Oasis Overland is to restart multi-country trips for the first time since it was bought out of administration.
The adventure operator plans run four Nairobi to Cape Town overland trips this year and is targeting a significant hike in sales through agents to plug the gap left by the “hibernation” of rival Dragoman.
Oasis Overland ceased trading in February last year due to the pandemic but was relaunched in May after its acquisition by Uncover The World, parent of Encounters Travel.
The company, which does not sell the flight element, ran some trips to Pakistan last year but Covid restrictions delayed the restart of multi-country tours.
The first will be the 75-day Nairobi to Cape Town Grand Adventurer on March 28, which last ran two years ago. This can also be extended on to Johannesburg as a 93-day trip.
Encounters Travel managing director Ralph Faulds believes it may be the first Nairobi to Cape Town overland trip for the UK market since the start of the pandemic. The company hopes to get back to eight a year in 2023.
Faulds added: “The trips are the same as before. They’re at a slower pace than other operators and split into sections so you don’t have to do the whole trip.”
So far up to 15 passengers are booked on various legs of the trip, which is camping based.
Other trips due to depart this year include the 42-week UK to Cairo Trans Africa adventure on November 22 while an 11-day Patagonia trip is planned for October.
Most South America and central Asia overland trips are due to restart next year.
As business returns, Faulds hopes to achieve 30% of sales through the trade by the end of 2023. He said the decision by trade-friendly operator Dragoman to mothball operations for the time being had left “some big gaps” in the market.
Faulds said: “In the UK Oasis Overland was mainly direct-sell before. We are keen to change that and do a lot more sales through agents. There are some big gaps but we are starting from scratch.”
He added: “We would love to get it up to 30% of sales in the next couple of years
The company will also look to rejoin Aito, The Specialist Travel Association, at the end of the year.
Founder Chris Wrede is still involved with the company, and is running some of the ground operations from its Zimbabwe base, while Penny Hooper, Penny Hooper, who works for representation agency Samphire Travel Consulting, is visiting agents to train them on the operator’s product.