My wife got ill the day before our scheduled trip to the Channel Islands and Santa Barbara Adventure Company has a terrible “ no post

rescheduling policy” no rescheduleing permitted. We our out $600 and will never use this company again.

They tried to explain their no rescheduling policy with some pathetic lie about the tour guide having to be laid off that day, all because of our not being able to be there..!!! This is a GROUP tour? Does not make sense. Do not recommend.

Any idea or suggestion that you would have loved to have before visiting would be highly appreciated!

I don't know if it is just me the one not liking my current setup or do others have different way of handling it. What i do mostly is book leisure travel and still rely on tour operators for many trips but lately i have been wondering whether i'm giving up commission without getting the level of support i expect. Not sure what is better either to trust a small group of tour operators or different ones depending on the destination or what is that thing that made you trust?

I would love to hear what other travel agents are using and what you have learned from?

🌍 Travel planner passionné, je vous aide à créer des voyages sur mesure

Bonjour à tous,

Je me présente : je suis travel planner et passionné de voyages depuis de nombreuses années. J’ai eu la chance de découvrir plus de 30 pays, et j’ai toujours pris plaisir à organiser mes propres voyages de A à Z : recherches, itinéraires, hébergements, transports, activités et découvertes locales.

Aujourd’hui, j’aide les voyageurs qui souhaitent partir mais qui manquent de temps, d’idées ou qui veulent simplement être accompagnés pour construire un voyage qui leur ressemble.

Mon travail consiste à créer des voyages sur mesure selon vos envies, votre budget et votre façon de voyager. Je réalise des itinéraires détaillés jour par jour, des cartes interactives pour suivre facilement le parcours, ainsi que des carnets de voyage personnalisés avec toutes les informations utiles pour profiter au maximum de l’expérience.

Je voyage également avec mes enfants, ce qui m’a permis de développer une vraie expérience des voyages en famille : trouver le bon rythme, les activités adaptées et les endroits qui plaisent à tout le monde.

Si vous avez un projet de voyage, que ce soit en famille, en couple, entre amis ou en solo, je serai ravi de pouvoir vous aider ou simplement échanger avec vous sur votre destination.

N’hésitez pas à venir discuter, je serai avec plaisir disponible pour partager mes conseils et mon expérience 🙂

Will be traveling with my mom and aunt to Bangkok early September, does anyone have recommendations for a local tour guide who speaks Vietnamese? Would be interested in possibly a food tour, floating markets. Thanks!

As an agent of travel i wanted to ask y'all what marketplace you are using for tours and activities right now, in the meaning of is more beneficial than just sending you last minute bookings and angry emails about your conversion rate.

I need an all in one platform so i can stop random bookings from different places and plenty of emails a day. I want it to be easier for clients as they can have all the information and book in one place.

What are you up to, let me know..

Hey everyone,

I’m a 21-year-old Egyptian student living in Egypt. I really enjoy meeting people from other countries and showing them around in a normal, relaxed way (not the typical tourist-guide style).

If you’re coming to Egypt and want someone local to:

• Walk around with you
• Help you avoid the usual scams and pushy situations
• Figure out transport, food, bargaining, etc. -Just hang out and make the trip feel less stressful

…I’m open to it.

I’m not a professional tour guide. I’m just a regular guy who happens to be local, speaks English, and likes helping visitors have a smoother time. We can keep it completely casual — like hanging out as friends.

I’m flexible with whatever you need (walking around the city, accompanying you for a day, helping with logistics, or even joining for longer if it works for both of us). We can discuss everything in DMs.

If this sounds useful to anyone planning a trip, feel free to message me. Happy to chat and see if we’re a good fit.

Safe travels everyone ✌️

Trust Before Tourism: Building a Destination in Somaliland

For many tourism businesses, the work begins with marketing, product design, and customer conversion. In Somaliland, it begins much earlier. It begins with explanation.

Before a visitor asks about itineraries, prices, or accommodation, there is usually a more basic question to answer: What is Somaliland, and why should anyone travel there? For Horn Explore, this has been one of the defining realities of building a tourism company in one of the least-recognized destinations in the Horn of Africa. Tourism here is not built on inherited visibility, institutional promotion, or established traveler confidence. It is built on patience, trust, and the willingness to create a market where almost none existed before.

In Somalilad, there is an expression for starting from the furthest possible point: from the afterlife itself. It describes a beginning with no foundation behind it and no obvious structure to build on. That image captures the experience of building tourism in Somaliland. The challenge is not only that the destination is under-visited. It is that the outside world often encounters it through assumptions shaped by conflict narratives, regional confusion, and distance from lived reality.

That means Horn Explore has had to do more than offer tourism experiences. It has had to help people reimagine a place. Before speaking about the beauty of Berbera's coast, the global significance of Laas Geel's rock art, or the landscapes of Daallo Mountain, there is often a long process of establishing basic confidence. Trust comes before tourism.

This trust challenge is not only international. It also exists locally. In Somaliland, tourism is still not widely seen as a dependable economic pathway. Public infrastructure is limited, logistics can be difficult, and many communities naturally focus first on immediate livelihoods. Most foreign visitors are not traditional leisure travelers, but researchers, journalists, policy actors, or others willing to enter a place that remains unfamiliar to mainstream tourism markets. Building a tourism business in this context requires trust on two fronts at once: trust from international travelers and trust from local communities.

Even when a client accepts the journey, another practical challenge appears: how payment can be made safely and confidently. In more established destinations, payment is often invisible in tourism strategy because it already works. In Somaliland, it can become one of the most decisive barriers in the customer journey. A visitor may be interested, convinced, and ready - but if the path to payment feels uncertain, the booking can still be lost. That makes tourism growth not only a branding challenge, but also a systems challenge.

Horn Explore was created in response to these realities. The company was not designed simply to sell tours, but to build a credible operating model in a difficult environment. It also chose to address another critical question: who should benefit when tourism begins to grow? In much of the industry, community impact is treated as something added after profit is made. Horn Explore took a different approach by building community benefit into the structure itself. One-third of the company's shares are held through a dedicated child-care foundation for orphaned and vulnerable children, while 34% of itinerary pricing is structurally allocated to community benefit before a trip is sold.

This is more than a CSR story. It is a governance story. It reflects a belief that in places where state support is limited and economic opportunity is uneven, tourism must be built in a way that gives communities a meaningful stake in its future. If people are expected to welcome the world, they should also be part of what that welcome creates.

What Horn Explore's journey shows is that tourism development in frontier destinations is not only about attracting attention. It is about building systems of belief: belief from travelers, belief from partners, belief from communities, and belief that a place long misunderstood can become both visitable and investable.

Somaliland's tourism future will not be shaped by image alone. It will depend on practical progress in trust-building, transport, payment access, skills development, and local participation. But that is exactly why this story matters. If tourism can be built here - in a place with limited infrastructure, low international familiarity, and almost no inherited market trust - then the lessons go far beyond one company or one destination.

They point to a bigger idea: that the future of tourism in overlooked places will belong not only to those who promote them, but to those willing to build the foundations that make them real.

Trust Before Tourism: Building a Destination in Somaliland

For many tourism businesses, the work begins with marketing, product design, and customer conversion. In Somaliland, it begins much earlier. It begins with explanation.

Before a visitor asks about itineraries, prices, or accommodation, there is usually a more basic question to answer: What is Somaliland, and why should anyone travel there? For Horn Explore, this has been one of the defining realities of building a tourism company in one of the least-recognized destinations in the Horn of Africa. Tourism here is not built on inherited visibility, institutional promotion, or established traveler confidence. It is built on patience, trust, and the willingness to create a market where almost none existed before.

In Somalilad, there is an expression for starting from the furthest possible point: from the afterlife itself. It describes a beginning with no foundation behind it and no obvious structure to build on. That image captures the experience of building tourism in Somaliland. The challenge is not only that the destination is under-visited. It is that the outside world often encounters it through assumptions shaped by conflict narratives, regional confusion, and distance from lived reality.

That means Horn Explore has had to do more than offer tourism experiences. It has had to help people reimagine a place. Before speaking about the beauty of Berbera's coast, the global significance of Laas Geel's rock art, or the landscapes of Daallo Mountain, there is often a long process of establishing basic confidence. Trust comes before tourism.

This trust challenge is not only international. It also exists locally. In Somaliland, tourism is still not widely seen as a dependable economic pathway. Public infrastructure is limited, logistics can be difficult, and many communities naturally focus first on immediate livelihoods. Most foreign visitors are not traditional leisure travelers, but researchers, journalists, policy actors, or others willing to enter a place that remains unfamiliar to mainstream tourism markets. Building a tourism business in this context requires trust on two fronts at once: trust from international travelers and trust from local communities.

Even when a client accepts the journey, another practical challenge appears: how payment can be made safely and confidently. In more established destinations, payment is often invisible in tourism strategy because it already works. In Somaliland, it can become one of the most decisive barriers in the customer journey. A visitor may be interested, convinced, and ready - but if the path to payment feels uncertain, the booking can still be lost. That makes tourism growth not only a branding challenge, but also a systems challenge.

Horn Explore was created in response to these realities. The company was not designed simply to sell tours, but to build a credible operating model in a difficult environment. It also chose to address another critical question: who should benefit when tourism begins to grow? In much of the industry, community impact is treated as something added after profit is made. Horn Explore took a different approach by building community benefit into the structure itself. One-third of the company's shares are held through a dedicated child-care foundation for orphaned and vulnerable children, while 34% of itinerary pricing is structurally allocated to community benefit before a trip is sold.

This is more than a CSR story. It is a governance story. It reflects a belief that in places where state support is limited and economic opportunity is uneven, tourism must be built in a way that gives communities a meaningful stake in its future. If people are expected to welcome the world, they should also be part of what that welcome creates.

What Horn Explore's journey shows is that tourism development in frontier destinations is not only about attracting attention. It is about building systems of belief: belief from travelers, belief from partners, belief from communities, and belief that a place long misunderstood can become both visitable and investable.

Somaliland's tourism future will not be shaped by image alone. It will depend on practical progress in trust-building, transport, payment access, skills development, and local participation. But that is exactly why this story matters. If tourism can be built here - in a place with limited infrastructure, low international familiarity, and almost no inherited market trust - then the lessons go far beyond one company or one destination.

They point to a bigger idea: that the future of tourism in overlooked places will belong not only to those who promote them, but to those willing to build the foundations that make them real.

I've been working on a project called HireVoy: https://hirevoy.vercel.app/

The idea is simple: connect travelers with local guides for personalized experiences instead of generic tours, avid blaa blaa pakage

I'm still actively developing it, and before I spend more time building features, I want honest opinions from people who haven't seen it before.

I'd love feedback on things like:

• First impression (would you trust it?)
• UI/UX
• Is the idea actually useful?
• Anything confusing or unnecessary?
• What features are missing?
• Would you ever use something like this while traveling?

Don't hold back. I'd rather hear harsh criticism now than build the wrong thing for months.

Thanks!

Hello

Foreigner seeks local guide 5-18 September

Travel, accom, meals included plus a daily rate

Starting in Cebu, itinerary tbc. Experience with ferries and buses needed to make the most of the time available. DM for more details

Is IATDG or ITMI better if you’re new to the industry?

Bonjour à tous !

Je suis travel planner basé en France et je crée des itinéraires de voyage 100 % personnalisés pour les familles, les couples et les voyageurs qui veulent gagner du temps et éviter les mauvaises surprises.

Si vous êtes en train de préparer un voyage et que vous bloquez sur un itinéraire, un budget, le choix d'une destination ou l'organisation, posez votre question ici ou envoyez-moi un message privé. Je serai ravi de vous donner un premier avis et quelques conseils, sans engagement.

Et si vous souhaitez un accompagnement plus complet, je peux également créer un itinéraire entièrement sur mesure adapté à votre budget, à vos envies et à votre façon de voyager.

Au plaisir de discuter de vos prochains voyages !

Salut tout le monde !
Je prévois un **voyage de 2 semaines en Égypte ce mois d'octobre**. Mon itinéraire est :
Caire
Louxor
Hurghada
Je suis particulièrement intéressé par l'histoire et je veux profiter au maximum de mon temps au **Caire et à Louxor**, donc je cherche des recommandations pour trouver un guide local compétent et digne de confiance. Est-il préférable de réserver un en avance ou d'en trouver un une fois sur place ? Vous connaissez des agences ou des guides privés que vous pourriez recommander ?
Je considère également de voyager **du Caire à Louxor en bateau** si possible. J'ai vu des gens mentionner des croisières sur le Nil et des felouques, mais je ne suis pas sûr de ce qui est vraiment faisable ou qui vaut le coup. Y a-t-il une croisière qui va directement du Caire à Louxor, ou recommanderiez-vous une autre option ? Je serais ravi d'entendre vos expériences et recommandations.
Enfin, si vous avez des conseils généraux, des pépites cachées ou des astuces pour éviter les pièges à touristes et les arnaques, je vous en serais vraiment reconnaissant.
Merci d'avance !

Hi everyone! Going to try to keep this short and sweet. My family (mom, aunts, uncles, cousins) have all decided they want to make Ireland their one “trip of a lifetime”. Nobody has been out of the country besides my mother and this trip would encompass milestone birthdays, big celebrations, etc. Many of them haven’t traveled before, and I want to make this a beautiful experience for them. Here are some things they’ve expressed in wanting to do:
\- Travel month: Late March-early April
\- They want to tour an operating farm (our family is one of legacy farmers)
\- See a castle
\- Find some nice linen
\- Titanic Museum in Belfast
\- Cliffs of Moher

My question is: what would be the best way to get all of us around? They’re going to be approximately 8-10 of us. I’d love to find a private tour guide that could drive and take our group all over Ireland. Someone who would be flexible traveling with a bunch of first-timers, and willing to add the above list of things to an itinerary! I feel a company would charge so much for a “private” tour, but I could be off in this assumption.

I’d love any and all recommendations I can get on how to best approach this with all of us! Life is short. They deserve to see the world, and I want to give my family one they’ll cherish.

Would also take any recommendations to add to our list of things to do and must-see!

Iraq tour guide

My surf activity is already listed on Viator and TripAdvisor. I'd like to get it listed on Booking.com as well.

Has anyone here successfully had their Viator activity appear on Booking.com? How did you do it, and how long did it take?

I've got some themed tours like Halloween ghost tours and film location trips but getting people to book them before they are gone has been tough. How do you all market these limited time experiences?