Where to look?
As experienced people explained to me, to effectively search for information on the Internet, "you need to know the places!" Of course, today almost every self-respecting travel agency has its own website, where it posts hot deals. But again, you need to know their web addresses. Personally, I visited "Gamalia", "SAM", and "Yana". Their offers satisfied me in everything except price. Probably, most of us still strive to get more for less. I was no exception, and therefore I set out to find something more affordable. Considering that there are several thousand travel agencies in Ukraine, I decided to find a website that would allow me to search through at least most of them. My colleagues helped me, as did persistent flipping through travel newspapers, magazines, and advertising catalogs.
How to search?
So, first I went to "TurBaza" (http://turbaza.kiev.ua). Yes, there is quick, advanced, and individual search. In quick search mode, you simply choose a program, for example "Vacation" or "Beach Vacation", and then browse all offers. At first there is a list of various tours to Crimea, then Egypt, Spain, Bulgaria, and so on. It's impossible to filter by country, so it's unclear when you'll get to Tunisia.
For advanced search, you need to fill in several fields (program, country, transportation, minimum cost, meals, accommodation, additional information) from the list of possible values. I honestly indicated that I was interested in "beach vacation" in "Tunisia" with a price of "400-600". Transportation, meals, and accommodation didn't concern me (from a variety of offers I can always choose a suitable one later), so I indicated "all" in those fields. And I got an answer... So, in "TurBaza" Tunisia is not there at all! No, of course, they gave me information about the country: cities, air and water temperature, etc. But neither planes fly there, nor ships sail... To clear my conscience, I tried to see what they have for Turkey. A bit better - whole... two offers! As Stanislavsky said, "I don't believe it!"
Maybe it's worth trying individual tour selection? As "TurBaza" promises, this selection will be "carried out by several firms at once". But in the application you need to specify full name, region, phone, code, convenient time (honestly, I don't want anyone to call me at all), "tour budget per person (USD) (as a single number)" (what-what?), for how many days, where, program, additional information about children, meals, accommodation, etc. I could have been patient and carefully filled out the entire application, but... Okay, several firms will deal with fulfilling it, but what if I don't like their offers? Is this already an official order or not yet? And do I bear any financial obligations? In general, I prefer to first look at at least some offers myself. I didn't want to fill out applications, book anything, or subscribe.
My next attempt was to contact the "Ukrainian Tourism Network" (www.ukrtravel.net). The information presented on the main page gave me rosy hopes. It said that all potential tourists can "familiarize themselves with offers from travel agencies presented on the portal, choose a suitable travel option, find a last-minute tour, view a list of agencies where you can buy the tour you are interested in, and also make a request for a tour that is not in the list of offers". In addition, here "you can check tourism news, find a travel companion, view descriptions of countries, resorts and hotels, and also get a lot of useful information for a traveler in the 'Links' section". What immediately alarmed me was that there were no last-minute tours at the height of the season. And therefore trust in the portal decreased... But what finally killed me was the list of tour offers: "Available offers: sea vacation - 1, mountain vacation - 1, excursion programs - 12, children's vacation - 4, hotels - 1, study abroad - 1, shopping tours - 0..." Yeah, and I was thinking about some Tunisia... Well, I was dreaming!
But I decided not to give up. Forward, to the Ukrainian tourism server "Tour-inform" (www.travel-tour.com.ua)! "Tour-inform" claimed that they have "a constantly updated database of travel companies; all tours are updated online by the travel agencies themselves; the ability to book any tour from those placed in the system". On the very first page they advised me: "If you haven't yet decided which country to prefer, choose a tour by type of vacation (for example, 'Excursions') in the 'Tours' section. If you have already decided on a country, then select it in the 'Countries' section and follow the 'Tours to ...' link to go to the page with tour offers for that particular country. Some countries may not have tours (yet). But there are few of them. If you are interested in exactly such a country, you can send a request for tours to that country, which we will pass on to travel agencies. You can book any of the tours presented in the system by filling out the booking form and specifying the tour code. Within 48 hours you should receive confirmation of the booking or a request for clarification."
The description of the search process was somewhat abstruse, but the search itself turned out to be simple and, most importantly, effective. The simple search quite satisfied me. You only need to specify the program and country - the system gives all offers. For Tunisia, there were about twenty. Right there you can go to the website of the agency that offers the tour and get acquainted with the terms and ordering procedure. The only inconvenience of such a search may be the need to view too many offers, for example, for Turkey. It would be nice if the system provided the ability to sort offers, say, by price.
The last stop on my virtual journey was the "Network of Last-Minute Tour Agencies" (www.hottour.com.ua). I'll say right away that I liked this site more than all the others. First, the statistics pleased me. According to its data, the system involves 43 agencies and 262 operators. The number of offers was also substantial – 15,468. Second, the following delicate remark pleased me greatly: "Dear visitors, here you can submit a request to order a tour through the 'Network of Last-Minute Tour Agencies.' This request will not constitute an official tour booking." The fact is that in the other systems, an order was meant to be quite official. And what if I made an order in several systems hoping to choose the most suitable offer? And finally, for Tunisia, I was given 795 offers! And again, like the old woman in the tale of the golden fish, I am dissatisfied: well, how, tell me, am I to look through them all? I'll have to be patient...
So, in the end, what can be advised to those who dare to use the Internet to search for tours? First, you need to know a catalog of sites providing such services. Unfortunately, they are not easy to find. Second, many of them do not update their list of offers very regularly, so it is better to play it safe once more: having chosen a tour you are interested in, call the company that offers it. Third, many companies even here manage to give prices "from," and as a result the cost of the tour turns out to be 30–40% higher than was stated in the offer.
And still, the Internet is a great thing! I found, though not what I wanted, but something that will help in the future. And anyone planning to go somewhere for a vacation, take a look at the Kyiv city server (http://kiev2000.com) in the section "Discussions. Travel agencies." You won't regret it! There you will find what is of the greatest value – our shared experience of organized vacations, reviews from both victims and satisfied tourists. You will see that the Internet is frank, sincere, and very, very useful.