That route? That’s not how tour operator Anthony Kiweewa would do it, he tells a visitor at his stand, as he hangs high above the map of Uganda. He frowns. A few minutes ago he was all promotional enthusiasm, but now his concentration is flaring. This is the Holiday Fair for Special Travels in the Beurs van Berlage in Amsterdam, and Kiweewa also knows what its role is here: one part sales pitch, five parts personalized knowledge transfer.
This fair is actually the eccentric little brother of the large Vakantiebeurs in Utrecht. No sun trips here: existing tour operators offer safaris, but also boat trips to Antarctica, sustainable trips for “philanthropists on the road” and leadership trips in the mountains (“without telephone, of course”). According to organizer Boudewijn Richel, 10,000 people come every year, visitors who long for something other than a beach in Turkey. The price increases that, according to booking site Zoover, could depress Dutch interest in holidays, are not such a huge problem here. The trips are already expensive and attract a different audience. Moreover, GfK’s annual analysis of booking behavior shows that the popularity of sun holidays is generally declining slightly – interest is shifting to tours. And that’s exactly what you’ll find a lot of here.
“We do safaris, hiking, whitewater rafting, mountain climbing, community tours,” says Anthony Kiweewa, at his stand in one of the three large halls of the Beurs van Berlage. There are gorilla statues among the brochures. “What do we get the most questions about? Well, the gorillas, of course.” Despite a difficult visa process for participating tour operators from the country, Uganda is proving to be a popular destination at the fair. Especially because of those gorillas. In a fully packed room at the top of the fair, a Dutch tour operator gives lessons about the country. That the borders were actually drawn by the British and there are several empires within those borders, for example. He also hastens to add: “We are not those types who make local people dance.”
There is a buzz about ‘bucket lists’, lists of everything you want to get done before you die
The audience nods obediently. There is a buzz about ‘bucket lists’, lists of everything you want to get done before you die. A woman finally dares to ask how long those gorilla walks are. What kind of condition do you need to be in?
Trusted customers
Many of those present are veterans. Allard van Lingen of Bergwandelen.com admits that he only spoke to old, well-known customers in the first hours of the day. Terribly? Oh. In this personal, specialized part of the travel industry, those ties with trusted customers are crucial, say most tour operators at the fair.
Not Janine Villiger, who is at the fair for the first time. She mainly sells houses in Namibia, but also arranges tours, and that is precisely what most questions are about. People don’t actually know the country that well. An older Dutch man continues to talk at her booth for five minutes; it doesn’t dawn on him that she doesn’t speak Dutch but English. “People are concerned about security in Namibia. For example, I always have to explain that we have the best roads in all of Africa. Even those in South Africa are no longer what they used to be,” she says afterwards. “And that it is better to go for two weeks and only drive four hours every day. It is a big country, with few people.”
A little further on, a good-natured Tanzanian shrugs his shoulders. “It pays not to be Dutch here,” he says. “I benefit from people seeing me and thinking: ah, he really comes from there.” Because that is ultimately the difference with the Vakantiebeurs: there is a hint of knowledge here in the room. From people who know the secrets of all those distant countries and want to share them. Many places in the world have ‘become touristy’, visitors grumble in the corridors. Here they join the gifted group who still dare to search for the untouched. Who does research and understands that not everything is for everyone.
With a hot dog in one hand and a paper cup of mulled wine in the other, that’s for sure: it’s still the Netherlands.