What ever happened to???

Hello Debbie,

Thanks for your post, I hope you are well!

Louisa from our Marketing team will shortly post a response to your question about the free trip competitions. Thanks as always for your feedback!

Kind regards
Kelly

Hello Kelly,

As always, wonderful to hear from you! I hope that all is well in Sunny England?

Well Australia is still in the grip of drought, 12 years now, with no sign of it letting us out of it's grip. Then we had the terrible bushfires just over 2 months ago, that took many lives, thousands of houses & hundreds of thousands of hectares of land burnt out. But I guess you have heard of all this on the news. Italy has been rocked by earthquakes, with many lives lost....gosh the list could go on for a long time. Plus we have a worldwide credit crisis, which seems to have hit everyone.

It would be wonderful if the chance to win a holiday were brought back! If it was won by someone experiencing a tough time, I'm sure they would not forget that it was Im Trav who supplied the chance to get away for awhile. So it would have to be a plus for both sides..........don't you think?

I know that the chance of winning a trip is slimmer than being hit by lightning, but I love the idea of trying!!! Anything to keep the dream of travel alive in these times has to be considered......in my opinion (lol!)

Anyway, many thanks for the response, hoping all is well with you.......Debbie

Mafesh Mushkelah!!!

Hi Debbie,

Thanks for your reply! Things are fine over here thank you, and spring finally seems to have arrived (although the weather forecast over Easter is typically rather gloomy!).

We appreciate all your comments about how you like trying to win a tour and definitely take these on board.

Thanks again for your posts!

Best wishes
Kelly

What ever happened?

This is the first I read that ImTrav did or used to offer returning clients and opportunity to be entered into a draw.

We have taken several trips with ImTrav over the last few years and I'm sure we like Debbie would love to hear more.

We also read about the mystery tour this year and that also was new as there was no mention in brochures about a yearly mystery trip (would imagine it is an "adventure" rather than "traveller") but would still be interested in the future.

Many thanks Kelly as you seem to respond mainly to the inquiries on the website! Take care,

Maureen

Hello Maureen,

The Imaginative Traveller had a monthly newsletter via email, that included the chance to win a tour! The tours were for various countries, but of course my interest was more focussed on the Egypt, ME tours! So each month you had the chance to win a trip, the only hitch was you had to be able to travel on the dates provided in the listing!

But what the heck!! If it was a trip I was interested in I tried like blazes to win!! I would love to see this return!! But for some reason I don't even receive the newsletters anymore, so perhaps this has been changed too??

The competitons were open to all, not just past travellers!

I know the chances of winning are very, very slim, but I just love the chance to at least try!!

Looking forward to hearing Louisa's news.......Debbie

Mafesh Mushkelah!!!

Hi all,

Hope you had an enjoyable easter, we were lucky in that the sun shone most of the weekend, despite as Kelly says pretty gloomy forecasts! Just to update you on the competitions and some of the queries raised in the above thread:

The monthly email (e-tracks) packed full of news on travel and all things travel related still goes out to our database of subscribers and is extremely popular. I'm surprised you don't receive it Debbie, I will have a look on the database to check your email address is there. You may want to just confirm the email address you would like this sent to by emailing me - louisa@imtrav.net (same applies to you Maureen).

Through this email we have a monthly competition, it may be to win a signed book - we recently ran a competition to win "Traversa" by Fran Sandham, for all tours booked to Africa. It might be to win a Rough Guide to a destination... PLUS we are currently a competition to win a trip to Egypt. This is to ALL e-tracks subscribers new and old... I will send you a copy of the email to ensure you can enter this competition.

So as you can see we do still run competitions to win an Imaginative Traveller trip - but due to recent economic downturn, we can't give them as regularly as before. But it is something we do in our monthly emails and through the website.

Make sure you sign up to e-tracks here to keep up to date: http://www.imaginative-traveller.com/etracks

With regards to the mystery tour, we launched this in our 2009/10 brochure back on the 1st of November 08. This again was promoted in E-tracks and as soon as the brochure went live, the first departure sold out in the first week! We even have some people starting in New Zealand and flying to London and then have no idea where they are going on the mystery tour!! We did launch a second departure, but the interest wasn't there for this second departure, but I'm sure we will be running this again next year. Keep your eyes pealed in the Summer for the updates on how this first mystery tour departure goes... and of course where the customers actually end up on the tour!!

Hope this answers some of your questions!

Kind regards,

Louisa

Louisa Doggett

Hello Louisa,

Many thanks for the information. However if memory serves me correctly, I have not received an e-tracks email since last year. Are you able to send me the current e-tracks, so that I can try to enter the competition?

Have just registered for e-tracks & sent you an email.

Great that you had a sunny Easter. All the best.....Debbie

* After re registering I received an edition of e-tracks! Yay!

Mafesh Mushkelah!!!

What Ever Happened?

Dear Debbie,

Don't have your email address but wrote to Louisa and trust that you too have provided your email address.

I too loved Egypt (the father of my children is from Cairo) and totally enjoyed the Nile cruise -- not so much Cairo -- he had warned me of the touts!

But it is a great country and I understand your love for this totally historic and ancient country!

Take care,

Hello Maureen,

Yes I have emailled Louisa & I have also re registered for e-tracks. Shortly after I received an e-tracks email, so for some reason I must have been deleted from the list! Oh well never mind!

I have updated my profile, so it looks as though I am now in the running to win a trip to Egypt.........yay!!

Cairo is city like no other. One has to learn to ignore the "hustler's" as they are known! However they are not just located in Cairo! This is all a part of travel, the good the bad & the ugly!!

Nile cruises are a touch of heaven on earth, good for the body & soul. For me the Nile River at Aswan is like a spiritual event. I could kick myself for not visiting Aswan on my last trip to Egypt. I thought I would be back in Egypt soon & so it would not have to wait long. Well "soon" has now been more than two years. I long to take the pics I have in my mind of the River at Aswan. The sheer beauty is breath taking. But I guess I am lucky that I have my memories & previous pics, which is more than many other people have.

The history of Egypt is quite amazing. IF ancient Egypt had not been conquered by other nations, I wonder what the world would look like now? How different would it be?? If only we could see these things for ourselves!! Since I was small, I have always wished that there was some sort of a door, that we could step through, to see those ancients times as they happened!!

I think this all began when our Mother used to take us out to our Grandparents farms. There were many tumbled down old buildings, from the times of early settlement of the region. I soooo wanted to see them as they were, when the people were still using them!! Oh the dreams of a child!

I dreamt of visiting Egypt for most of my life & got there at the age of 40. Now she calls me home all the time, 10 years later & I still long to go back again & again!! My friend Marty keeps telling me......"you have to see other countries". But for me it will always be Egypt first. Yes, I would love to visit Morocco, Turkey, Kuwait, Jordan & many others, but I would always try to include a quick visit to Egypt!

And no I haven't just been to Egypt! Have also been to Italy, Dubai & Bahrain.

Anyway I had better stop babbling or people will think I am stark raving mad!!

All the best...........Debbie

Mafesh Mushkelah!!!

Hi Ladies,

Thanks for re-registering to e-tracks, you will now be fully up to date on all things Imaginative!

Also thanks for your wonderful descriptions of Egypt, my parents out there at the moment on our Jewels of Egypt tour, so i hope they return with the same love and experiences!

Take care and good luck with your competition entries.

Louisa x

Louisa Doggett

Hello Louisa,

Your parents are sooooooooo going to love the Jewels of Egypt tour!! I have had the joy of this experience myself!! LOVED it!! Hope to do it again some day!!

However not everyone see's Egypt in the same light. I think you either fall in love with Egypt or you hate it!! This has a lot to do with our personal make up, I feel. You have to experience Egypt with your soul. If you are unable to make that sort of connection.....well you can imagine I'm sure.

The best advice that I can think of for anyone travelling there for the first time, is...............remember to pack an open heart & mind & your sense of humour!!

Hoping that your parents have a wonderful time. Kindest regards......Debbie

Mafesh Mushkelah!!!

Jewels of Egypt 20 Sept.09

Any reason why this trip is no longer being shown as a Guaranteed trip ? Jean

Hi Jean

Sorry for the late response to your question, this trip is guaranteed to run and is now 3 people away from the full group size of 15.

Best wishes
David