Customers in Focus - July '10

Exodus enjoys the privilege of working with a wonderful team of overseas partners, agents and tour leaders all over the world. And we pride ourselves on investing in these teams for the long term - it is after all they who deliver the final holiday to our clients. One of our longest running partnerships is with our team in Egypt.

We have been working with our Egypt team longer than with any other local partner, outside of Nepal. Many of the staff have been working with Exodus for up to 20 years. Salwa Ibrahim has managed our operations in Cairo since she started in early 1989 (that's 21 years) working six days a week for Exodus and our clients. We also have four full-time leaders (who are also fully qualified Egyptologist guides): Hany Eskander (tour leader for 16 years), Khaled Lotfy (15 years), Tarek Tawfick (10 years) and Fouad Berto (9 years). This team has been working their magic with Exodus clients for a joint total of 50 years!
 
As our Egypt programme goes from strength to strength we have been busy increasing the size of our pool of expert leaders. So a couple of weeks ago Olly Townsend (Leader Operations Manager) and I went to Cairo for a week, to 'train' (indoctrinate) a total of 15 leaders; the old faithful were there, but we enjoyed the company of many leaders just starting their Exodus journey.
 
We believe it is crucial that anyone leading an Exodus trip has a proper understanding of our travel philosophy and what Exodus clients are looking for. So while our course included first aid and presentational skills, we also spent a lot of time talking about what makes Exodus different.
 
Almost as importantly as anything they may have learnt, our visit reminded all the leaders that we care for and appreciate all the work they do. The client feedback for this team is some of the best we get – and we operate adventure holidays in over 90 countries. Long may it continue!
 
Mike James
Operations Director