AETBI

About the AETBI

I think that it might be important for our readers, particularly those planning on traveling to Egypt, to understand exactly what the AETBI is, as well as how it functions, because many people might be surprised.

AETBI stands for the "Association of Egyptian Travel Businesses on the Internet", and our members include some of the largest, most respected travel companies, including the largest tour operators in Egypt, as well as many reputable tour organizers in other countries that deal with Egyptian tours specifically. They are all specialized in Egyptian travel, and regardless of their size, we charge each of these businesses a flat $300 per year membership to belong to the association. For this fee, they receive all of the tour requests we receive on Tour Egypt and they get their name in our member roster which is linked at the top of our home page, along with a few other benefits. One can submit a tour request to them by clicking on the red text, "Click for Egypt Hotels, Tour Operators and Scuba Diving Centers You Can Trust!".

Over the past few years, our members have provided hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people with tours to Egypt. They are somewhat of a diverse lot, and while many are very large tour operators, some are very specialized. Each year, while any one of them may escort tens of thousands of tourists through Egypt, we may receive as many as five to ten complaints total on all the tour companies combined.

In fact, for the vast majority of our members, we have never received a single complaint, and only one or two of the most active have ever received more than one complaint. Specifically, we can say that we receive no more than one complaint for about every twenty thousand tours that have been booked. Perhaps only as many as five or six companies have ever had a complaint lodged, and in most cases, these are companies that specialize in budget tours. In these cases, the complaint has usually been regarding a budget hotel. In fact, we have specifically forbidden operators to continue using these hotels for future tours.

Not once during the history of the AETBI has any member cheated a single client out of the fee for a tour. Almost every complaint that we have ever received either deals with, for example something like a missed pickup, a skipped stop on an itinerary, a hotel that was considered to be not up to standards, or every so often, poor communications with a client. Out of hundreds of thousands of tours, a small number of complaints are bound to happen for any destination in the world. There are several reasons for this.

Viking Travel is a favorite among Tour Egypt travelers - 0 Complaints

Our staff in Egypt meets personally with each member in Egypt, and while we have not met personally with all those outside of Egypt, most of those have been members for some years now and we have spoken to every one of them by phone. We like to get to know our members and I personally visit with a number of Egyptian members when I am in Egypt (or elsewhere, for that matter). Our manager in Egypt stays in constant contact with them.

This year I can count the number of complaints we have had on one hand, even though tourism to Egypt has been very good. Nevertheless, when we get a complaint, we handle each one individually and personally. The $300 member fee per year that we receive from any one member is not enough to justify harming the reputation of the AETBI, and we receive absolutely no commission for tours from any members. In fact, were we not to take steps to remedy each and every complaint, we would not have today some of Egypt's largest and most reputable tour operators as our members. Many of them have been members of the AETBI since its founding.

Shark's Bay is the Diver Enthusiast Center in Egypt & a Founding member of the AETBI

Therefore, we aggressively follow up any complaint about an AETBI member. For most the threat of being removed from our membership is sufficient reason to rectify a tourist complaint. Our AETBI members receive many thousands of tour leads from us, and they do not wish to lose this business. Furthermore, we receive every day tourists asking our opinion about various tour companies, and we only provide recommendations on AETBI members. This is because there are many thousands of companies that provide tours to Egypt, and we will only comment on those that we know.

We have, in reality, never had to take a complaint further, but we can and will. We do have direct contact with the Ministry of Tourism, the Egyptian Tourist Authority (ETA) and the tourist police, and though we have never had to do so, we are more than willing to take an unanswered complaint to these authorities. They listen because Tour Egypt is by far the most visible, as well as the oldest Egyptian tourism site on the internet.

So when one books a tour with an AETBI member, they receive an extra layer of protection, as well as an advocate for their satisfaction. Make no mistakes. We are selective about our members.

But the AETBI is much more than simply protecting tourists who have complaints. We have worked with many of our members in developing better practices, creating new types of tours and even new itineraries. For example, when Delta Tours decided to create a family hosted tour where people stay with Egyptian families as part of their tour experience, we loved the idea, and we try to promote it when possible. When a budget hotel such as the Longchamps in Cairo, or even the ultra-budget Nefertiti hotel in Luxor exhibit outstanding service and facilities for their price range, and go out of their way to satisfy their customers, we try to provide a little extra promotion, and even sometimes give them their memberships in the AETBI at no cost. When we find a destination such as Stella di Mare at Ain Sukhna to be a fine value with some great advantages for tourists who wish to visit the Red Sea, we go so far as to promote them until our AETBI members must provide this as an option on their itineraries because of demand.
On the other hand, we will gripe and complain ourselves about over aggressive vendors in Luxor, or those that are now not as pesky as before at the Giza Pyramids, the dangerous speeds of caravans between Luxor and Hurghada or the lack of good toilet facilities at many tourist sites.

In the end, the AETBI is dedicated to tourist satisfaction first because, as all good marketers know, over the long run that means more business for our member tour operators. This system has worked well over the years, which explains why many of our members have been with us from the start, and tourists come back to the service as repeat customers.

In fact, I regret that we have not the space to mention all of the outstanding companies represented in the AETBI. I can personally say that many of their owners have my highest admiration for their service to the Egyptian tourism industry.

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