Tag: red
WE ARE TURNING 10 YEARS OLD!
The time has come in our company’s life when we can celebrate a milestone! A lot has changed since the beginnings… Red Sea Boats Holidays started its journey down a path in the first years of the 2000s as the vision of a young and relentless small team, that we believe it is still journeying on.
It all started in 2003 with an Egyptian diving tour and a boat engine that had been wasting away. To most, this information would have been frivolous but we had already envisioned the boat around the engine.
Our story began with a small, 10-person safari boat called Liliom. Then came other favourites such as Nabila Ebeid and Seaflower. Mentioning the names of these boats surely conjures up warm safari memories for many. It has been 6 years that Cassiopeia was born, eventually becoming our flagship. Then 3 years later her sister, Andromeda was born.
Our initial goal was to organise and manage diving safaris in Egypt for more and more divers. Ten years is a long time and enough to be able to observe some interesting tendencies.
We have tried to gather all important events, stories and people that/who had defined this period in our company’s life. We, ourselves, are amazed by the number of events and turns and about how much the world had changed in these 10 years.
“It is not the strongest nor the smartest that stays alive but the one who is most apt to change.” (Darwin)
Some things we liked…
- Clients from 32 various countries, all the way from Brazil to Japan
- Clicks on our Web page from more than 150 countries
- Servicing thousands of clients annually
- Moving to a large and comfortable office
- Our brand new Web page is available
Some things we did not like…
- SARS virus
- Iraqi war
- Icelandic volcano eruption
- Arab spring 2012
- World economy crisis
Ten things you may not know about us…
- Four of us work in our Budapest office
- We have 7 diplomas altogether, only one of which is in tourism, yet we have been working successfully in this field for 10 years
- Our mean age is 35 and the ratio of men to women in our office is 1:3
- Two more colleagues and a 24-person crew helps our work in Egypt
- We speak and understand 8 languages in total: Hungarian, Arabic, English, German, Russian, Italian, French, Spanish
- In our Budapest office 2 instructors, 1 dive master and a non-diver make up our team
- Some of our unique personality traits: claustrophobia, shisha-dependency, vertigo, germaphobia, insomnia, workaholism, “Apple”-dependency
- We organise about 75 dive tours a year all over the world and our clients travel close to 40,000 kilometres annually, which means we “circle the world” once every year
- We are the only officially registered travel agency in Hungary specialising in dive tours and diving safaris
- We are about to start our 11th year in Egypt and our 7th season in Sudan
Some interesting facts about Andromeda and Cassiopeia…
- The locals in Egypt just call them the “Coca-Cola” boats
- The length of the boats is 40 metres which is roughly the total of 85 fin-lengths
- The weight of Andromeda is 470 tons and add to this 1 ton of groceries, 70 tons of diesel, 15 tons of fresh water, all needed to prepare for a Sudan season
- During construction 12 cubic metres of teak, 180 cubic metres of wood and 120 tons of steel were used
- The client area is 400 square metres in total on both boats
Interesting travel facts…
- We organise 70-80 diving tours around the world annually, with more than 100 clients travelling to Marsa Shagra and others travelling to over 50 exotic countries
- Our clients are from 32 various countries
- The ratio of women to men on our boats is 15:85
- During a week, our divers spend more than 1,000 minutes on average under water
- Our tanks are filled 546 times on average during a week
Weekly food consumption per boat…
- 26 chickens (1 chicken = 1,2kg)
- 36kg beef
- 8kg calamari
- 15kg sea fish
The guest of honour celebrates!
More than 12,000 of you have honoured us with your trust in the past 10 years and we have happily acknowledged that you were satisfied with the quality of our services.
Our wishes had come true every year and now, on our 10th anniversary, we would like to surprise others as well. We would like to present all our loyal and returning as well as our future partners and clients with some gifts in 2013!
- The first 200 guests in 2013 will receive a nicely designed mug
- And continuing on, everybody will receive something nice throughout the year
We thank you for choosing us in these past 10 years and we hope to continue being your choice in the future!
Win a Free Diving Safari!
Win a Free Diving Safari for 2 people from 04th until 11th August, 2010!
How to enter the game?
Upload your picture about M/Y Cassiopeia or M/Y Andromeda into our Facebook Cassiopeiasafari Group and win a free stay onboard Cassiopeia from 04th until 11th August, 2010 (including transfers between Hurghada airport and boat, 7 nights fullboard accomodation onboard, diving, taxes and sisha/waterpipe onboard). The winner can be anyone who uploads a picture of either of the 2 boats. You can upload more than one picture, but it will count as one participant in the game.
The winner will be notified by e-mail until 31st of July.
The deadline for submitting your photos is 31st of July 2010 20:00 pm
Remarks:
– The price is not transferable to another person and can not be exchanged for money.
– Who is already registered and booked for the same safari is not eligible to enter the game.
16 weeks of diving in Sudan
We have enjoyed Sudan’s hospitality once again in the beginning of this year for 16 weeks. It seems as if Andromeda had just left for Sudan and this past weekend she has already sailed back to Egypt to continue her work there after a quick and well deserved maintenance job.
Sudan has proven to be once more one of the unsurpassed gems of the Red Sea for scuba divers with its unique underwater sites, friendly atmosphere and superb climate.
During her 16 weeks in Sudan, Andromeda has sailed to the Northern dive sites 14 times and has spent 4 weeks at the Southern sites. She spent a week in the Port Sudan harbour due to the situation of the Iceland volcano eruption when a German group had had to cancel their tour because of airspace closings. All in all, 346 divers have toured with us this season from 17 countries including the US, the UK, Slovakia, Belgium, Romania, Hungary, Austria, Holland, Spain, Finland, Portugal, France, Sweden, Russia and Slovenia.
The most visited site was Shaab Rumi which Andromeda had visited 17 times. Thanks to the frequent presence of grey and hammerhead sharks, Shaab Rumi has provided the most exciting underwater adventure for the divers and at special requests, the boat has returned to the site seveal times during a tour.
This is the only place in the world where these amazing animals can be found in such great schools. At times hammerhead curtains have swum by us, counting up to 2-300 sharks.
All the outstanding underwater sites divers were able to see and their satisfaction with their holidays have helped to make these past 4 months in Sudan a great success. We extend our special thanks to our partners, tour operators and all those divers who have chosen us for their Sudan diving holiday this season.
Thank you for your support, the countless photos, Web links and appreciation we have received in the past weeks and months!
Next we are continuing our shark adventures in February, 2011 and we look forward to welcoming all diving instructors, diving schools, diving tour operators and individual divers who have not had the chance to join us this year or would like to make a repeat tour next year again.
Book your 2011 Sudan tours by 31.12.2010 and take advantage of our 2010 rates for 2011 as well! Contact your tour operator, tour organiser or send us an e-mail!
