Fraudulent tour operators in Tanzania

Tanzania on Foot- William Wagana

My wife-to-be and I planned to hike Kilimanjaro and go on a safari in January 2019 as our honeymoon trip. We began researching companies in the fall of 2017 and eventually settled with Tanzania on Foot () in October 2017 due to competitive rates, excellent communication, and a positive online reputation. The company’s owner, William Wagana, was forthcoming in what we needed for our trip and what to expect when we got to the mountain. We paid Mr. Wagana a total of $4,800 USD in installments between November 2017 and March 2018.

On December 15th, 2018, 31 days before we were supposed to travel to Tanzania, we received a notice from Mr. Wagana that our trip was getting cancelled and that we should expect a complete refund of our money. We attempted to coordinate with other guides in the hope that he could transfer our funds in country and we could join another tour last minute. This did not happen and we were forced to forfeit the $2,000 USD+ airline tickets in addition to our trip.

In the months since cancelling our trip, Mr. Wagana has either not responded to our requests for updates or created excuses as why he has continued to fail to return our money. We were promised in March that the refund would begin in June and we still have yet to see a single cent of our money returned. We have retained all records of our correspondence with Mr. Wagana as well as the payment confirmations we received from the payment processors. Currently, Mr. Wagana states that his business is picking up and that he will have the money to return to us soon, but it has been close to a year since our trip was cancelled. We’ll likely never get to visit Africa now and we certainly don’t expect to see our money again.

Matthew and Angela Conlon

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Unlicensed Tour Operator in Arusha – 2

In October 2019, I had booked a safari with two nights in the Serengeri from Travel Africa Safari Agency. As I mentioned in my other post, they ghosted me after I had privately booked accomodation in the Serengeti and paid Travel Africa Safari Agency a deposit. So I contacted another “tour operator” in Arusha that I’d found on safaribookings.com called African Wanderlust. They promised me that the day after I arrived, I’d be joining a safari of theirs that was spending one night by the Ngorongoro and two nights in the Serengeti. I then paid a 100 US$ deposit.

Upon arrival, they insisted on coming to my hotel late at night even though I said I’d rather meet the next day. He made up some sob story about how the tour was canceled because the other people were leaving Tanzania due to a death at home, which I initially believed, even though he got the dates for the safari wrong. He then tried to get me to go on another safari, which did not match my dates in the Serengeti at all.

I initially felt sorry for him, thinking he was going to lose out on costs paid, so I agreed to at least go on a Ngorongoro day safari with his company. We’d agreed that I’d pay by Western Union, but then he emailed and said he needed cash to pay for the park entry fee online. That didn’t make sense. He said we could go to an ATM together in the afternoon, but it got later and later, so I emailed to say I’d give the driver 100 US$ tomorrow for the entry fee. He then said No, came to my low-security hotel at 9:30 pm and drove me and my child to the “nearest ATM.” We passed by countless ATMs and after 20+ minutes later, in a secluded area, he stood outside while I had to get him cash. I felt like we’d been kidnapped and brought to an ATM. He actually wanted enough cash for two day trips, but luckily, the machine stopped after 350 US$.

The next day, we ended up on a day trip organized by another operator. So Robert at African Wanderlust was a middle man acting like a tour operator but actually just bringing tourists to a central operator. So he lied about having a tour matching our requirements and got us to come to Arusha before trying to push us onto another safari and making money as the middleman.

I never went on another tour with them, and of course, I never got my extra money back.

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Unlicensed Tour Operator in Arusha – 1

I found a “safari operator” on safaribookings.com, a Mohamed from Travel Africa Safari Agency. We confirmed my itinerary, including two nights in the Serengeti, for which I booked myself nicer accomodations. Everything was “yes, yes” until I paid 5% deposit. He then gave me a different itinerary, said he would fix the issue and then ghosted me one week before I was to arrive. Since he knew which hotel I was staying in, I had to email to cancel the tour in case he showed up demanding cash. Of course, I never got my deposit back!

On the ground, I found out he was unlicensed and actually one of the many middle men taking a cut and putting tourists onto generic tours or day trips organized by another company. So a bit like the guys on the side of the street trying to sell you trips, except he has a website.

Unfortunately, I got scammed by two operators on this trip – I’m going to write about the second guy in a separate post.

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