110905-P2 Stanley

Your Comments:

Letter from Dr Stanley

PO Box 6071

Invercargill

New Zealand.

13/10/11

Nihao April

We are writing to you about our recent trip with your company. We thought we should let you know in detail of our concerns regarding our recent tour with “Visit Tibet Travel and Tours”. The trip did not go well and we feel very disappointed with how it went. We would stress that we have no issue with our Tibetan staff who treated us very well and were very helpful though we would suggest some improvements for future trips.

•       First of all we had no advance warning the route along the Southern

Silk route was closed and only open 3 days a month, the first date being 11 Sept after our agreed departure date of 5th Sept. We arrived in Kashgar on 2nd Sept to find your first email notifying us of this.

Enquiries found in fact this situation was not new and had been in place for months. We should have been informed earlier and alternative routes suggested.

•       Our support team had not left Lhasa when we arrived in Kashgar and

only arrived late on 8th of September at Kaghilik.  The road was in such a dangerous state we would never have asked them to come had we known this.

•       There were constant issues regarding accommodation and who was

paying for this. According to the contract we had with Tibet Travel and Tours we had paid for accommodation yet we ended up paying for 1 night in Ye Chang, 1 night in Ali and 1 night in Zangmu. Tsering told us his budget was only 60 Yuan for accommodation for us and this was clearly inadequate in our view. We declined to stay in filthy hovels and paid the excess for more acceptable accommodation.

•       We found reception in the Seman Binguan and the Electricity Hotel

indifferent if not rude. Abdul Wahab was most helpful and we appreciated his help.

•       We enjoyed the camping but there were a few issues that could have

been done better. One was that there was no toilet tent. In more populated areas this was not pleasant. Secondly we find it objectionable to leave rubbish behind at our camp site. Tibet is a disgrace for the amount of rubbish scattered beside roads and on campsites.

•       The vehicle was old and appeared to have been in a crash previously.

In our country it would not be permitted on the road by law. It was poorly set up for touring. The rear seat was uncomfortable but we sorted this out ourselves.

•       We felt head office was no proactive and smoothing out problems in

advance and we felt uncomfortable to have to ring you so often when problems arose.

•       From Ye Chang to Rutok biking is not practical in view of the

terrible state of the road. We had no warning of this.

•       I am no stranger to overseas tour companies so I can compare my

experience against others. I would rate my experience as perhaps 3/10 for satisfaction and would not recommend the company to other travellers unless major improvements were made mainly with organisation but also with training of support staff.

•       We would expect you to print this appraisal in your ‘testimonials’ 

on your website as a sign of good faith.

•       I will be writing up my trip and printing it on the internet in due course.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely

Dr Stanley