KUWAIT: Akbar Travels, the leading travel services company in India, is further widening its footprints by opening its branch in Kuwait today. The new branch located at Al-Qatami/Maryam complex, Grand Hypermarket, Fahaheel, will offer "every aspect of travel and tourism industry services to its customers with a special focus on holiday travel and leisure market". Announcing the company's entry into Kuwait at a press conference on Monday evening, Akbar Travels of India General Manager R Kannan said, "We are here not to compete, but to co-exist and cooperate with the local travel industry fraternity." The company began its journey of expansion in the GCC with opening of its branch in the UAE. "Today, we have 14 branches outside India, including outlets in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Malaysia and the USA and now in Kuwait.
Soon we will open our branch in the UK," he said. Akbar Travels is the only agency with 59 IATA branches and 30 non-IATA outlets in India with turnover worth billions of dollar every year. It has approximately 5,000 well-trained employees. As per IATA data, Akbar is the highest ticket issuing agency in South Asian subcontinent.
Packages
Talking about the company's philosophy, Kannan said, "We are not a mere ticket-issuing single door travel agency. Our vision is to bring people together through tourism. In addition to catering to regular travel requirements, we propose to offer tailor- made packages for families and leisure travelers from Kuwait," he said. "We believe that tourism industry has the potential to create an understanding and foster friendship and cooperation among nations and nationalities. Tourism can bring people together to make 'one world, one nation'. This is the cornerstone of our philosophy when we offer a wide range of tourism products to our customers such as conference and incentive tours, domestic and international trade fairs, corporate business travel, medical tourism, student holidays, group tours and family tours, students' educational tours, honeymoon tours, cultural tours and pilgrimage tours and adventure tours. The Akbar Travels, the flagship company of the Akbar Group, has grown remarkably in the last 36 years with its strong infrastructure, professional manpower, network and financial stability.
According to Kannan, the growth and expansion of the company paved way for its diversification and formation of 'Benzy' brand within Akbar Group. "Today, we have Benzy holiday division under the brand to take care of our overflowing travel business," he said. "Currently, we are operating Benzy inter-state bus service, Benzy Restaurants and Motels, Benzy Food & Beverages, Benzy Real Estate Developers - Home Makers, Benzy Transports, Benzy Supermarket, Printing Press etc," he added. "The growth of Akbar Group has also necessitated it to create different verticals. As a result, we created verticals to place our important divisions such as Akbar Holidays, Akbar online portal, Akbar Academy and Benzy Infotech," he informed. Shaikh Abdulla, Kuwait regional manager, Narayanan Kutty, general manager, head office, Vinod Menon, general manager (NI) and K M Sukumaran, Sr Executive, were also present during the press conference.
© Kuwait Times 2014
