa requirements per destination, downloadable visa forms, consular addresses and timings, processing duration and visa costs). 

 

Clearly this has found strong value with travellers, resulting in over 20,000 application requests received online in the months of May and June, 2015.

 

Amit Madhan, Chief Operating Officer - IT & E Services, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd said, “The world is changing rapidly and so is customer behaviour. Today’s digitally native Indian is increasingly impatient for both information/data, as also delivery. He needs information instantly and has little patience to wait for a third party to meet his requirements. Obtaining a visa remains one of the biggest pain points for India’s traveller as it involves filling complex applications, travelling to metro cities, standing in  queues for submissions/interviews, etc. With visa services online, our intent is to eliminate multi-level complexities. Our 2 step process enables easy access to online visa information with fulfilment of visa services (drop off of documents, checks by an expert, submission and collection and final delivery of a visa stamped passport) executed offline- via our extensive pan India outlets."

 

He added, “While not surprising that Singapore topped the list of favoured destinations for online visa submissions, Schengen countries like Switzerland and France constituted an interesting second. Bengaluru continues to show faster adoption for new online tools, Pune and Hyderabad together with Mumbai and Delhi are not far behind.”