How to Organise a group trip

By Timothy Ijala

To successfully organize a group tour you need to take into consideration the people making up the group and the group size. This is because different groups have different needs, expectations and interests. What works for a family group might not work for a group of teenagers or young adults who love the outdoors. Consider also the group size for the purposes of transportation, accommodation and meals if you are planning for a camping safari. You want to make sure that you have a vehicle with enough room especially if the trip will involve you traveling for many hours. After ascertaining what the group size is and the destination it is important that you go ahead and book accommodation. You do not want to wait until the last minute when everyone is all excited and gearing to go then you have to disappoint them because hotels are fully booked or the campsite is already taken up by some other group. Depending on the group size it might be necessary to have a group leader who you can deal with when planning for the trip. This is someone who can speak on behalf of the group and who can be in charge during the trip.

Something else that would be important is the itinerary. Draw up an itinerary of the trip. The itinerary shows how many days the group is going for, what are the places of interest to be visited, the stopovers, when and where to stop for meals and highlights of the trips. This is again important because an itinerary gives you a sort of plan to work around otherwise you may find people wondering off on their own from time to time and then you have to spend time looking for them and at the end of the day instead of getting a lot done on the trip you spend the time looking for people. The itinerary is also helpful for the purposes of costing the trip. Since you can see from the itinerary how many nights the group will be away for, where the group is going (which is necessary to determine how much money to budget for fuel if you are driving) this will help you to cost the trip and know how much is needed for the trip.

Take time also to brief the group before the trip. This is necessary so that you can get questions answered as to what needs to be carried on the trip, time of departure and where the the group will meet on the day of departure, clear any misconceptions any one may have and get to know if there is any one with any specific needs e.g food wise if it's a trip that involves the outdoors. If possible have two briefings. One just before you plan the trip and another a few days before the trip.

As a recap, when organizing a trip its important to get information like the people taking the trip and the size of the group, know the destination, how the group will get there and also book accommodation. It is also important to have an itinerary. Meet the group before they travel so that you can answer any questions the members may have.