Operator welcomes home Libya tourists
Wednesday, 25 Feb, 2011
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Adventure travel company Wild Frontiers welcomed home a group of relieved clients yesterday after repatriating them from Libya.
Nine Brits, an American and a South African arrived safely in London at 6pm last night from Tripoli via Milan after only having just started Wild Frontiers’ Libya Unveiled tour last Sunday – before the Foreign Office had issued its travel warning.
They were deep in the Libyan desert when it became clear the country was not safe and Wild Frontiers staff struggled to get hold of them to let them know they needed to come home.
Having travelled to Sabratha and then on to Sebha and the desert region, Wild Frontiers managing director Johnny Bealby explained that communications were hit and miss.
He said: “Contact was very sporadic but every now and then you could get a text through. We were trying to get them onto flights into Tripoli but we couldn’t book them because we couldn’t get through to the clients to let them know.”
Eventually the clients were contacted and took a flight to Tripoli where they had to spend a day and a night before boarding a flight to Milan on Wednesday.
Said Bealby: “They had to go to bed hearing gunshot which is never very nice but they actually didn’t encounter too much trouble in the city, travelling from the chaotic airport to their hotel. They even managed to see a museum and have lunch out while they waited for their flight.”
The company booked the group on a flight with Libya-based airline Air Afriqiyah, believing it was less likely to be cancelled than a BMI or BA service.
Bealby is no stranger to evacuating clients. The company’s array of adventurous holidays in off-the-beaten track destinations has meant that he has had some experience in getting customers out of tricky situations.
He said: “We had to get clients out of Egypt two weeks ago and during 9/11 we had to get clients out of Pakistan. We have also had to get people out of Georgia when the Russians invaded.”
by Dinah Hatch
Dinah
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