The holiday company organises corporate picnics as well as international and domestic tours for schoolchildren. Darryl Nunes started the enterprise in 1996. The former vice-president of SOTC Kuoni has 14 years' experience in the travel and hospitality industry. ``We take about 500 kids to various destinations all over the world each year. Of course, though these are school tours, their parents are allowed to come, too,'' says Nunes. That sounds like a new concept. Not many in the holiday industry consider, let alone organise, tours selectively for children. Nunes reveals that he conceived the idea of school tours when he worked at SOTC, but somehow it didn't prove viable then.

He has tied up with premium holiday resorts in and around Mumbai, which include MTDC's Kihim Beach Resort in Alibag, Big Splash Hotel, Tikuji Ni Wadi, Club Aquaria,Krishna Gardens, Royal Palms Country Club and the Flamingo Hill Resort at Malshej Ghat. Near Panvel is the Nishiland Water Park, on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway is the KT Hill Resort, and off the highway is the Silent Hill Resort. All these offer special discounts to Purple Orchid, and as a result, each person pays only between Rs 350 and Rs 475 per trip, including the cost of transport, food, games, prizes and recreation. ``The product, that is the resort, is already there. We are merely packaging it,'' Nunes says.

Once hotel and food arrangements have been made, comes the actual event. Purple Orchid provides escorts who handle the picnickers for the duration of the trip. Dressed in suitably informal black shirts and blue jeans, they pick up the troupe from a particular meeting point, oversee the facilities at the resort, conduct games and quizzes, and distribute prizes to the winners. After the day is done, they drop them back to their doorsteps.

``Virtually, all a company or a school has to do isdecide when they want to go. The rest is up to us,'' says Nunes.

His high profile corporate clients include Cadbury, Tata Infotech, Johnson & Johnson, Berger Paints, IBM, Jet Airways and NOCIL. In fact, Feringez Pestonji, Nunes' colleague, handles about 35,000-40,000 tourists every season.

Among the schools, Greenlawns, Don Bosco, Campion and nearly all those in Bandra suburb, are his regulars. This despite the fact that Purple Orchid has never advertised its services. Nunes relies on mailers and word of mouth publicity. ``Of course, initially, there was no money to set aside for advertising,'' he says and laughs. ``But we seem to have done well for ourselves, nevertheless. One thing leads to another. Say, one of the school-kids enjoys the picnic a lot. His father, who is probably the managing director of some company, requisitions our services for a corporate tour to Himachal Pradesh or even Bangkok.''

Against normal practice, the charges do not fluctuate depending upon the number of people who havesigned up for an excursion. A troupe of 25 and 3,500 gets the same treatment and pays the same amount per person. ``We don't fleece you for bringing smaller or larger numbers. Again, it's not that we charge Rs 1 lakh as conceptualisation charges,'' says Nunes. ``We also have a team dedicated to preserving quality control. We visit all the resorts in a given area, check out the food and other facilities, and then decide which of them we want to ally with.''

By the looks of it, Purple Orchid is set to go places.