This question of how to choose the best safari company is a common one and frequent. However, this question is not so surprising since there are so many safari operators in the tourism market and all these make promises to give you the best tour once chosen most especially when you know nothing about them. There are ways of improving your chances of making the right choice and decision of which safari company to give you your dream African safari; this will help you in avoiding the ones that might turn your safari into disaster. There are mainly three simple steps to follow.
Please never allow this to happen to you; by this, we mean that never chose a company due to the cheapest price since some of these operators are looking for a way of surviving not to give good service to the visitors. These are not tour operators but they just hide behind us the givers of genuine service. This means that whenever you want to travel, be ready to make a good choice of the operator who will value your money that you saved for decades to enjoy your African safari.
There are also those people who pretend to know a lot about tourism but in the actual sense they can’t provide the service behind the industry and these have greatly destroyed the operator’s name of wanting to make money out of our tourists. These own websites about what they offer, have forged reviews on trip advisor, safari bookings and many different flat forms and you will trust them thinking that they will give you the best but you will end up being disappointed.
There is also some good news about these scammers and since many of these have been shut down and closed, so the question is how do you avoid these fake tour operators when you are choosing a tour company for your vacation. Just apply these three steps and you will reduce on the risks of such operators.
Always get recommendations from others; the advice you will ever get about a tour company that you want to choose is from the real people who have used this same company on any safari. These can tell you exactly how that company performed for them and will also give you first-hand information without leaving anything untold. This will be a great way to shortlist all the companies that you have information about and then decide on which is good for you. More, in case you don’t know anyone who has been on a safari in a particular country, you don’t have to worry since there are many websites on the internet that shows a list of safari reviews as well as travel diaries that are written by the people who have previously gone on the trip. You can find these and learn from them. These have got many tips and recommendations that you can learn that are so helpful and valuable for your own trip.
Try checking their credentials
As a tourist, you need to know about each and every bit of the operator that you will want to choose, you can also try checking their credentials of the safari company you are planning to use in order to make sure they are very reputable. As a tourist, you need to know about every bit of the operator that you want to choose, you can check so that to know that the company is reputable.
Also make sure that even the guide you are to use is listed. The associations in East Africa include; KATO which is Kenya Association of Tour operator, TATO which is Tanzania Association of Tour Operators, TASA is Tours and safari Association of Namibia, SATSA is Southern Africa Tourism Services Association, ATTA is African Travel and Tourism Association and ASTA which is American Society of Travel Agents. In case they are not members, it doesn’t mean that they are not reputable but being a member, can afford any peace of mind to the traveller.
During our interview with several travel experts, we found out that it is important to ask the right questions; You now have got a tour company in mind and you have carried out some research to find out more about it, it’s now time to get into contact.
What are the questions do you need to ask to make sure you get best value for your money. Always find out how many other people that will join the trip?
According to Eddy from Primate Safari Experiences, it is very important to ask about the policies of payment as well as the cancellation policy. This will help you in case there is uncertainty with your journey plans. Knowing the booking terms and the cancellation policy saves the day in knowing what refund you qualify for.
Get to know about their location and address of the company offices.This is important to make sure that you are dealing with the right agency. Today, it is even easier to use the Google Places to locate the agency you are dealing with.
There are also many other questions that you can ask but the above question will establish a quick feedback about the company knowledge. You can follow the above three steps in finding the best tour company for your trip with accuracy.
