Dear Partner in travel.
Firstly we want to offer our continued support and empathy to all travellers, travel agencies and clients of ours around the world. Tourism that Cares (including the brands of African Incentive Travel, Luxury Kosher Safari and Luxury African Safari) has gone into a model of cost-cutting, short time, and working from home office model, until 15 April 2020.
We will maintain connectivity and support our customers globally. Our working hours are from Monday to Friday, 08h30 am till 17h30pm. GMT+ 2. Please continue to work through your consultant that was servicing your file, and feel free to ask any questions.
In addition, we have adopted the global recommended trend of postponing trips, versus cancelling trips. Each person’s file will be dealt on a case by case scenario, as not all service providers and suppliers are standardised in their response/terms and conditions or cancellation policies.
We have to respect these policies, even if we will try and negotiate cancellation fee reductions aggressively. As a rule, we hope for zero penalties when postponing, and yet, this too can vary.
In the Postponement scenario, most likely you will have a slight increase in price if you are travelling in a different seasonal rate period (eg from low season to high season, or peak season) or if a flight price goes up, but this again is a client by a client process, which we will administrate to the best of our ability. Changes up to 12 months, within the same rate period/ season period. Eg May 2020 to May 2021, are most likely to attract the least if any form of a price increase.
If cancellation occurs, there is a general trend of cancellation fees STILL being levied, especially as you get closer to your time of travel, which is negotiated downward, IF at all possible by us, but not guaranteed.
If you simply have to cancel, and cancellation fees are unavoidable, please ensure you consult with your travel insurance company, before you make your final decision, to see if you are covered based on your unique set of factors.
Hence the strongest recommendation is POSTPONEMENT.
We hope it will return to normality still in 2020, as reports of medical solutions are popping up in India, Australia and USA, and our cost-cutting measures as a company, in keeping with airlines, hotels, travel agencies etc, who are all staying alive by being frugal and careful, are our modus operandi right now.
There are also measures in place, to maintain a level of contact and service to clients as long as possible, within the current context, framed with the hope that it will pass, and that our key source markets will keep supporting us, in the long term vision of sustainable tourism to Africa, that Tourism that Cares holds dear to.