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- Luxury Authentic Botswana Safaris.
- Walking safaris in Zambia.
- Family Safaris.
- Where will a safari vacation take you?
- How Children benefit from a family safari.
- Malawi for a different luxury safari vacation.
- Safari and the city.
- Planning a holiday in Africa
- Specialist safaris - private vehicles
- Planning a luxury safari.
- A Good Guide makes a Luxury Safari.
- Photographic Safaris - Private Vehicles.
- Botswana Safaris - Nxai Pan.
- Family Safaris - Young Children
- The best time to go on Safari.
- Safaris for the girls.
- South Africa Safari Tours
- African Safaris - A dream to a reality.
- What is a Safari camp?
- Are luxury safaris worth it?.
- African Safari Adventures.
- The South Luangwa Safari camps.
- Gorilla Safaris Explained.
What is ATOL?
Financial protection of Air Travel for UK travellers has existed since the 1960s. In its early form it had no statutory structure behind it and was supplied by voluntary trade bodies, one of which was the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) the other the Tour Operators Study Group (TOSG).
In 1967 the Government formed a committee to evaluate British Civil Air Transport, the committee was chaired by Sir Ronald Edwards who just a year later recommended the formation of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to license and regulate air travel organisers requiring them to hold a licence for such activities. This requirement took effect in 1973 and is the foundation of the Air Travel Organiser’s Licence (ATOL) scheme currently in place.
With the advent of the internet and our continual reliance on it for everyday commodities, our reluctance to book travel on line has diminished. Yet such an approach to booking travel online should be exercised with caution. When booking the elements of a holiday independently with different suppliers, consumers are not given the same protection as when the same holiday is packaged for you by a company licensed under the ATOL scheme.
Additionally, as Tour Operators have specially negotiated contact rates with suppliers of flights and accommodation, booking independently very rarely saves money and if it does, you will not be financially protected.
If an element of your self-booked holiday was to fail, such as an airline going out of business then not only would you have to fund your flight again but you would also have to make your own arrangements to get home, which is not at the top of the list as a past time for those last few days of a precious holiday.
Essentially ATOL is a scheme that protects the consumer financially. It is managed by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) which carries out stringent checks on holiday operators such as Opulent Africa Ltd and also requires them to take part in a financial guarantee scheme. This scheme provides the funds to protect our clients in the unlikely event that the company should fail.
If you would like to verify our ATOL status please click the logo here..
