Ram Sarup Nangla could not stop smiling. The chairman of Brightsun Travel of Hounslow, Middlesex, watched as hordes of people surged around his company’s stand at Destinations, a major annual holiday and travel show in London’s Olympia from 29th January until 1st February.
Within the first two hours on the show’s first day, 200 people had snapped up entry forms from his stand for a free prize draw, hoping to win a holiday for two to Kerala. The company will treat the lucky twosome to return flights to the southern Indian holiday destination, plus five nights bed-and-breakfast in a 4 or 5-star hotel, with free transfers and a tour of Kerala thrown in.
“We send 700 people a day to places all over the world, specialising in tailor-made itineraries,” beamed Ram Nangla. “Dubai is one of the most popular bookings with Abu Dhabi catching up fast.”India’s Golden Triangle, he said, continued to be one of the country’s favourite areas along with Goa and Kerala. Brightsun Travel’s 170 staff are based across Hounslow, Birmingham, Manchester and Haryana in India. Its brochure invites customers to “explore the world with us” including Vietnam and Cambodia, Maldives, Mauritius, Sir Lanka, United States, Mexico and South America. The family business, set up in 1986, is proud of its “fantastic customer loyalty” said Mr Nangla who added: “Please give my regards to your editor C.B. Patel, a very good friend of mine.”