You've paid top dollar for your "luxury tour" but find yourself continually eating in shabby restaurants, puzzled that tourist sites shut early each afternoon while souvenir stores seem permanently open. You are angered not only by your guide's increasingly obvious dishonesty but also by
waste of your valuable vacation time.This disappointing but common experience springs from confusion people often have in choosing among a plethora of luxury tours, each of which claims to offer much same product. This brief article describes 5 critical factors to help travelers read between lines of glossy brochures and help them better assess relative merits of rival tour operators.
1) Trustworthiness & Security - first filter
Typically, tour operators will ask you to pay for your tour in advance, in which case you will want to be sure that operator is trustworthy and that your funds are secure. Such security works on a number of levels. On most basic level - if your intended tour operator is not registered in a country with a reliable legal system and does not offer some sort of financial guarantee in your home country (surety bond or trust account scheme), then your deposited funds are as liable to disappear as whisky on St. Patrick's Day.
On a secondary level, especially in an industry as susceptible to risk as travel industry, you want to be sure that even if operator goes bankrupt (the fate of many after September 11, 2001) your funds will nonetheless be returned to you. For this reason, look for companies which are adequately bonded or - for greater security - for companies running industry-approved trust account systems, where your funds are independently held, usually by a major bank, until after end of your tour.
Conclusion: For your own peace of mind, it is advisable to only deal directly with tour operators from countries with reliable legal systems, and then only with those tour operators which advertise surety bonds or industry-approved trust account systems.
2) "Boutique" tour operator" versus "The Jack Of All Trades" tour operator
The tour industry divides into innumerable countries and activities. Whereas one tour company might specialize in one niche area, such as walking tours in Loire valley ("Boutique" tour operator), another might offer every sort of luxury vacation in every country ("Jack Of All Trades" operator), including several walking tours in France. In this scenario, it is unlikely that generalist tour operator can deliver a better like-for-like product than specialist. Certainly, generalist should offer a lower price since they are a high volume player. In terms of quality and service however, specialist will always have upper hand.
Conclusion: Ask your friends and travel agent, research internet - if service and quality is what you value, find a boutique tour operator focussing on your specific region or activity.
3) Expert Status - tour operator must be an expert on destination
How well a tour operator knows their destination or activity will feed directly into your enjoyment of their product. If operator simply sub-contracts all aspects of their tours to a local groundhandler, then you should expect abysmal service since local groundhandler has a free hand to minimize costs at your expense. If tour operator is simply decorating a local groundhandler's product with sophisticated features, tour will share much in common with a tourist class tour apart from price. Instead, you should seek a tour operator, who is so familiar with destination that they have a wide selection of hotels, restaurants and special events exclusive to that operator. You should aim to find tour operator that specializes in your particular interest.
