RSD Travel
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RSD Tour to North Cyprus: Hidden Commercial Sponsors and Sharp Practices
RSD Travel has developed a business model which allows it to offer holidays at extremely low prices. This is based on sponsorship by various commercial interests; e.g. In North Cyprus a carpet warehouse, jewellery store and leather factory. The low holiday price attracts large numbers of clients who are then taken to the various outlets during the course of their holiday where they become a captive audience for high pressure sales pitches. This was revealed by our guide during heated discussions with clients objecting to forcible attendance at lectures on the making of carpets when they could otherwise be enjoying the historic sites and attractions they had gone to Cyprus to experience. This model, fundamental to their operation, is not revealed by RSD to prospective purchasers of their tours. If it were, presumably less people would sign up to participate and the model would fail. Yet, the amount of time used up in these endeavours, including the travel to and fro across the mountains to Nicosia or the endless trawling of the Famagusta docklands while waiting for a slot at the factory gate, amount to several hours, i.e. a sixth of the holiday. Had we been informed of this major aspect of the tour we would not have booked to go with RSD. There are other sharp practices employed by the company and/or the guides. For instance, they re-order the week's programme of tours so as to compress five days' visits into four, thereby creating an extra day when they can sell a further "optional" excursion, which of course is then offered at extra cost. The net effect of this manipulation, plus the factory jamboree, is to seriously restrict the amount of time available at the genuine advertised sites of the tour. Under the same head I would include the ploy of not revealing the names of the hotels where clients are lodged until they actually arrive in the Country and the use of airline schedules that require a departure time from the final hotel of 2.50am. Moreover, the offer of flights direct from Manchester conceals the fact that the return is via Gatwick, thereby adding considerably to the already extended journey time, and this on top of the ludicrous departure time already referred to. You arrive home completely exhausted. Again, in our case, this would certainly have dissuaded us from booking this trip. The hotels that we experienced, Artemis and Riverside, were ostensibly of a good standard although the Riverside was distinctly in need of an upgrade. The feeding arrangements, in both, were diabolical: canteen feeding of hundreds of tourists in a single packed venue over an extended sitting. The quality of the food at Riverside was dreadful, though you do have the option of going 'a la carte' for extra cost. So much for the vaunted prepaid "gourmet" package strongly sold on the basis that there is no practical alternative. Here again therefore, we see the sharp practice that underlies so much of this appalling travel company's operation. The tour guides were no doubt of mixed ability and competence but I have to say the one allocated to our bus was lazy, argumentative, sometimes uninformed, and obsessed with the amount of final tip he might be able to extract from his group. Comments from other travellers on different buses suggest our experience in this regard was not abnormal. Northern Cyprus is a pleasant venue for this type of holiday with interesting and enjoyable towns and historic sites, e.g. northern sector of Nicosia old town, Famagusta old town, Kyrenia, and Bellapais. The climate is ideal at this time of year and the flowers are abundant, e.g. the rose gardens and hanging bougainvillea at the Riverside hotel. Would we go with this company again? Most definitely not, either to Cyprus or any other unfortunate country where they may have set up operations. RSD is an outfit whose advertising is disingenuous and whose operations are exemplified by cost-cutting and sharp practice. Avoid this company at all costs.