SOTC Travel celebrates 70 years of travel

Mumbai, January 11: SOTC Travel, marked the 70th anniversary of its founding year in 1949. SOTC’s first office was opened in Mumbai with 5 employees. A major breakthrough came in 1976, when SOTC handled its first tour group visiting the US during the bicentennial celebrations. 1981 saw another breakthrough when SOTC Package Tours began active advertising, with the first creative in the newspapers.

Today it has grown to a network of over 160 touch points in India and NRI markets. Over the years, the company has attained leadership position in various travel segments-Escorted Group Holidays, Customized Holidays, Domestic Holidays, Incentive Travel, Business Travel and Foreign Exchange.

Speaking on the momentous occasion, Vishal Suri, Managing Director, SOTC Travel said, “It is indeed a celebratory moment for us at SOTC. We believe in constantly evolving and adapting to the changing needs and expectations of our customers to create and deliver magical moments and seamless travel solutions. Moving forward, we will continue to focus on Value Creation for all our stake holders – customers, employees and partners, by further enhancing our processes, investing in technology and innovation to deliver delightful customer experiences.”

The company aims to further strengthen its business with an array of innovations and launches across multiple travel categories. The plans include new product formats and extension of premium offerings.

Things you did not know about SOTC

•             In Switzerland, the town of Engelberg was renamed SOTC Indian Village in 1999.

•             SOTC is the only Indian tour operator to be awarded the prestigious Friends of Thailand Award in 2000.

•             In 2003, a customer travelling with an SOTC Bhraman Mandal tour to Europe came back to India and wrote a book titled ‘Parikrama of Western Europe’. The book is an account of his journey – from the decision-making stage to homecoming – and talks of his experience as an SOTC customer.

•             Pioneers in introducing the Holiday Now Pay Later facility

•             Pioneered in designing and marketing of escorted tours to cosmopolitan travellers in India.

•             Introduced the concept of Box Holidays.

•           SOTC was the first travel group to create a tour around the Seven New Wonders of the World.

•             Pioneers in creating the concept of a Holiday Bazaar.

•             Cost Saver Tours were first introduced by SOTC.

•         SOTC Travel is the pioneer in Indian travel space to enter the integrated spiritual + leisure segment with the introduction of Spiritual Tours named Darshans.

•             Launched easy financing options for customers such as Holidays on EMI, Holiday Investment Plan, tie-ups with banks for cash back options.

•             Pioneers in introducing regional tours ‘Darshanam’ for the South India Market.

•             Pioneers to introduce SOTC The Enchanted Journey with YRF films that gave the travellers a real-life experience of the magnificent spectacle they had seen unfurl only on the screen.

Milestone

2018

Launched Sales Analytics. 

2017

SOTC entered the Travel E Commerce space with an all new sotc.in portal, offering exciting new features. The new website is built on SOTC’s Omni-channel approach which is customer-centric and helps deliver an integrated digital experience to our customers and a desire to use technology to allow customers to engage seamlessly with us across our physical & digital platforms.

First to introduced Travel Merchandise ‘SOTC Holiday Essentials.’

2016

Kuoni India rebranded to SOTC as part of a brand transition post change in control & Kuoni Group exiting Tour Operating entities globally.

Released its new TVC, asks Indians not to postpone their Holidays & make holidays a priority.

SOTC unveiled its new brand logo. The new logo uses distinct tag lines for each of the business segments - For Holidays, For Incentive Travel and For Business Travel.

2015

Launched a brand campaign for Indians to prioritize their holidays. The campaign communicated a strong statement of looking at Vacation Deprivation as a disease and a holiday as the only medicine to cure it.

2014

Received the prestigious Certificate of Registration for operating Quality Management System which complies with the requirement of ISO 9001:2008 for its corporate travel business.

2013

Launched a television commercial in line with the new brand architecture. Commercial highlighted the brand promise of 'We are for holidays' and inspired consumers across segments to stand up for their holidays.

2011

Launched the first ever Holiday Report 2011. Launched Perfect Moments; need based concepts for the Indian traveler that included mind body soul, away from it all, the world is mine, undiscovered destinations and romantic escapes.

2005

First to launch franchisee network.

2002

FIT Holidays was launched to market and operate international and domestic holidays for individual travellers.

1997

Kuoni Group acquired 100% equity in SOTC in 1997.

1996

Kuoni Group entered India by acquiring a 51% stake in SOTC.

About SOTC Travel Limited

SOTC Travel Limited (Formerly SOTC Travel Pvt. Ltd.) is a step-down subsidiary of Fairfax Financial Holdings Group; held through its Indian listed subsidiary, Thomas Cook (India) Limited (TCIL). SOTC India is a leading travel and tourism company active across various travel segments including Leisure Travel, Incentive Travel and Business Travel.

SOTC was established in 1949. Since then, it has escorted lakhs of travelers across the globe for more than 68 years to various destinations around the world. It is one of the leaders in segments, namely Escorted Group Tours, Customized Holidays, Holidays of India and Incentive Travel amongst others. A new age innovative holiday maker, SOTC strives to make holidays a priority for every Indian. ‘We are for holidays’ and we want Indians to prioritize their holidays.