Tour members’ encounters distorted?

My wife, Joan, and I have traveled independently since 1964, and as professional educators we have been fortunate enough to teach and live overseas in a number of Western and emerging countries. In 2005 we spent five months in Chengdu, China, and in 2006 and 2007 we were in classrooms in Cyprus and Russia.

But we are novices when it comes to organized travel. We had never been on an organized tour until we took Overseas Adventure Travel’s “Ultimate Africa” tour to Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe plus a “pretrip” to South Africa’s Kruger National Park and a “post-trip” to Cape Town, Feb. 17-March 10, 2008. Including airfare New York-Johannesburg and Cape Town-New York, the total trip cost $6,700 each.

We felt like we had joined a “cult” and wondered how many group members were blindly following the leader without questioning what they saw, heard and did.

OAT’s promotional literature emphasizes unique experiences with schools they support and on home visits.

School visits required the students to sing to us and that we reciprocate. I found this a somewhat undignified experience for these students (and for us)! They have to perform for American tourists two to four times a week. I can only imagine what distorted perceptions they might carry with them about Americans as they advance to adulthood.

Our visit to a “typical” home was to the house of a village chief, who proudly demonstrated his dish TV, computer and cell phone to us. When we asked the teenage son what his dad did for a living, he replied, “He entertains OAT people.”

By the way, we saw no other village residence with a TV dish. When my wife and I wandered off to talk with a more typical villager, we were scolded by the group leader for delaying the trip.

It’s difficult for us to accept that many of the tour participants bought into the OAT nonsense.

LESTER NEIDELL

Tulsa, OK

ITN sent a copy of the above letter to Overseas Adventure Travel (124 Mount Auburn St., Ste. 200 North, Cambridge, MA 02138) and received the following reply.

We appreciate Mr. Neidell’s having chosen us for his inaugural tour and regret that he and his wife had issues with some of the experiences we offered on our “Ultimate Africa” trip.

We monitor the experiences we include in our itineraries through staff visits and traveler comments and reviews. When changes are warranted, we make them, and we appreciate the candor with which Mr. Neidell presented his experience in Africa. We have forwarded his note to our Cape Town office, and we’ll get someone out there shortly to evaluate the situation.

Many thanks again to Mr. Neidell for his valuable and considerate perspective.

PRISCILLA O’REILLY, Director, Public Relations, Overseas Adventure Travel