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How to choose your African tour operator

Southern Africa tours have always been popular with society’s more adventurous members – those who were keen to venture to a place where they would encounter wild animals roaming the streets, indigenous people slaughtering livestock on their porches and tribe members who run around maniacally, while banging drums and chanting.

But since the age of the Global Village has dawned and the classic African Hollywood stereotype has been disproven by countless YouTube videos showing bustling African cities, incredible landscapes and fantastic (structured) game viewing opportunities, even those who value their creature comforts (read: air conditioning, Bilharzia-free water, wireless internet connectivity) have jumped on the African tour bandwagon.

Feel like heading down South for a bit of an African adventure? Keen to break out the camouflage gear and binoculars? Fabulous idea – while you’re at it we would like to give you the opportunity to enjoy our world-renowned game parks, coastal hideaways and incredible hospitality. When travelling to Africa we highly recommend that you align yourself with a reputable tour operator. While there is a lot to be said for travelling independently and drawing up your own itinerary, a structured African tour will give you the opportunity to explore the country without the hassle of securing your own transport and accommodation or sourcing activity providers.

The African tourist trade is booming, which means there is a very large selection of Africa tour operators to choose from. This can be quite confusing, especially if you are visiting from abroad and are doing your research exclusively online. Clever marketing ploys and strategic website content can, unfortunately, muddy the digital waters and lead you astray. Here are a few handy pointers that should help you separate the good from the bad:

1. Go Old School:

Remember the good old days before Google when you actually had to go out and ask something if you wanted to know something? User-generated reviews are all good and well, but unfortunately these may be fabricated and can not always be trusted. If you are planning an African safari and don’t know where to start, it is best to ask around. Talk to friends and family and make a note of tour operators they mention – both the good and the bad. This way you will already have a frame of reference when you do plunge headfirst into your online research.

2. Determine your budget and requirements beforehand:

Tourism websites are meant to entice you, in fact, designers and copywriters spend most of their time making sure that it does. To ensure that you don’t get carried away and sign up for that balloon-based hyena viewing adventure just for the heck of it, sit down with your travelling party beforehand and determine what your budget is and how you are willing to spend it. Break your expenditures down into categories like flights, transport, accommodation, food and beverages, entertainment and spending money. Having this on hand will make it easier to see whether or not a particular African tour package is within your budget.

3. Check the company’s credentials, and then check it again:

A good way to determine if a tour company is legitimate right off the bat is to see whether or not they are accredited with their country of origin’s tourism associations. These include:

? KATO – Kenya Association of Tour Operators

? TATO – Tanzania Association of Tour Operators

? SATSA – Southern Africa Tourism Services Association

? TASA – Tours and Safari Association of Namibia

? ATTA – African Travel and Tourism Association

? ASTA – American Society of Travel Agents

? APTA – Association for the Promotion of Tourism to Africa.

4. Ask for references:

If you decide on a tour operator that no family member or friend has used before, ask for references from previous clients. Disgruntled clients are usually very keen to air their grievances and this will help you to weed out the bad apples early on.

5. Check payment and cancellation policies:

There is always the chance that something may happen which would prevent you from participating in your African tour, which is why it is important that you make sure of the company’s payment and cancellation policies before you fork out your hard-earned holiday money. In the same vein, in could happen that the area you are planning to visit is flooded or that there are too little people interested in a particular safari to make it viable – in which case your tour operator may be forced to cancel the trip. You should be informed about reimbursement policies should something like this occur.

These five tips should make it a bit easier to select the African tour operator that will best suit your budget and requirements. Good luck and happy surfing!

Kenya Safari Travel – 7 Helpful Tips on How to Choose a Reliable Kenya Safari Agent

Booking a Kenyan safari was relatively easy when safari travel market was dominated by a few wholesale safari operators.

All you had to do was visit your preferred travel agent’s office or ask for a brochure by post. You booked your safari in deep trust that your travel agent had carefully vetted the African operator who will handle you on the ground.

The whole safari travel supply chain had in-built checks and balances which in most cases were legally bidding. The traveler came out the winner except in the area of safari prices, which were astronomical as each level had to add their profit margins.

There are many local Africa safari operators in the internet making the price of safaris to be much better than what you’d pay to an agent in your country.

The disadvantage is that the responsibility of vetting the operator rests on you and should you fail to do due diligence, you suffer the consequences.

Many websites will promise you the best African safari but consider that a website can’t guarantee credibility. It would be a mistake if you made your booking decision just on how a website looks.

Don’t take comfort that if things go wrong you can seek legal recourse. The truth is, if your African safari doesn’t go right you can’t get a fair compensation for the time lost, emotions ruined and the shear frustration that comes with it.

Though your African travel will possibly last 10 -13 days, its effect is going to be long term. Therefore do your research as you would for other long term and important issues such as buying a house or choosing your child’s school. Ask all relevant questions and then make informed decisions. This has to be before paying for your safari travel and not after.

These easy to follow 7 tips are a sure way of determining if your African safari operator is up to scratch:

1) Get to know the real people in the organization. Avoid dealing with vague terms like “The Team”. Assuming the operator is a small local company, why should he not reveal his identity?

2) Do your research as though money is not a problem. This widens the pool of the operators whose resumes you’d want to consider and you avoid being locked-up with African safari operators with doubtful reputations. Then narrow down the candidates to suit your budget.

3) Check how long the African travel operator has been in operation – this will help you avoid the here-today-gone-tomorrow operators. While there is no rule that the new operators are doubtful, you must see that you don’t become the safari company’s experimental client.

4) Does the African safari operator have the expertise for your specific needs? If he can’t directly supply your needs, this should be a red flag.

5) What do the safari travel reviews say about him? Trust the grapevine – if your African safari operator is up to scratch you will hear it in forums and trip advisory portals. Watch out for out-dated, self-authored trip reports and unverifiable client comments. Insist on calling a past client, which is a more credible verification method.

6) Membership in fee-paying tourism associations. While these bodies have noble ideas, there must be reasons why they have a disclaimer in their members list. Read and respect the disclaimer. Don’t let your guard down just because African safari operator appears in every fee-paying body.

Finally and very crucial, place a call to the safari operator. Switch on your detective radar, listen carefully between his words and try to match them with info in his web site and from emails.

By the end of the call, it will be very clear if you should book with that African safari operator.

Now that you know how to vet your African travel operator, hit the keyboard for the right African safari and the security of knowing that no nasty surprises await you when you land in Africa.