Tour d’Afrique Bicycle Expedition Company introduces Dream Tours

Tour d’Afrique Ltd, pioneers and organizers of four trans-continental bicycle races and expeditions (Tour d’Afrique, Orient Express, The Silk Route and Vuelta Sudamericana) are once again pushing the cycle touring envelope with a highly innovative Web 2.0 concept -Dream Tours.

Combining the love of bicycle touring with social networking, Dream Tours allows users to create profiles and design their very own Dream Tour- the cycling route they’ve always wanted to do. In the process, they can name the tour, upload photographs of where they’d be going, describe the focus and highlights of the trip, plot the route on a map and set the cost parameters of the tour by choosing variables such as accommodation, number of riders, food, crew and vehicle support, etc.

If the tour is feasible, the Tour d’Afrique team approves it and the user can start spreading the word via their friends, social network, blog, local media, etc.  Their contacts can visit the site, view the tour, and make comments or suggestions on how to improve upon it, and by clicking on “Count Me In!”  register their intent to join.  The process is completely interactive and collaborative- the route can be changed and modified along the way and the Tour d’Afrique staff is there for support. As soon as there are enough people who have expressed interest, Tour d’Afrique office swings into action with the logistics needed to make it happen and the original organizer gets to go for free.

An example of a Dream Tour that is ready to go is The Amber Route, created by Tour d’Afrique founder Henry Gold.  This particular cycling trip was used as the beta/test example in developing the Dream Tours concept but was so popular with fellow riders that it is now a reality. This six-week tour through 8 countries follows the Ancient Amber Trade Route used by the Romans. This tour will begin in St. Petersburg winding its way through the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, then onwards through Poland and Slovakia, continuing on to Hungary cutting through Slovenia and ending in Venice, Italy.

To take a look at the process of how this tour was constructed, along with the comments and feedback of those who were interested, please visit:  http://www.tourdafrique.com/dreamtours/show/5.

Other Dream Tours in the works include a North American Epic (Key West to Anchorage), An Indian Adventure (Kerala to Agra), and the Mediterranean Circuit (loops around the entire Mediterranean Sea).

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