Financial insolvency tour operators Baobab and Summum
The well-known long-distance travel specialists Baobab and Summum are bankrupt. Today, the parent company Terra Travel has reported financial insolvency to the SGR. Baobab and Summum also organized tours in Thailand.
Terra Travel carried more than 20.000 passengers annually in its heyday. In 2011, the company still had a turnover of € 26,5 million.
Consumers who have booked a trip with Terra Travel BV under the SGR guarantee scheme will soon receive an e-mail (at the e-mail address as specified to Terra Travel) stating whether SGR will carry out their trip or refund the prepaid travel money.
The Baobab website states the following:
After 41 proud years with wonderful trips, great tour guides and tens of thousands of satisfied guests, to this day, such a travel organization is unfortunately no longer sustainable.
We value informing you directly and personally and hope that, despite the content of this message, you will have a pleasant journey and that you will think back positively to us, our travels and our colleagues at home and abroad.
We have done it for you with a lot of love and passion.
Kind regards, on behalf of all colleagues and tour guides,
The management of Terra Travel BV.
“Adventurous group travel” is no longer of this time and I am surprised that it has lasted so long. “Organized” adventure is a contradiction in terms. In the early nineties I worked in Central America (Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and Mexico) as a tour guide for Afriesh Reizen, a tour operator that organized adventure trips, in particular the so-called "Overland Treks" in Africa, group trips that sometimes lasted half a year ( from Cairo to Cape Town).
In those days people were less critical and there were no mobile phones, Internet, etc. In the present time everything has to be faster, and the consumer now also understands that if you want adventure, you don't want to see it divided into a day-to-day schedule .
Too bad, because I know those people from Summum and Baobab. One of the few organizations that did not make their tour guides work for starvation wages.
Officially, this company is not yet bankrupt. It has been registered with the SGR. (foundation guarantee fund travel funds) and a restart or takeover will probably be considered. It is advisable to no longer transfer money to Terra Travel because these payments are no longer reimbursed by the SGR.
Unfortunately, as of August 22, all bookings via Clever Hotels have also been canceled due to insolvency. Claims for already paid bookings can possibly be submitted to the curator in October/November, but there will not be much to recover. On the Trivago comparison site, Clever hotels often came out as the cheapest. Clever-hotels is located in Hamburg and not affiliated with SGR/ANVR. There are many victims, especially travelers who would travel at short notice and have had their hotel stays cancelled. I also ended up on their site via Trivago and booked a hotel in Thailand.
That is bad news for all people who have booked with Clever and have already paid. Always use booking yourself. com is not always the cheapest but only pay at your hotel and often the possibility to cancel or change the booking for free. So you see that it is always better to book with a SGR affiliated company