U.S. Tour Operators Pulling Clients Out of Libya
U.S. Tour Operators Pulling Clients Out of Libya
U.S. tour operators who take clients to Libya are few, but those who have been offering it in recent times have gotten their customers out of the country and are suspending operations there until further notice. Travcoa managed to get its passengers out of Libya at about 5:30 p.m. Tripoli time on Tuesday. According to Jerre Fuqua, Travcoa’s president, Travoca’s network on the ground was effective in handling the logistics of the evacuation.
“Having our own travel directors who don’t live in Libya combined with the efforts of local guides who do live in Libya were game changers for us,” said Fuqua. “Having your own staff and network means things happen at a different level, you have more oversight and control.”
Rita Zawaideh, president of Caravan-Serai Tours, a Middle Eastern specialist, is busy canceling and pulling out of not only Libya, but Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen. “We are so well connected there that we are hearing the news via satellite feeds before it appears on TV,” said Zawaideh. “We are connected to a Libya Command Center that has been working to overthrow Ghadafi for 20 years. We got our people out. We’ve been taking opposition forces in.”
Abercrombie & Kent, which offers travel to Libya through its program for independent travel, did not have any travelers in the country when civil unrest broke out. “We do a lot of Tailor Made private travel FITs there,” said Pamela Lassers, director of media relations, “but we have no clients there now. We get quite a few requests for it, but it’s still pretty specialized.”
Though Libya has unique tourist attractions coveted by tour operators, such as the well-preserved Roman ruins of Leptis Magna and Sabratha (both UNESCO World Heritage Sites), travel to Libya has been an on-again, off-again proposition in recent years. The U.S. State Department dropped its travel ban in 2004, but difficulties obtaining visas from the Libyan government have served as a barrier since that time.
Last May, Libya eased its visa restrictions on U.S. travelers for the first time in a few years, and some U.S. tour operators, such as Travcoa, resumed trips. Others waited to see how things would settle.
“We did not go right away,” said John Sugnet, director of media relations for Geographic Expeditions, “because under the new method of obtaining visas, you wouldn’t know if you were approved till a week before the trip. But when we were assured we could work with it, we reinstituted trips there two or three months ago. We had pent-up demand so we filled up several departures quickly. We had a trip scheduled for about six weeks from now, but now we have canceled it. We asked clients whether they wanted to cancel or wait and see, and a surprising number of them opted to wait and see. I guess they saw how fast Egypt settled down and are hoping for the same in Libya.”
Tom Stanley, CEO for Cox & Kings America, said his company had a number of departures scheduled for Libya, but is now waiting and watching. “We’re obviously concerned with what is happening,” Stanley said. “Libya has some of the warmest people and some of the greatest Greek and Roman ruins in the world. We’re looking forward to being able to take people there again. We’re hoping for the best, but ready for the worst.”
