Welcome to our revamped newsletter with its new navigation menu, above, which links direct to Travulous' website. We are continuously updating our website's content, such as our Ecotourism page which lists the press releases for our current and past partnerships with leading wildlife organisations stretching back as far as 2006, including the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, the Born Free Foundation, and the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF).

In this month's newsletter, we outline the key reasons why travel advisors benefit from working with Travulous in East Africa. You can also read our latest article in ASTA, where we talk about why a safari should be at the very top of everyone's bucket list. In addition, we highlight six benefits for travel advisors to sign up to our Agent Portal, and lastly we list recent or forthcoming property openings or refurbishments in East Africa.

Gone are the days where you have to grapple with the challenge of inconsistencies caused by working with multiple DMCs across the region. Work with Travulous and we will provide you with consistent levels of service in Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. You will benefit from one point of contact for the provision of ground transfers, flights by light aircraft or helicopter, and accommodation bookings in all our featured countries. Our team is multi-lingual and we can service your requirements in a range of languages.

Leading accommodation providers who also operate as DMCs tend to prioritize their own properties, which means that Travel Advisors could potentially miss out from booking other equally attractive independent properties. Travulous is not affiliated with any accommodation brand, and therefore our Travel Advisors will always receive impartial advice best suited to their particular needs. To provide your customers with the best travel advice, we recommend Travel Advisors who visit East Africa should conduct site inspections at both independent and chain properties.

If you are a Travel Advisor who is making bookings via an international intermediary company claiming to have offices here in East Africa, then they are most likely reselling their local East African DMC's services under their own brand. Whilst there is nothing wrong with this practice, adding intermediaries (who are not present on the ground) could result in Travel Advisors experiencing slower booking turnaround times, delayed or even substandard levels of Duty of Care, and uncompetitive itinerary pricing due to additional unnecessary layers of costs.

Another advantage for Travel Advisors to cut out the intermediary companies and to work directly with Travulous in East Africa is that you will receive superior destination advice from the experts who are located in-country with offices and teams situated across the region. Although many intermediaries employ good in-house destination experts, they themselves tend to typically obtain relevant up-to-date destination news from those experts who are located on the ground, in their wholly owned offices, supported by their local specialist teams.