Someone has reached out and asked about the NTA logo on our website, and wanted to know if that was some sort of company or organization that we use to arrange our Tours?
So, no... Terese and I personally research, design, curate and escort all of our Tours ourselves... NTA is The National Tour Association... It's an International Travel Trade Association of Tour Operators that we're honored to be a member of... To our surprise, beyond having to pay our annual memberships dues, we actually had to prove our worthiness to become a member... We had to document things like; Legal Incorporation, having a Federal Tax ID, filing Federal Corporate Tax Returns, having at least 5 years of Incorporation, having professional Tour Operator's General, Professional and Corporate Liability Insurance Coverages and showing a verifiable pattern of expanding business development.
We had been invited several times over the years and finally joined about 10 years ago... We initially had some hesitancy, as for a very small operator like ourselves, it's a significant annual membership investment to belong to NTA and even much more of a financial commitment to meet all their requirements... but we do get a lot from them including ongoing webinars, legal advice, industry insights, professional Tour Development advice, International networking and even discounts on things like our various professional Tour Operator's Insurances. They of course also, like all Trade Associations, provide political advocacy & lobbying for our industry.
Over the years they've been very helpful with the many issues we have with contracts both here, and in Italy & France... Providing help with contracts for Villa leases, Tour guides, Wineries, Vendors, Suppliers, our Reservation Forms, Waivers, Contracts, etc...
When travel bans during the pandemic prevented us from running our Tours, we were unable to cancel and get refunds on expensive Villa leases, because European Law did not require them to give refunds... So we were faced with some difficult decisions on how to handle our guests... NTA firmly reminded us of what we in the Tour Business always call "The Golden Rule" ~ when in doubt, always treat your guests the way you would want to be treated... And that is why, as many of you know, we offered all of our up-to-date, fully paid & scheduled guests 100% of their money back immediately. That was a tough day for us, being a teeny-tiny business and having to write out over $250,000 in checks! We didn't have to do it, and 95% of operators didn't do it, they only offered rescheduling... but the choice of a cash refund is what we would have wanted if we were the guests... In the end, we believe that integrity won us some loyalty from both our Tuscany & Provence guests, and overall we lost a total of only 4 out of 65 guests through it all... and most of those guests have taken several of our trips sine then!
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| many people are surprised to find out that Provence is one of the world's largest cherry & apricot growing regions... But the ladies will be interested to know that Cindy Crawford's "Magic Melons" (I'm talking about fruit!) are grown in Cavaillon, very near our Villa, and we'll have them on the breakfast buffet! |
As a Tour Operator, you're faced with these types of decisions all the time... For us, estimating expenses two years in advance is one of the most difficult parts of what we do. Our research trips tend to always be more expensive than we estimate, Villa leases tend to compound way above average year to year... and inflation spirals the costs of all our provisions, while political environments make international currency exchange rates fluctuate dramatically, airfares to reach our destinations are wildly unpredictable, ongoing advertising costs to market our tours always exceed expectations, chefs change their availability based on pay, even the weather and insects effect the price of wine... And when we market & sell Tours so far in advance, you can sometimes see profits slowly evaporate... Many operators overcome this, by the fine print in their contracts that say "your tour costs can change anytime up through the date of departure".
At Adventures to Tuscany, we don't do this... We live with and honor the prices we quote and our Tour prices are locked in the moment you signup and pay your deposit! And all our Tours include our exclusive Money-Back Tour Cancellation Protection; If for any reason Adventures to Tuscany cancels a tour you have reserved, the entire amount you have paid to Adventures to Tuscany LLC for the applicable tour will be immediately refunded to you within 14 days after the tour's cancellation. Or, at your choice, you may choose a full dollar value credit to apply to another tour date. In our 24 years of running Tours, we've never had to cancel a Tour up until the pandemic, and we're certainly hoping that nonsense is over!
Some of you benefited from our Tour Cancellation Protection Program when we were forced to cancel Tours at the beginning of the pandemic... and we immediately issued refund checks to quite a few of you. We were so grateful that so many of you came back to us to sign up for another Tour. So again, NTA's Golden Rule advice has shown benefit to all involved!
And while our Tour Cancellation Policy protects you if we are forced to cancel a Tour, we always take every opportunity to remind and recommend to guests that you should strongly consider purchasing simple inexpensive Travel Insurance in case you need to cancel your vacation. If you need Travel Insurance, we always recommend and are a referring affiliate to insuremytrip.com and only if you use this link here, we receive a small token referral fee from them at no additional cost to you. We've seen numerous guests benefit from having travel insurance over the years... It of course seems most obvious if you have to cancel... but a comprehensive policy can also cover flight delays, baggage delays, baggage loss, medical costs, dental costs, etc... We most recently benefited from our travel insurance last year when an Italian Air Traffic Controllers strike stranded us for two extra days in Florence on our return home. Our Travel insurance reimbursed us approximately $1000 in hotel, meals, taxi, and miscellaneous expenses caused by the delay.
Hope you're all getting excited about Provence! You're going to love it's incredible landscapes, with all it's magical fragrances, sounds & textures... When you hear the Provençal cicadas singing in the warm summer breezes & while the fragrances of the lavender fields waft through the air, you'll feel as if you're in a fairytale! We'll have you in these hills you see in this video below... and by the way, we'll also have a French troubadour serenading you in just an incredible setting while you sip wines & eat French cheeses in the shade of 300 year old plane trees! So get excited guys... This is going to be an amazing experience!
Gaëtan Roussel & Adeline Lovo sing - Crois-moi !
a beautiful song about love, life, laughs and dreams...
