OUR FAMILY HOLIDAYS
0301 Ethiopian Tour
Complaint
Home address: 26 Woodley Headland
Peartree Bridge
Milton Keynes
MK6 3PA
England
(International phone: 0044908679759)
The General Manager 1 April 1993
NTO (National Tourist Operation)
Addis Abeba
Dear Sir,
On the 23rd of March I paid $819 (receipt number 085097) for your five day tour number 102; covering Axum (1 day), Bihar Dar (2 days), Lalibella (1 day), and Gondar (1 day).
This was an expensive tour, since the fee covered only hotels (estimated full price $250, for the bed and breakfast only provided - rather than the full board implied in the original discussions), transportation (estimated maximum cost, even at British prices, $150) and guiding/support (the remaining $400, presumably). We had already booked and paid for our own internal flights with Ethiopian Airways - so this element was not included. On the other hand, we were persuaded by NTO head office staff that we could place ourselves in the hands of your staff who would do everything to ensure that we would enjoy an enjoyable holiday in a strange environment - they promised that they would do all that was needed to ensure our comfort and security. Having spent $3,000 just in air fares reaching Ethiopia (plus the cost of the internal flights) we wanted to ensure that the holiday was well managed and did not begrudge the high cost - and accordingly placed ourselves in your experienced hands.
As you will see, from the attached timetable of events, the outcomes (up to the time we arrived in Gondar - and made our planned actions known) did not match these lavish promises;
1) The total time on tours over the four days to that point was approximately 9 hours - implying a cost per hour of $37 (which is more than many highly qualified management consultants charge in the United Kingdom).
2) This might just have been acceptable for the half of these tours where local guides were used. It was totally unacceptable for those where your own staff were used - since (as you will see from the timetable of events) the quality of their guiding was unacceptable. Indeed, it was incompetent and ignorant.
3) Of the 8 planned transfers to and from hotels on these days no less than 50% of them were not made (or completed) by NTO - leaving us to find alternative transport at short notice; which was, needless to say, highly stressful for my wife and myself (and certainly not conducive to a pleasant holiday).
4) On one of these (uncompleted) transfers the dangerous (and possibly illegal) driving of your branch manager nearly resulted in our being killed - and did result in the very serious injury of a young woman and the death of her child.
In this context it should be recorded that your working practices (noted on all the occasions when - again prior to Gondar - you were using your own staff as guides) indeed require your staff to drive in a potentially dangerous manner. They combine the duties of driver, guide and administrator at the same time - whilst driving at relatively high speeds along some of the most dangerous roads in the world. It was perhaps inevitable, therefore, that such a fatality would occur, especially on the most dangerous road - that to Lalibella; since these practices constantly put the foreign tourists using your services (as well as the other road users) at serious risk. It was a miracle that none of the passengers in our car was not killed, for had the car veered to the right instead of the left we would have plunged down a forty foot drop - though this was no consolation to the woman who was so seriously injured and whose child died in front of our eyes. I am no expert on the laws of Ethiopia, but my impression is that in any case these working practices may be against the regulations.
5) Up to our arrival in Gondar (and our statements about this planned action) no other support was provided by your local staff, even when we had nearly been killed by the actions of your driver; and were in a state of shock.
It should be put on record that this is not an isolated incident. Last year I paid around $150 dollars for you to provide a driver and guide to take me, on one of your standard tours, to from Addis Abeba to the Rift Valley. I was (again) provided with just one driver/guide - who, in the event, did not speak a word of English. I demanded my money back at that time; and received it (with the promise of a free tour later in recompense - which never, though, materialised).
This is not a problem posed by the special conditions in Ethiopia. I have nothing but praise for the very efficient staff of Ethiopian Airlines and Ghion Hotels, who gave excellent service throughout (indeed some of the best service I have received anywhere in the world - despite the many problems they faced). In particular, they put a great deal of effort into successfully sorting out the many problems caused by the failures of your own staff.
This high level of service was also reflected by your own branch manager in Gondar. After a shaky start (when, once again, we were not met at the airport) - and once we had explained what we intended to do when we arrived back in Addis - he gave exemplary service. The tour he guided (using a separate driver as required by regulation) was comprehensive, and his guiding was excellent and very knowledgeable - and he took us to locations not on the standard tour. The following day, when the local Ethiopian Airlines plane was grounded, he spent most of the day arranging for a flight to be diverted so that we could get back to Addis in time for some of my meetings. Again I have nothing but praise for his work.
Despite this, however, under all the previous circumstances it is clear that your organisation has been seriously in breach of contract on a number of occasions; and I will negotiate with you about this matter separately.
More important, however, are the questions your organisation's practices pose in terms of the risks foreign tourists run in coming to Ethiopia. That they are likely to receive some of the worst guiding in the world from your own staff, some of whom seem only to wish to give a perfunctory amount of time and almost no service to their clients, is bad enough. Worse is the danger that these tourists are likely (half the time, if our experience is anything to go by) to be stranded in remote locations when your management do not complete the airport transfers as required.
Worst of all, though, is the danger your working practices pose for those tourists. I do not know why your staff indulge in them - they seem to be cost cutting exercises which save very little money. They do, however, not merely (it seems) breach the regulations but pose such constant danger to foreign tourists (as was exemplified by our own tragic experience) that I would anticipate that some of the embassies might consider recommending that their nationals not undertake sightseeing in Ethiopia. This general warning would be necessary since it is clear that (despite the recent liberalisation) you still hold a near monopoly of tourism and a complete monopoly of the key ground transport.
This
monopoly poses a separate question. Ethiopia was described to me by a fellow
passenger as the most beautiful country in the world - a view with which I
agree. According to my calculations the existing hotel room and air transport
capacity would easily support between 5,000 and 10,000 foreign tourists per
year, who would surely clamour to fill this restricted number of places (not
least because it is one of the last places where the scene is not spoilt by
unlimited tourism) - with negligible extra investment. Yet you (as the effective
monopoly provider) only attracted 150 such tourists last year and are (very
optimistically) only targeting 700 this year. It is a dismal experience to sit
in first class hotels where there are only four or five other guests (none of
them tourists) and to be the only passengers on airliners - knowing that they
should be full. I estimate (based on this very limited experience) that this
lack of activity on your part may be costing the Ethiopian people of the order
of $30 - $50 million per annum in desperately needed foreign currency. I simply
cannot understand why you cannot (or do not) capitalise on this almost priceless
resource for the benefit of Ethiopia.
My letter is mainly occasioned by the deep anger I feel for the way your organisation seems to be using its monopoly to hold back the development of Ethiopia - for what seem to be dubious short term gains; and it is not clear that even these short term benefits reach the people of the country. I would be grateful for your comments.
Yours faithfully,
(David Mercer)
TIMETABLE OF EVENTS - TOUR 102 (MR & MRS DAVID MERCER)
6th March (Saturday)
We arrived in Axum by air from Makele (where REST had looked after us marvellously for three days). We eventually found out who your manager was by asking around the airport staff - he had been sitting in the shade watching us! He provided little support for baggage transfer - this was completed by airport/hotel staff and myself.
That morning and afternoon the tours of Axum were handled by a local guide who did a quite reasonable job - but no other help was offered by your staff.
7th March (Sunday)
Despite the time of the plane being 11.00 am, your manager insisted we were available by 8.00 am - when we had to spend 2 hours sitting waiting before we were taken to the airport (where we were fortunate enough to ourselves hire porters to carry our baggage).
Arriving in Bahar Dar there was, again, nobody to meet us - until I had carried the baggage to the NTO car and sounded its horn.
The afternoon sightseeing there, which we had been persuaded by your head office staff demanded an extra day, comprised just over an hour looking round Haile Selassie's small house there and the wood market (with your manager acting as both guide/administrator and driver)!
8th March (Monday)
The morning visit to the Nile falls was accompanied by the NTO manager (again as combined guide and driver). He seemed to know very little about the visit - or was unwilling to impart his knowledge to us - so we learned more from the local children than from him. The afternoon was free - though the NTO manager arranged for an actor friend of his to act as interpreter on a privately arranged trip.
9th March (Tuesday)
Amazingly, NTO failed to pick us up to go to the airport. Fortunately we were able to contact Ethiopian Airlines who managed to divert their staff bus to collect us in time to catch our flight.
When we arrived in Lalibella we had to wait for around half an hour while the NTO manager sold seats on our car to the back-packers who had arrived on the same plane. He justified the 60 Bir charge on the basis that "NTO had a monopoly of the transport between the airport and Lalibella, if they didn't want to pay his price they would have to walk the mountainous 15 kms!". After some argument, I managed to persuade him that the four abreast seating he was proposing was dangerous so we eventually started off three abreast.
During the journey up the dangerous mountain road, the NTO manager (who was again the sole driver/guide/administrator) took his hand off the wheel (while still driving at speed) to rearrange his paperwork on the dashboard. As a result of this dangerous driving (though almost predictable in terms of your normal working practices) the vehicle left the road. Fortunately for the passengers it veered to the left into a deep ditch where, however, the smooth face of the cliff miraculously supported the car as it slid to a stop. On the other side of the road there was a forty foot drop; had we veered in that direction we should all have been killed.
Unfortunately, though, there was a family standing in the ditch waiting for the car to pass, and the car ran straight over them. The man was only slightly injured but the woman was very seriously injured and her child was killed; without doubt (at least in the eyes of English law) due to criminally dangerous driving.
We then spent a harrowing two hours or more in a state of shock, with my wife helping the doctor (who had fortunately been one of the passengers) tend to the critically injured woman, before help arrived. We were in a state of shock and worried by the hostile villagers who surrounded us (justifiably so, since the driver had later to be moved under armed escort to the prison in Axum for his own safety from the relatives who were trying to kill him, in the revenge which is customary in the area). The injuries and pain of the woman (not to mention the death of her child), in this very remote area of Ethiopia with no help in prospect, was deeply traumatic for all involved.
When help did eventually arrive the effort was concentrated for half an hour on pulling your car out of the ditch. No effort was made then, or during the subsequent journey to Lalibella to help the shocked passengers.
In the absence of any support, the hotel manager arranged a guide who gave us an excellent tour around the churches - though we were still too shocked to enjoy the experience as we had hoped we would (as the highlight of our visit to Ethiopia).
10th March (Wednesday)
In the absence of any message, let alone support, from NTO, Ethiopian Airlines took us to the plane.
We arrived in Gondar where, once again, there was nobody to meet us - so we had to hire a taxi to get us to the hotel.
At this point the NTO manager arrived and apologised profusely for the mistake. After I had explained to him what had happened and what we planned to do, he could not have been more helpful. He was a model of exemplary performance.
In the afternoon he gave us an excellent, very knowledgeable, guide to all the sights in Gondar (including some, such as the Falasha village, which I suspect were not on the normal itinerary).
11th March (Thursday)
As the local Ethiopian Airlines plane had been grounded due to engine trouble, the NTO manager spent most of the morning trying (successfully) to get another plane diverted and then the afternoon with us at the airport making certain we got on it. We arrived in Addis only two hours late. I have nothing but praise for what he did.
Home address: 26 Woodley Headland
Peartree Bridge
Milton Keynes
MK6 3PA
England
(International phone: 0044908679759)
Mr Rezenne Araya 1 April 1993
Commissioner for Tourism
Ethiopian Tourist Commission
Revolution Square
Addis Abeba
Dear Mr Rezenne,
I am writing to you at the suggestion of Dr. Fassil Nahum, with whom I work, to include a copy of a letter I have today sent to NTO about their services to foreign tourists.
I will say little more about the contents of the letter, since they are self-explanatory. As the general manager of NTO said; they are damning. NTO is shown not merely to be incompetent but dangerously so. He denied what I had reported, but I assure you I have reported the events exactly as they happened; and have, indeed, played down the dramatic nature of NTO's failures.
More important, though, is the loss of perhaps as much as $90 million a year in foreign exchange due to this incompetent management - which I mention at the end of my letter. I am an expert in management in general, in marketing in particular; as the international sales of my university textbooks testify. I would not claim to be an expert in tourism in third world countries, but I believe that the faults displayed by NTO are so glaring that even I can easily see them.
I would very conservatively suggest that it should be possible to accommodate between 6,000 and 17,500 foreign tourists a year to Ethiopia for the 'Historical Tour'. This very rough estimate is based upon the current hotel room capacity in the bottleneck of the Tana hotel at Bihar Dar - which I estimate might be as low as 30 tourists per night for five nights per week for 40 weeks in the year (or as high as 50 tourists 7 nights per week for 50 weeks). Assuming these tourists only spent one night at Bihar Dar (where only the Nile Falls really justify their visit) this bottleneck determines the current capacity of the country as a whole - as a tourist attraction.
I would emphasise that this really is the current capacity, without requiring any significant investment at all! Assuming that each of these tourists brought in at least $3,000 ( and possibly as much as $5,000 each) in foreign exchange (where even their air fares would be paid to Ethiopian Airlines - who, observation also suggests, should have this spare capacity available on their flights). The total foreign exchange earnings being lost (where NTO only brings in a few hundred tourists) may lie between $18m and $88m.
What is not obvious from my report is just how little probably needs to be done to generate these flows of cash relatively quickly. The infra-structure in Ethiopia is already very good - along the 'Historical Tour' at least. The hotel accommodation is already available to a high standard; and the management and staff are both well trained and willing. The air transport is excellent; the standards of Ethiopian Airlines are amongst the highest in the world, and by default their ever-willing staff already seem to run many of NTO's operations. Only the ground transport, run by NTO, is not to standard - and Ethiopian Airlines already run buses in all the locations so it would require little effort for them to take over this aspect of the business (especially as most of the transport would consist of transfers to their planes).
All that remains (if Ethiopian Airlines and Ghion Hotels agree to manage the internal logistics) is for someone to sell the spaces to foreign tourists - and to advise the hotels exactly what facilities these tourists will need (in terms of guided tours and entertainment - especially exposure to Ethiopian culture and its people - as much as accommodation). There is an easy answer to this. A number of major tour operators (in the United Kingdom and through Europe) already specialise in high price tours to exotic locations in third world countries. If they can, and do, get tourists to stay in long houses in the jungles of Borneo they can surely bring them to the civilised comforts of the Ethiopian historical tour! In any case you will eventually have to use these operators to sell your places - since no country can afford to market its own wares in this field. Almost all tourists (90% or more) are now booked through these operators.
I have no doubt that you would find 10,000 - 20,000 people clamouring to buy these 'rationed' spaces - probably just because they are rationed and there is 'status' associated with having been where others cannot go. In any case, Ethiopia is without doubt one of the most beautiful and interesting countries in the world - and as soon as sufficient extra bedrooms are available it should rank as one of the most important tourist destinations. I would emphasise, however, the figures I quote above are not for those future bedrooms but are for existing capacity; which is why it is such a tragedy that NTO is using its monopoly power so badly and squandering the Ethiopian people's resources.
I suspect that in the first year you may be on the receiving end of a bad deal (for these operators drive hard bargains) - but at least your will have earned valuable additional foreign currency (after all you have nothing to lose). More important, you will have gained the experience necessary to drive hard bargains in your favour when the deals are re negotiated for the following year!
If I can help you to establish contacts with any of the leading United Kingdom operators (which I will gladly do without charge, for the sake of the people of Ethiopia) then please phone me on the above telephone number.
Yours sincerely,
(David Mercer)
PS. Following receipt of my letter, and after considerable denials and heated argument, NTO offered me at first $69 and then $139 for my problems with them. At this point I was painfully reminded that a child had died in the process and refused to barter on the subject (even though they eventually offered $800, when he became aware that I was going to bring the matter to your attention). The general manager of NTO did not understand my sensibilities in this matter. I am not going to haggle over the price of a child, it is too painful to remember the horror of that event, but I do want the Ethiopian people not to have their tourist potential stolen by what are in effect private monopolists!
The outcome is described elsewhere. I had insisted that the manager of NTO came to see me in my office. When he realised it was in the Prime Minister's office building, and he saw the size of my office (which indicated I was of minister status) his face went white. He had good reason to worry. After this exchange of correspondence, one of my students was appointed to replace him.
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