Wanderlust Travel Awards 2010: Top Tour Operator
Wanderlust team | Issue 110 | March 2010
Trailfinders
An astonishing 627 companies were nominated in this category (nearly double last year's total), reflecting the profusion of smaller operators and your undiminished globetrotting over the past year. All the more credit then to first-time winner Trailfinders, a pioneer of tailormade travel, this year celebrating its 40th birthday. The recipe, according to voters, is simple: a genuine desire to find the right itinerary for each customer.
"My consultant was keen to help me find the best flight deal regardless of how many times we changed it" said reader Denise Dixon. "We spoke for a few hours, and I then reserved seats for 48 hours – but within a day he had called me saying to hold off: he had found a fantastic deal, saving me over £600."
Hywel Meredith agreed: "They took time to understand our requirements; they explored different ways of doing the same trip; and despite the six-month lead-in time, they kept in touch."
With Audley Travel and Cox & Kings following close behind, this year's top three is a clean sweep for tailormade specialists: proof that in a downturn, we travellers want our trips designed to a T?
Ranking
- Trailfinders 92.11%
- Audley Travel 92.08%
- Cox & Kings 91.25%
- Tucan Travel 91.11%
- Imaginative Traveller 89.47%
- Exodus 89.33%
- Wild Frontiers 88.48%
- Intrepid Travel 88.42%
- Journey Latin America 87.66%
- Bales 86.67%