I have read with interest the comments re the future of the rail tour business and in particular the demise of Trans Unlimited Tours. I think a little balance is needed in looking at the situation.
First of all, Chris ran hellish good tours. I saw it from the point of view of an operator of the actual railroads who operated on his behalf and he was always found to be honorable and desirous of giving his clients the best possible tour and I think 99% of clients would agree with this.
The problem which arose was totally unforeseen and was simply due to a lack of future bookings. A year ago, if you asked me where you should invest your money safely I would have said buy bank shares! We all know what happened!
Chris problem was due a failure of governments to regulate their financial systems and he is only one of the many victims who through no fault of their own have ended up in bankruptcy.There are very few businesses which if they ceased trading today would be able to pay off all their outstanding debts. We are all dependent on credit and - much more to the point - confidence. Chris had, what I would have considered a very reasonable - line of credit from his bank which up to the crisis had not been drawn down. When the crisis came he went to the bank to draw some of it down and the bank was gone! No business could stand the overnight loss of $500,000 in credit and Chris could not either.
Chris was more upset than anyone and he did make valiant attempts to survive and has put everything he had into trying to rescue TUT. He could have been an "inc." and left everyone in the lurch. He choose to put his own name on the line which may not be wise but is honorable. There might have been some chance if bookings held up but the average drop in bookings in the business is of the order of 60 to 80%. No business could weather that.
So where does that leave the future? I cannot see the most of the TUT tour program being taken over. There are no bookings of any consequence and, in my view, it is too late for 2009. The demise of the dollar means that the only major international tour operators are now almost TWICE what Chris is charging and for Americans makes them no longer feasible. Chris got ptroeprly screwed by the dollar decline and his costs rose, I estimate, by 40% due to the reduced exchange rate. Nobody could have forseen that and no business could survive it.
We were expecting five tours in Ecuador this year. We will be lucky if one comes and delirious if we get two. That is the reality. And each of those will stagger under such minimum numbers as to make profitabilty for the tour operator doubtful - not a good omen for the future of tour operators.
I noticed people complaining about losing money over TUT. In life, you either play by the rules or you suffer and the first rule is NEVER, NEVER, NEVER buy other than by credit card. If you buy by credit card you get your money back if the operator goes broke. If you do not, you lose your money. It may be unfair, it may be wrong but that is the reality and neither I nor anyone else is going to change that. Break rules and you pay. Simple.
But dont blame Chris for what happened. Blame the fact that the U.S. spends far more than it earns on straightening out the world - whether they want it or not - and in the end something has to give. Chris is only one of the myriad of victims and there are many to come yet. And if you think rail tour operation is bad - try being an airline!
I genuinely believe Chris did everything he could to save TUT, he was an honorable person and ran the best tours in the world and only for him many people would have missed one of life's great experiences - travelling by steam all over the world. Thanks Chris for what you did and I am sure everyone hopes you does not lose your shirt over TUT's unfortunate demise. At least you tried!
Dr. Michael Grimes
Chairman
Kells Transport Museum
Cork. Ireland.
Tel. +353-87-240-5550.
P.S. if anyone is interested enough to see what a Chris tour was like, then look at our website www.kellsransportmuseum.com. In particular I would think our Ecuador coverage is unequalled.
