Guaranteed Departures
Book your group tour with confidence
After taking time off work, booking your flights and arranging for your neighbour to feed the cat, the last thing you need is for your trip to be cancelled because of a lack of people on your tour. Tucan Travel’s new guaranteed departures take the guesswork out of planning your adventure and give you the peace of mind to book the tour that suits you.
What is a guaranteed departure?
A guaranteed departure means that the tour will definitely operate on the day it is scheduled and will not be cancelled for lack of participation. All guaranteed departures will run except in the event of a natural disaster or other similarly disruptive event that is beyond our control.
Why has Tucan Travel decided to offer guaranteed departures?
Travellers have made it very clear to us that guaranteed departures are very important. As a result of this feedback we have gone through our group tour schedules and nominated hundreds of departures as guaranteed departures. We are pleased to be able to give you more confidence to book your adventure holiday with us.
What benefits do guaranteed departures offer clients and Tucan Travel?
Benefits to travellers
- Guaranteed departures give you peace of mind that you can book when you want to and the reassurance that the tour will definitely operate as scheduled.
- More people are likely to book on guaranteed departures so groups will be more interesting, diverse and enjoyable, although we will still operate within our small group size policy.
Benefits to Tucan Travel
- Guaranteed departures help us to build trust with our clients to encourage repeat bookings.
- Guaranteed departures are more likely to attract bookings faster and earlier, which will make it easier for us to confirm staff rosters and hotel and transport bookings.
- If guaranteed departures fill quickly, we can make an assessment and nominate other departures as guaranteed in order to encourage further bookings.
How does Tucan Travel decide which tours are guaranteed to depart?
We have made our decisions based on historical and current sales patterns, schedules and popular periods, among other criteria. We have been careful to offer a variety of fixed date group tours across our full range of regions and travel styles. The system is flexible so that the more people who book tours which are not ‘guaranteed departures’, the more tours we can name as guaranteed departures.
Where are we offering guaranteed departures?
Group tours from destinations worldwide have been included.
How is a guaranteed departure indicated on our website?
Guaranteed departures are indicated on our availability page dark green. It is important to note the difference in colour between the guaranteed departure icon and the pale green availability icon.
Dark green – This tour is guaranteed to depart and has at least 3 places remaining.
Pale green – This tour is available and has at least 3 places remaining.
Availability – list view
Availability - grid view
If I’ve booked a tour which has reached minimum numbers but is not a ‘guaranteed departure’, is it still guaranteed to depart?
We aim to operate every tour regardless of whether it has been guaranteed or not, so it is very unlikely that a tour which has reached minimum numbers would be cancelled. The minimum numbers required to run our tours is very low - it only takes 4 people to book onto an Adventure Tour to make it viable, while we need 10 on any Discovery Tours, Overland Expeditions or Budget Expeditions. We will be looking at tours which have reached minimum numbers on a regular basis and adding tours to the guaranteed departure list. For most regions the decision to guarantee or cancel a tour has been made up to the end of October 2010. For further information about cancellations by us, please see our booking conditions.
How likely are tours to run if they’re not guaranteed?
We are taking a flexible approach and hope that the more people who book tours which are not ‘guaranteed departures’, the more tours we can guarantee. Most of our tours have been guaranteed for departures from now until the end of October 2010. We will endeavour to make future decisions around 6 months prior to the scheduled departure date of a tour in order to give our clients and travel agents the maximum possible amount of notice. Early bookings for departures 6 months in advance will also earn the client a 5% discount, which is an added incentive for travellers to book their spot on a tour even if it’s not guaranteed, while increasing the chance it their chosen departure will run. Tours that are not guaranteed will operate on the same policy as usual, which is detailed in our booking conditions.
Can a guaranteed departure be cancelled? If so, under what circumstances?
While Tucan Travel will make every attempt to operate a tour, we do reserve the right to cancel a tour, at any time, due to reasons beyond our control that might create unsafe or undesirable travel conditions.
Will any guaranteed departures operate with lower than minimum numbers, e.g. if people cancel less than 60 days before departure?
In the unlikely event that a guaranteed departure does not reach minimum numbers, it will still run as scheduled.
Need further information?
Contact us if you have any questions about our guaranteed departures.
Click here to learn more about how to book
Read our booking conditions for further details about minimum numbers & cancellation policy.
