• Armaan and Sumer of YPS Mohali declared winners
• Over 22000 students, 35 Chandigarh schools participate in Thomas Cook Travel Quest – Season II – India’s first National Travel Quiz
• 350 students shortlisted to compete and qualify for the City Finals- in Chandigarh

NewZNew (Chandigarh) : Thomas Cook Travel Quest Season II – India’s first national travel quiz for schools conducted its City Finals today at Chandigarh, declaring Armaan and Sumer of YPS Mohali as the winners, confirming an entry to the North Zonal Finals. Present at the event were heads of Chandigarh’s leading educational institutions, parents, students and representatives from Singapore Tourism Board as well as Switzerland Tourism Board – Swiss Village Camps India Pvt. Ltd. who were kept enthralled by the quizmaster, Mr. Lloyd Saldanha.

Given outstanding pan India participation for Season – I and the honour of the prestigious PATA Gold Awards 2015 (Education & Training), Thomas Cook Travel Quest – is back with a larger format this year.

The travel quiz, open to school students from classes 6 to 9, includes an extensive seven month outreach (August 2015- February 2016) across 25 cities (Dehradun, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Nagpur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kochi, Chennai, Coimbatore, Indore, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Pune, Mumbai, Delhi, etc.). A written qualifying test covering 1800 schools is followed by qualifiers to determine City, Zonal and eventually National winners. The four zonal winners contest for the title prize at the grand finale, held during February-March, 2016.

For this unique initiative, Thomas Cook India continues its partnership with Greycaps India Private Limited – Asia’s largest on stage quizzing and knowledge Services Company, curated by noted quizmaster Mr. Giri Pickbrain with the focus being History & Geography. Having benefitted from strong student-educator-parent engagement last year, Switzerland Tourism and Singapore Tourism Board continue their partnership for Travel Quest Season II. To deepen the focus on experiential learning, they have sponsored prize winning trips for students and teachers to Switzerland and Singapore (Grand Finale and Zonals, respectively).

Following an intense outreach programme via written tests at a school level, Thomas Cook covered over 22000 students from 45 educational institutions across Chandigarh. At the Thomas Cook Travel Quest quiz venue over 350 students from 35 schools participated in the qualifier round where six teams were selected to compete for the Chandigarh City Finals.The venue Shivalik Public School, Phase-6, Mohali was packed with an excited audience of over 400 students, teachers and parents.

The winning students of Chandigarh City Finals will be hosted by Malaysia Tourism Board for an enriching experiential study tour to Malaysia.

Mr. Madhavan Menon, Managing Director, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd. said, “India is poised to emerge as the world’s youngest nation by 2020. Young India’s growing aspirations for exposure to a global curriculum and opportunities are increasingly being built into the curriculum of progressive Indian schools. The unique quiz format of Thomas Cook’s Travel Quest, aims to serve India’s schools by introducing a fresh vibrant approach to learning.”

He added, “Based on the significant demand post Season- I, we set up a dedicated Travel Quest study tours vertical, comprising experienced professionals across the educational and travel domain. The results have been truly encouraging- we have conducted study tours for over 800+ students across (both international & domestic destinations, including Switzerland, Singapore, France, Malaysia, USA, Canada, Sri Lanka, China, Vietnam- Cambodia, Netherlands, Jaipur, Ranthambore, and Kerala).”

Ms. Bridget Goh, Area Director, India and Sri Lanka-Singapore Tourism Board said, “Singapore’s association with the Thomas Cook Travel Quest Season – I had reinforced Singapore as a premier destination for learning travel and we continue our successful partnership in this season.  Additionally, Singapore is pleased to announce the ‘Travel & Learn’ incentive programme which offers curated quality learning experiences in Singapore for Indian school groups.   Qualifying school groups (minimum 20 students & educators) will enjoy a complimentary biodiversity workshop experience at the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum and meet with 150 million year-old sauropod dinosaurs, or attend a heritage and battlefield tour to learn about Singapore’s early colonial roots and the sacrifices of brave hearts and soldiers from India and other Commonwealth nations during World War II.  We are confident these enriching experiences will add value to the school’s curriculum and students’ appreciation of learning beyond the classroom.”