Government Travel Advice
What travel advice might affect your tour
With adventures running all over the globe, client safety is our top concern. As we operate tours in so many countries we will inevitably encounter political instability or natural disasters from time to time. With this in mind, we listen to governmental advice and our contacts on the ground to make the most informed decisions when assessing the potential risks of every situation.
As we welcome passengers from all over the world, we endeavour to monitor governmental travel warnings from as many countries as we can. However, as a British-based company we have affiliation with the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and greater precedence is given to the advice they provide from their extensive network.
The FCO Travel Advice Service provides information to travellers about potential dangers that may exist in certain destinations. It is the same advice that we often use when deciding if we should cancel or alter a tour because of any recently-developed problem. This was the case in early 2011 when we cancelled tours in Syria and Egypt due to political unrest.
However, while we give the highest regard to this advice we are not necessarily bound by it, and at times tours may continue to operate in countries that the FCO has advised against travelling to. Although not exclusively, the main reason for this is because as a government office the FCO has to provide advice for all level of tourist and must err heavily on the side of caution. While we would never put clients' safety in jeopardy, there are times where having our own contacts on the ground and clients accompanied by experienced tour leaders with good local knowledge mean that certain FCO warnings don’t always apply.
Our own insurance requires us to carry out a comprehensive risk assessment for all destinations we tour in and the FCO’s advice, while a factor taken into account, is not the final say on whether we continue to operate in a particular region.
For further details about the FCO and its 'Know Before You Go Campaign' that ecourages all travellers to visit their site for important information before heading overseas see our page.
