About our Local Travel Experts

On addictedtotravel.com we feature a growing selection of carefully sourced, well-established and very experienced local ‘Travel Experts’ who each specialise in providing experience, activity or adventure-based travel. As members of greatly respected and professional travel trade associations, and with unrivalled local knowledge, they have a real passion for the services and products they offer. Through this portal you can deal direct with each featured expert – saving you both time and money!

Recommendation, Vetting & Monitoring

On this portal we only include travel experts that are:

• Recommended - By either our experienced destination experts or you, the traveller. Many of the local travel experts featured have been known to us for years, or worked with us previously.
• Vetted– By our addictedtotravel.com team of destination experts to ensure certain criteria are met.
• Monitored– By you the traveller via your reviews, ratings and feedback once travels have been completed.

Specialist Travel Businesses

As essential members of the addictedtotravel.com community, the travel experts featured for each country/ destination are all specialists in the products and services they promote. Depending on the size of a country, topography, level of infrastructure, ease of communication and type of activities each destination has to offer, the make-up of travel experts varies from one country to the next and generally includes a mix of:

• Destination specialists – Typically small to medium-sized tour operators who are locally and privately-owned, that specialise in providing experiential travel products and services in a region of a country, or a country in its entirety.
• Activity specialists – Usually smaller businesses that specialise in one or more activities such as rafting, walking, ballooning, cycling or diving. Highly experienced, qualified and very passionate about what they offer.
• Accommodation owners – Smaller, privately and locally-owned businesses, perhaps with a portfolio of several jungle or game lodges, or unique and characterful individual establishments.

Selection & Quality Assurance

As former adventure tour operators ourselves, with many years of experience of researching, meeting, vetting, evaluating and working with local travel businesses behind us, you can rest assured that all of the Travel Experts who have been invited to join addictedtotravel.com have been carefully selected, and in most cases inspected locally. We also have our reputation and good name at stake so take particular care to ensure our criteria are met!

Our Criteria

1. Each destination specialist should be a member of one of the local TRAVEL TRADE ASSOCIATIONS that exist within a country of operation. Typically such local associations agree to a specific code of ethics and conduct, with association members being responsible for the enforcement of this code. Many of the owners of the businesses that have joined our community are either co-founders or board members of their respective associations – thus very influential in driving forward industry best practice at a local level.
2. All businesses must hold valid operating licenses, certificates and permits as required by any relevant local, regional or national authorities.
3. All businesses must hold insurance covers, guarantees or indemnities required for operation locally, and specific to the type of services and products they provide.
4. All businesses must demonstrate a professional attitude, be well-established, very experienced and operate with a high degree of integrity and passion.
5. All businesses must be prepared to provide us with references when requested and agree to be monitored via our travel member reviews, ratings and feedback.
6. All businesses must ensure that all products promoted should meet, as a minimum, local health, fire and safety regulations.
7. All businesses must offer suitable products and services that provide an experience, activity or adventure-based travel.

Benefits of Booking Direct with a Local Travel Expert

Booking direct and online with a local travel expert through our site offers several advantages:

1. First-hand local knowledge - From the people who know their country better than anyone else.
2. Saves you time – Questions can be posed and answered directly by the travel expert rather than passed down through a chain of intermediaries, agents and operators.
3. Better value for money – Booking direct rather than through intermediaries keeps prices lower and puts a much greater proportion of your holiday costs directly into the local economy.
4. Secure information - All your information (including payment details) is fully protected if sent through our online enquiry system. We use the encryption services of VeriSign to secure private information and we hold a valid VeriSign SSL certificate.

Travel Expert? Promote Your Business Here...

Are you an expert supplier of specialist travel services in your destination? Perhaps you are a dive operator, own a safari lodge or organise treks off the beaten track, or maybe you just deliver top quality cultural sightseeing tours? Maybe you are the best at what you do, support fair trade and local employment, have an unbeatable standard of service and quality of delivery and you are looking for new ways of reaching enthusiastic travellers looking for your type of service? If so we’d like to hear from you. If you feel you can meet the criteria detailed above then please contact us at travelexperts@addictedtotravel.com

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