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MASTERS TO WATCH: HARCO VAN UDEN

Harco van Uden, founder and CEO of ExperienceTravel, tells MASTERS how important personal contact with his customers is and that they are specialists in customized travel. "Because of our volume we are on the one hand the smallest travel organization, on the other hand the biggest specialist. "Text: Bart-Jan Brouwer | Online Editor: Natasha Hendriks
Image: John van Helvert

Customized tours

Harco: "We started 23 years ago as a specialist in customized travel to Africa. What started with safaris has grown into an all-encompassing offer that covers the entire world: from adventure to cultural travel experience, from city break to beach break. We make sure that every part of the day and every hour of the trip is right, so the client only has to enjoy themselves. Our clientele is in the high-end segment. People who find quality more important than price, but at the same time want the right price for it."

Explorer

Harco: "You can do safari in a thousand ways, but nothing is more beautiful than the authentic way Livingstone trekked through Africa: into the bush of Botswana with friends or family, equipped with your own tents, cars and guides, two weeks totally away from the world. Every two or three days the tent camp is moved, every morning fresh bread is baked in the ground, in the evening food is eaten at the campfire, everything is arranged down to the last detail, and at the same time you trek through the continent like a true explorer. We call that "organized adventure," but it is pure. And if you travel with your own company, it never becomes a "program. Another example is Antarctica: when you land there with your own small group and get to walk around among the penguins, you get so close."

Passed!

Harco: "Corona hit the travel industry hard. From mid-March to the end of June no new trips were booked, people canceled their trips or wanted to be recalled - and the repatriation costs were borne by us. We had clients on all continents, as far away as Antarctica. We had retrieved all of them before the repatriation flights started. That was hard work, 24/7 all together. But it wasn't very different from anything else. Since ExperienceTravel began, we have had to repatriate clients from five to 10 countries every year. Only now the planes were on the ground, all countries were involved and everyone wanted to return at the same time. I call 2020 an exam year. For the past few years we have been taking our exams; this was the big exam. It was not so much the difficulty as the massiveness and panic of the people. Personal contact with the customers is one of our main characteristics. We weren't going to wait for them to call us, we contacted everyone from day one. One customer in New Zealand we had to rebook five times as more and more countries were closing and airports were closing. Everything was now and every morning there was news. But we got him back. He was so grateful for our efforts that he had a bunch of flowers delivered for every employee and a plant for our office. Every day we received chocolates, flowers and letters of thanks. In short: passed our exam!"

Safety

Harco: "It was a very expensive course, though. Fortunately, we have run well in recent years and are always prepared for the future. We were able to switch very quickly right away and didn't need extra IT when this happened. We worked day and night anyway - we have to when you have customers all over the world - we were used to sitting at home behind our laptops. When Corona is gone, we won't work very differently. We will also continue to do the same in terms of organizing trips. We organize tailor-made trips, individually. With your own family, in your own vehicle, on your own activity, at your own table in the restaurant... So a lot of things we were already unconsciously doing coronaproof. We just added an extra reason to pay close attention. Safety has always been our top priority."

MASTERS #43

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MASTERS #43