OUR CONCEPT
The company was started in April 1989 by Mr.Arun Raghavan when domestic tourism was experiencing a boom and tourists from Bombay requiring both budget and deluxe accommodation on their holidays and honeymoons, had the ardent task of running from pillar to post to figure out for themselves or from sometimes unreliable sources,where to go, how long to stay and which would be the most suitable hotel or resort for them and how much would it cost. Quite often, their efforts would yield disastrous results, as without knowledge of holiday routes, distances and time taken from one destination to another, facilities at resorts and places to see in each holiday resort and the risk of not getting their accomodation on arrival, they would often make all the wrong choices. What was desperately needed then, was someone who could guide them to do the right things.

THE COMPANY   
Travel Encounters, a leisure tourism consultancy, specialising in Resort representation at holiday destinations was thus set up. The Company decided to offer travel and holiday consultancy which proved to be very well accepted in the Indian market, for both the direct client as well as travel and tour agents, as there was no other company at that time, who could guide them in the right direction. All the staff of the Company including the directors, did an in depth study including visiting a number of resorts and holiday locations themselves, to be able to provide accurate details to visitors to that area, whenever they went on holiday. The Government of India Tourist office in Bombay, went out of their way to provide all the information and allied details to the Company, which immensely assisted them in further promoting exotic and especially out of the way destinations. They were also now able to provide a local contact number for a varied selection of resort hotels, all India, to tourists who were approaching them for every type of detail, as the tourist office only provides tourist information and does not book any accomodation. Resort hotels, were interested in tying up with Travel Encounters, as there was now no need to set up their own offices in Bombay, which would turn out very expensive and unwieldy to manage, having them to look after all their marketing and sales duties in Western India. A few years later, Cougar Resorts and Travels Private Limited was formed, as the business of selling and marketing resorts and holidays had grown to huge proportion and a separate Company was needed to fully concentrate on the needs of the tourist market.Travel Encounters thus was entrusted the responsibility of International and Domestic airline ticketing, which does a fair amount of business for itself.

THE DIRECTOR
A professionally qualified Managing Director spearheads the Company. Mr. Arun Raghavan has done his Hotel Management from the Institute of Hotel Management in New Delhi, having completed his three year course in 1974. There after he was selected on campus by the Taj Group of Hotels, to work at their Headquarters in Bombay. During his tenure for the next 3 years he specialised in all the areas of Food and Beverage.Thereafter he took up the position of Maitre d’hotel at the newly opened Searock Sheraton in Bombay and trained the initial batch of Food and Beverage staff.
He worked in the Gulf thereafter in four star hotels and for a few years in advertising and radio and television networks, organising their marketing strategies.
Back in India, he took up the position of Sales and Marketing Manager for West and South India for Fidalgo Hotel, Goa, at their Bombay office in 1987. By 1989 he developed an excellent rapport with the travel and tourism sector and decided to branch out on his own, marketing and selling 2 to 4 star resorts and hotels under one banner, Travel Encounters.

THE PEOPLE
It is the people who work at Cougar Resorts, who have made it one of the most successful companies in the leisure travel industry today. Having worked at the lowest level during their careers, the top management have personally trained their staff and honed their marketing skills, to enable them to guide all their clients correctly and efficiently, offering the best value holiday and complete information of where to go and what to do at each and every location. All the staff are qualified in Travel and Tourism from prestigious Institutes in Bombay, which helps them immensely in understanding the resort areas and what they have to offer. They are trained in the making and costing of itineraries in India and abroad, as we are also selling Maldives, Srilanka, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Europe, the Far East and Luxury cruises at certain International locations. By the end of their 6 months training period, each leisure travel assistant can individually sell any of these destinations and can undertake the administration and operation of any tour, which would include, air and surface transportation, meals and sightseeing etc. It is no wonder that most of our clientelle are repeat clients themselves or have recommended their contacts to us to ensure that they too get an exciting and memorable COUGAR HOLIDAY. The process of familiarising them with our existing clients, stems from the mailers and occasion cards which we will mail out to our clients from time to time throughout the year, informing preferred Cougar travellers of new locations and resorts we tie up with, round the year, thereby updating their information on other fresh destinations that are discovered periodically. The operations consists of 4 leisure travel assistants to handle direct enquiries and bookings and 3 outdoor sales executives to service agents and Companies for their group incentive movements and conferences.

THE RESORTS
Our Company has clearly understood the needs of the tourist, over the past 13 years in operation and represented resorts are both in the budget and deluxe category, between 2 and 4 star standard. In the 5 star category we are accredited with the Taj Group of Hotels, a facility which is available to only a few select travel and tour agents among the mushrooming other delux 5 star International chains. Having worked for the Taj , our director received the accredation from the very start. All the resorts have been carefully selected, due to their high standard of service and attention to detail, cuisine served and location in each destination. Almost every Cougar preferred resort is in an enviable location, compared to other hotels and most of them are the best in their standard. The resorts under the Cougar banner are located on beaches, wildlife sanctuaries, lakes, tea and coffee estates, backwater canals, mountains and islands.Every destination and holiday planned is definately value for money. This gives the holidaymaker a wide spectrum to choose from and quite often regular Cougar travellers take our recommendation on where next to go, when to go, how to go and how much it would cost. Being one of the most trusted in Leisure travel, the client well knows, that any resort recommended by us has the Cougar mark of approval and they can look forward to another enjoyable stay. We are constantly monitoring the services and the facilities offered by our resorts, by seeking the comments from clients who have visited the hotels and quite often we communicate with their management on improving various hotel areas, that we feel need upgradation, to improve client satisfaction . Our advice is no doubt invaluable to the hotels as one of our Directors is a hotel professional himself.

THE CLIENT
Over the past 8 years we are proud to have a client base of over 5000 regular holidaymakers, consisting of eminent doctors, lawyers, businessmen and young company executives. We are represented by over 200 travel and tour agents, who are our sub agents spread out all over Bombay, other areas in Maharashtra and Gujarat and quite a few blue chip corporate houses, most of whom use our services at some time of the year, either for themselves or for their clients, friends or relatives. Most of our clients are constantly in touch with us even for short weekend holidays twice or thrice a year and one or two long holidays a year. They also reserve accomodation for their foreign visiting clients at most preferred rates at hotels in India most of them in Metropolitan cities on the Dollar tariff. Whether it is a destination within India or a foreign land, our clients prefer us to make the arrangements, as we are in the know as to what tour is popular and the credentials of agents outside India who will service them, when they are there. We have thus emerged as their “ holidaymaker” no matter where they want to go. Of late due to increasing demand from our clients to visit foreign locales either on business or pleasure, we have tied up with several suppliers Internationally at preferred rates at hotels in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Europe, USA and several other popular destinations and no doubt the validity of the booking is as usual iron clad. Directly, clients can never hope to get such low rates directly, as they would through us.

THE RESULTS
From small beginings in 1989, operating from our residence, our Company now owns its own fully airconditioned premises in the heart of Bombay. We have the state of the art office equipments, such as faxes, computers and are connected online to the Internet, for swift and prompt communication, to any part of the world at any time. Cougar Resorts now services over 2000 clients a year most of them from the domestic sector and a several from foreign locations. The Tourist Office is recommending us to most tourists who would like to stay at the resorts we represent and market, at over 70 locations in India. Large inbound tour companies in India, very often use our resorts and surface transportation services and have been very satisfied by them.
A large number of foreign tourists visiting Bombay who require onward hotels at resort locations are referred to us. Consular offices in Bombay, requiring holiday accommodation at very good standard resorts are in touch with us periodically at different times of the year. We have, in the past, booked holidays at our resorts for the British, American, Singapore and Canadian Consulates based in Bombay.

We would now like to spread our wings to encompass inbound tourists, having successfully served local tourists and having a strong bond with the resorts and hotels we represent, who are responsible in providing services in ensuring a comfortable and satisfying holiday. Over the years, Cougar Resorts will no doubt continue to find new and out of the way fairytale destinations, providing an exciting and adventurous holiday to tourists who are looking for a place to spend their much-needed break, from the monotony of urban life and high-pressure work.

Cougar Resorts and Travels Pvt. Ltd. may also be contacted as under :-

TELEPHONES : 91-22 22654604, 22650899, 22641001
FAX NUMBER : 91-22 22653494
E- MAIL : cougar@bom5.vsnl.net.in
cougar@hathway.com

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