As peak season for cruising wraps up the busy season for escorted
guided tours is starting up. I have had
many conversations with clients, and even less experienced travel agents who
are somewhat mystified and unsure of how these really work. Are the guides used from the area visited or
somebody from the tour company office far away from the destination? Is there going to be a language or dialect
barrier or will I be able to understand the escort? What sort of service can I expect, what
exactly does the guide / escort do? Will
I feel like I am being herded around along with dozens of other people, or will
I have some independence?
All great questions, and very important to know. I have worked as an international tour director
for close to a decade, working for small upscale tour operators escorting tour
groups world-wide. I have also worked
for several years for Abercrombie & Kent, who many feel is the best
(arguably, perhaps) global tour operator there is, among other companies
involved in operating tours.
~THERE
ARE AS MANY REPUTABLE TOUR OPERATORS IN EXISTENCE AS THERE ARE REASONS AND
DESIRES TO TRAVEL; WITH SOME RESEARCH AND ADVANCE PLANNING YOU CAN GET EXACTLY
WHAT YOU DESIRE OUT OF A GUIDED TOUR PROGRAM~
Guided tours fall under 2 categories, either “inbound” or
“outbound”.
An inbound tour operator (aka Destination Management Company
or DMC) is local, operating tours in the same area / region. These companies develop knowledge, experience
and contacts in that area which is of course very helpful, helping to ensure a
favorable experience for the traveler.
Their guides do the same trips regularly and really know that area very
well, certainly a plus for the traveler.
They provide tours for clients who are coming “in” to them.
An outbound tour operator is more global, they package up
tours either all over the world or in regions they choose to specialize
in. They get customers locally (which
can mean a large region, even an entire country), and send them “out” to an
area of interest. For example, a US
based tour operator may specialize in Africa, advertising all over the US,
getting American clients to sign up for their tours through Africa.
It of course sounds great to work with an inbound operator
who knows the region well and provides an expert knowledgeable guide and back
up staff. Well, how do you find a DMC,
and know if it is reputable or not? In
this day and age of the world wide web, of course you can find tour operators
all over the place with ease. How do you
know they are reputable, or even legitimate?
Give your credit card to a company based in another country and never
hear from them again?
~THE VAST MAJORITY OF ESCORTED GUIDED TOURS ON THE
MARKET SOLD BY OUTBOUND TOUR OPERATORS ARE “RUN” BY INBOUND TOUR OPERATORS
(DMC’S) THAT OUTBOUND OPERATORS HAVE CONTRACTED WITH TO PROVIDE TOURS TO THEIR
CLIENTS~
There are very few exceptions to this, discussed later. This works out fairly well, gives you the
traveler some great benefits. You work
with an outbound tour operator who of course wants you to have a great
experience, so they have taken steps to work with an excellent DMC to provide
you that experience. Prior to the trip you
/ your travel agent works with somebody in a similar time zone with the same
language and currency, yet you receive a tour provide by “local” experts. You have recourse after the fact in the event
something doesn’t go well enough for your satisfaction.
This last point brings up my next point. An outbound tour operator places their faith
in the DMC selected, with past performance being their measurement and gauge of
probable future performance. We all know
how service goes; sometimes there are staff issues like illness or attrition,
sometimes overbooking happens, maintenance issues of vehicles used, etc. You may suffer from a poor experience because
of future problems that have not yet occurred, no indication to the outbound
operator of any problems until after the fact.
Sure, as mentioned you have recourse after the fact such as partial
refunds or credits, but that may not compensate you properly for missing out on
your “once in a lifetime” trip to an exotic location where the tour guide was
actually an office worker who barely spoke English but was pressed into service
because your regularly scheduled tour guide called in sick.
Fortunately, bad experiences are not all that common,
although if it happens to you this statistic doesn’t matter if it impacts your trip negatively. Using the most reputable well established
outbound tour operators helps to minimize this possibility, as they in turn
work with the most reputable DMC’s they can find as well. Additionally;
~MAJOR
OUTBOUND TOUR OPERATORS TYPICALLY SEND A TOUR DIRECTOR ALONG TO ENSURE THAT ALL
IS GOING WELL ON TOURS, AS WELL AS HANDLING THINGS THAT THE LOCAL GUIDE DOES
NOT, SUCH AS HOTEL CHECK-IN / CHECK-OUT AND MEALS~
This fact in itself could save you from having to deal with
having an ineffectual last minute replacement.
Inbound DMC’s do have private groups, small families etc. that purchase
their services directly. If a DMC is a
bit understaffed and needs to assign a “weak” local guide to a client for the
day, you better believe they look closely at their customers. The weak guide will go to the random once in
a lifetime customer instead of to the big tour operator that sends them
hundreds or thousands of clients, and has a Tour Director on board as well to
ensure that their clients get what they pay for. I have been in this business for 3 decades,
on both sides of this equation so I know from experience that this is what is
happening behind the scenes.
Outbound tour operators get a price break from the DMC on
that trip as they send many people to that DMC.
The price is then marked up to match what the inbound tour operator
would charge if you bought that tour from the DMC on your own, so you are still
getting a good value. Of course,
outbound operators will also “bundle” that tour along with other travel
components such as air, services of their tour director, etc.
There are a few unique exceptions to the typical
business model described above. There
are a couple of very reputable far-reaching tour operators who do both inbound
and outbound from their own offices worldwide, allowing them to control the
quality of your experience to an even higher degree.
Seeing how I have surpassed 1000 words on this blog already
(not surprising, given the intricacies and nuances of this very popular and
widespread method of traveling) I am going to wrap this one up for now. Next blog will provide further details of
this, along with other nuances of guided tours such as inclusions / exclusions,
fully active tours vs. basic “shell” tours where activities are optional, best
times to travel, what do the escorts and guide do / don’t do, various companies
of note, etc.
I hope this has been helpful, look forward to “seeing” you
all next week for the continuation of this blog designed to demystify guided
escorted tours….