In pouring rain (so the story goes) on December 29, 1979, down the sodden dirt roads of South Africa’s Timbavati Game Reserve, Paul Geiger drove his foreman’s heavily pregnant wife to the doctor to give birth. The child born that day, Godfrey Mathebula, is today head guide at Motswari.

For Godfrey, it’s not just a job, he belongs to the land. He is of the soil he walks on. And in the 30 0000 hectares of Motswari, featuring mopane trees and elephants and the occasional white lion, is found his story. And many, many others…

So a lodge is a lodge is a lodge. When comparing like with like, this pretty much holds true, especially when considering the fittings, competence of the guides and standard of food whipped up in the kitchen. The big separator, however, is found in its narrative, the attitude of the staff, and the feel of the place. It’s the combination of these that makes it dead simple for an establishment to distinguish itself from the competition.

Easier said than done maybe, but at Motswari – in South Africa’s Timbavati Game Reserve, part of the greater Kruger Park – I found a destination seemingly getting it right. The fact that it has a relatively high occupancy over this past year of crippling recession means that this lodge is doing something right. In and amongst the simple thatch and traditional rondawel huts I discovered the lodge’s remarkably simple X-factor.

Just like any contemporary corporate bible will tell you, success starts with the people. Motswari’s cleaners, cooks and guides exude a certain confidence, a belief in themselves not always found in the game lodge environment. The first hint as to a different way of thinking is found in the attitude of the owners, the Swiss South African Geiger family…and that rainy-night drive Paul Geiger made to the doctor in Acornhoek, outside the reserve.

And then there’s the GM, Katherine Bergs. On arriving as a tourist 20 years ago, almost as if following a script, Kathy fell in love with Motswari. She gave up her job working for a bank in NYC and returned to the lodge as a receptionist. In the process – yes, still with the script – she met her husband to be, also working at the lodge.

Kathy’s extended stay here is significant. She has found in its women stories so significant that she’s written them up. In showing an interest in the personal circumstances of those who work for them, the owners and management have given them a voice. It explains Siphiwe Maholobela’s impish grin.

And Netta Makhubela’s cheerfulness. And there are 20 similar tales, all of which seem to liberate the tellers (typical of an aspiring writer, Kathy’s a bit shy about her first literary effort, but it’s a surprising, compelling read).

We could’ve been anywhere in the developing world. But the fact that I was guided by Godfrey Mathebula around the land on which he was born – that we saw a white lion cub later that day, witnessed a river flow for the first time in five years and was told of 83 leopard sightings the previous month – rooted this tale firmly in Africa. In this case in South Africa’s Timbavati.

With mopaneveld dominant and the grasslands to the south, plains game occur in pockets rather than herds.

And for those interested, the Big Five are regular visitors. But its Motswari’s stories that make this a standout experience.

This blogpost was submitted by Angus Begg of African Storybook Media.

“Indigo hedyantha,” said my guide, rubbing the leaves of the bush between his fingers, “known as the haemorrhoid bush”. Surname Gutteridge, first name Lee, our guide is an encyclopaedic type, probably more so than any I’ve yet met. “Apart from treating this nasty condition, it’s also got an indigo blue dye in its roots”.

We were hiking one of South Africa’s lesser-known wilderness locations, the Waterberg mountain range in the country’s Limpopo – and we’d taken an hour to move just one kilometre over the rocky, sandy and high altitude terrain.

It was a walk on which we were to learn much about the things our eyes often gloss over when in the bush. Like brown hyena paste – an insignificant-looking bit of white stuff attached to a grass stem that serves as a notice-board to other brown hyenas – lichen (a fungus/algae combination found on rocks and trees that tells us the surrounding air is clean) and ingenious insect that disguise themselves as whispy bits of detritus. That apart from tracking a hyena – which should explain why the walk took us an hour.

Gutteridge is a confident, engaging type who runs a bush-guiding school on Entabeni Safari Conservancy in the Waterberg. He has the knack of making a wild apricot tree seem as interesting as a one-legged lion.

More of a home to farming than conservation since it was settled after the end of the Anglo-Boer War, the Waterberg has remained a little off the tourist radar. Only after severe droughts forced many farmers off the land in the early 1990s was much of it returned to the wild – reborn as game reserves and wilderness areas, where wildlife could once again flourish.

  Entabeni is one such reserve. An area that rises a sharp 600m provides varying horizons, welcome cooler nights and the bird and animals species that inevitably come with the change in landscape. Having tracked wildlife and guided for most of his life in the Greater Kruger Park area, Lee says he couldn’t be happier.

With my little family I was staying up on the mountain – at the Kingfisher Lodge of huge bathrooms and beds – on a dam just below the signature Entabeni mountain. It’s a world of hippos, fish eagles, wooden walkways and fairly significant views. A helpful world too, where staff was on hand to help with baba Fynn (providing Alison and I with latitude).

Once we had finished exploring with Lee we inched down a steep handmade road – carved out by seven Pedi women nine years ago – through thick ravine vegetation. Down on the Lower Plateau, at Hanglip Lodge we were met by a change in subject as dramatic as the change in environment (which was now closer to more classic bushveld).

I had only a rough idea of what we were to see. Pete Richardson, a UK golfing-consultant with a Yorkshire accent, filled in the blanks. ‘Eighteen holes, each designed by a top international golfer’, said Pete as he drove the golf-buggy around the holes. But the cherry on top was waiting, just a few kilometers away.

The 19^th tee is high, not much lower than Entabeni mountain summit, roughly from where we’d come. ‘It’s reached by helicopter. Then you tee off 400m out and down onto a green shaped like Africa’. This was the Legends Golf Estate – a world of golf and cutting edge development.

We were driven around designer residential accommodation and the skeleton of a sophisticated sporting complex, with soccer fields already prepared in the hope that one of the FIFA 2010 finalists would use it as training camp.

The construction of the large estate – which includes a museum within the newly-constructed walls, and a performance amphitheatre – is inspired by the stonework of the 15^th century Monomotapa civilisation. The vision of the lawyer-entrepreneur who started the project had me searching for parallels with Sol Kerzner’s Sun City – and wondering ‘what if’ I’d continued with my legal studies!

Of course we appreciated the lions, rhino and birdlife. And yes, it has the rest of the Big 5, and another time I’d love to search for leopard (apparently the Waterberg has the highest concentration of leopard in the world). But it is Entabeni’s relatively less-visited aspect, and varying ecosystems that we enjoyed most. In its magnificent landscape and associated variety of wildlife and birds – the likes of which you won’t see in places like the Kruger – is the real beauty.

Legends Golf Estate looks like it’s up there with the best of the world’s best championship courses, and although neither Ali nor I wield the club (anymore), it looks like it’ll throw up a firi amount of excitement.

Our nature walk up with Lee on the mountain had been short, but we were seeing the Waterberg with new eyes. As far as destinations go – and let’s face it, South Africa isn’t short of great places to visit – this is a part of the world we’d really like to return to.

This blogpost was submitted by Angus Begg of African Storybook Media.

“People in the USA want to know

that we’ll take them there and,

more importantly, that we’ll

bring them home again.”

So what do you say – is the internet the future of travel?

As much as I believe in the net, I’m not convinced it is – and for a country as beset with problems as ours, it might even be a deterrent.

I was mulling on this today when one of the industry newsletters arrived and pointed me to three different articles that all backed up my developing train of thought – which finally gelled after a chance conversation with an inbound operator.
First – those articles.

In the Sydney Morning Herald, Mark Juddery asked “Booking a holiday: online or travel agent?” – and noted that, while a quarter of all travel bookings worldwide were made on the net, there was also a growing trend back to the travel agent.
For me, these were the pertinent paragraphs:

“A recent Jigsaw Research-Google Travel Study suggests that, however they are reserved, 77 per cent of all trips booked in Australia are at least researched online.
“But another study by the US-based Forrester Research sends another message: a small but growing number of travellers are losing interest in travel sites. The study surveyed 4,634 adults, all of whom use travel sites. Only 46 per cent of respondents say they enjoy booking travel online – down from 53 per cent in 2007.”

In the second article I came across Chris Brogan, who blogged about “The Audacity Of Free.” And here the pertinent paragraphs were: “When you run conferences, everyone wants in for free. It’s understandable. Times are tough and people don’t have as much money. I’m running Inbound Marketing Summit in a few days, and it’s not free.

“Free can be a wonderful thing, and there are some really great things that are (and should be) free. But free is a choice, and it’s not your buyers who decide this, no matter what we like to think in social media kumbaya-ville. Free is beautiful, and costs are part of life.” (This goes to the question of travel agents’ fees. Stick with me, I have a point I’m making here).

Then in Travel Research Online, Chuck Flagg asked, “You want me to give away what?”

“We need to do a better job in communicating the value we offer our clients when we quote our fee. We all got into this business because we LOVE to travel and nearly all of us love to talk. We are story tellers, and in 2010, we should be weaving stories of our travels in as many avenues we can to our clients directly in person or through email; through group presentations; writing in our blogs, Facebook updates or tweets.”

And finally my inbound pal, Robin Mountain (no, really), who runs Ntaba Tours in the USA together with his wife, Stella, said that the biggest constraint they face is the fear that his clients have of Africa in general, and, in our case, of South Africa in particular.

It is, he said, the fact that he is a South African, and speaks with our flat South African accent, that makes the difference for his guests.
In short, they trust him.

“We don’t sell travel in general – we promote only Africa, because that’s where my speciality lies,” he said, quoting the oft-used marketing truism that “People buy from people.”

And that’s when I had my penny-dropping moment: what South African inbound tourism needs are champions and ambassadors – not marketing strategies and PowerPoint presentations. Because, let’s face it, this is Africa – a continent that certainly has a reputation for being, um, unpredictable? – and, as Rob said, “people in the USA want to know that we’ll take them there and, more importantly, that we’ll bring them home again.”

But Rob didn’t get his experience – snap! – just like that. It’s cost him years, dollars, and plenty of rands, and he needs to recoup that investment – which he does by selling his tours. It’s the same for travel agents, of course, and the trend towards paying for specialist time is a positive one, because the world tends to treat free stuff with a certain contempt – so if buyers are paying to be told to go on this safari or stay in that hotel, the chances seem greater that they’ll take the advice.
Rob brought me back to the fact that, in the end, tourism is all about personal networks – perhaps more so than in any other industry today.

“I’m sure there’s room for a lot more people like me when it comes to marketing South Africa,” he said. “Just look at the hunters, who make the effort to come to the shows here in the USA, and to interact with their clients and potential clients.
“It works for them.

“For us, it’s all about allaying people’s fears. I mean, I even had one guest who brought cans of Bully Beef on tour, because she didn’t know if she was going to be properly fed while she was in Africa.

“That’s why the Americans love their cruise liners: because they know what they’re going to get.”

Networking, he said, was his biggest information-gathering tool, but nothing was more important than site visits and the intimate knowledge of the products they impart.

“I’ve found that many South African product owners are greedy from the start, but there are others – particularly people like Bushmanskloof, the Twelve Apostles, and Buffelsdrift, near Oudtshoorn, who really know how to develop relationships with their suppliers, and those are the properties I’ll support every time.”

And so, to the question I posed at the start – is the internet the future of travel? – I’m beginning to believe that the answer is: “No.”

The future of travel is, as it always has been, a mix of professionalism (for which people are – surprise! surprise! – prepared to pay), and one-one-one human interaction.

And that can’t be a bad thing at all, can it?

Martin Hatchuel

Contact Martin at martin@thistourismweek.co.za. This blogpost was taken from www.thistourismweek.co.za.

“Eish. Jisslike. Shooo”

‘The cup runneth over’ syndrome is starting to emerge in South Africa. Tourism operators (SAA included) are seeing dollar signs and doubling and even trebling their rates.

The degree of greed is sickening.

This is certainly not what we should be doing in 2010. We have to bear in mind the long term effect on tourism in South Africa.

Small group independent tour operators, overnight establishments and transport providers must be careful with our country’s heritage, hospitality and tourism showcase. We must all put long term tourism sustainability first – and maximum profits second.

There should be enough room for everybody to share in South Africa’s opportunity. Not merely a chosen few.

There are two important issues to consider when I hear exclamations of: "I can charge double, triple and even more for my products during the World Cup," from product owners who merely see dollar signs before their eyes.

The first important issue is the perception of our country when the international visitor to South Africa starts to plan their trip. The second is the perception that that visitor takes back home with him after the World Cup.

The other side of the coin

Sadly, these perceptions of our country will end up in the hands of a select few. FIFA know all too well that their cup produces huge opportunities and so they tie up the majority of tourism opportunities well before dedicated smaller tourism operators are blinded by dollar signs…

Yet it’s the smaller, dedicated and accredited tourism product owners that truly showcase South Africa’s rich, diverse and rewarding people, places, history and culture.

In packaging South Africa we need to showcase the wonderful personal, professional and experiences that small, independent tourism product owners can. – They provide a logistical framework in which the majority of soccer supporters can get to the game on time.

I have recorded several questionable motivations by the trustees and custodians of South Africa’s future as a long-haul tourism destination.

Custodians of protected spaces (often endangered spaces of great environmental importance) are discarding 100-year-old regulations to accommodate, at the expense of the environment, an expected short-term influx of people. Also they have made very little opportunities available for dedicated service providers that have (and will continue to) support our country’s national parks, beautiful locations, historical significances, ecological diversity and cultural splendour.

For example, simply ask how many dedicated and accredited small tourism and transport providers have been presented with opportunities? Sadly – very few so far.

Instead opportunities are being seen as:

"I heard that they are charging US$350 for one night’s accommodation in newly erected tents (without meals) in the bush. – Eish. Jisslike. Shooo – I think I must buy a tent. $$$$$$$$$$."

"Overnight establishments are preparing to charge double, even triple rates during the World Cup. Eish. Jisslike. Shoo, maybe I must buy a zozo hut. $$$$$$$$$$."

"Some transfer and transport providers are also doubling their rates – Eish. Jisslike. Shoo, maybe I must buy a bakkie. $$$$$$$$$$."

It is my professional decision to enjoy ‘filling up’ my safaris during the World Cup rather than charging rates that are unacceptable. I hope this, as well as a concept called ‘sharing resources’ (basic economic sustainability practices), are going to replace the ‘The cup runneth over’ syndrome. Perhaps the smaller lodges, hostels, guest houses, tour providers and transport providers should get together to ensure their own sustainability?

Here is the problem: not once, as a highly regarded tourism provider of limited, small group safaris in one of our great national heritages, has any one of the contracted ‘bigger players’ approached me to offer a share of the travel opportunities afoot. I will continue to provide a highly regarded product – dedicated in environmental sustainability – during the World Cup. Instead deals are being done that render my product unimportant in lieu of the $ signs.

Sadly this is what is happening to the dedicated tourism community in our country – again excluded by the $ signs in the big player’s eyes.

Please be careful with our cup – it’s precious.

Neil Heron

www.beardedheron.com

This blogpost was submmited from Neil’s own blog Views from the Kruger National Park.

In a place quite far away from anywhere really, through red-rock gorges trapped in fold mountains that speak of the earth’s violent physical history, lies a surprising find. It’s a valley of sorts, home to a many-roomed house of close on Victorian vintage, wrapped in a verandah. Just to the left a few crops are grown in subsistence fashion, tended to by a local family, and horses and sheep are paddocked.

A short walk from the house, past a grove of poplar trees and a river and around a rocky hillside, sits a thatched and rustic Karoo cottage, of polished earth floor and a tiny, cosy kitchen with fireplace. Outside the bedroom is a bath and shower. Up above and around, baboons bark and leopards undoubtedly watch. This is paradise.

I’d been wanting to visit the Baviaanskloof for a long time. It wasn’t an original thought, rather a reaction to a comment made by that legendary South African conservationist, Ian Player, about real wilderness. With so much of the country under cultivation, or populated, – unlike the relatively unstructured Africa to the north – Player feels that wilderness is something we’re a bit short of.

Travelling from Cape Town with my Alison five months pregnant, we were visiting Mountain Zebra National Park (an unheralded gem) in the Eastern Cape, and decided to pop in to the Baviaanskloof (baboon gorge) on the return journey – it’s a long drive. It was Alison, myself and Julian, my 11 year-old stepson.

We had two days, and we wanted beauty, privacy and romance. An odd choice with an 11 yr-old in tow, so we also wanted a place that would keep an 11 year-old city-boy occupied. With the obliging help of Jane, the information officer in the arid Karoo town of Willowmore – the western gateway into what is now known as the Baviaanskloof Mega Reserve – we found a place to stay. It was called Cedar Guest House.

Soon after leaving Willowmore, we were twisting through dramatic kloofs and negotiating tight bends on a decent dirt road. We didn’t see another vehicle (apart from a muddy, red 1980 VW Golf travelling fast, looking a little out of place) en route to the turn-off. At Makkedaats cave, a collection of quite unique accommodation in caves I’d ‘til now only heard of (google it), we branched off the ‘main’ dirt road. Alison spotted a klipsringer, one of my favourite antelope, on the rocks to our left, but as we slowed to a stop it sped off, darting from boulder to boulder on its dainty and pointed hooves. As they do.

That’s the magic of Baviaanskloof. Quiet, unspoilt and wild, with just a handful of places to stay, scattered miles and mountains apart. The sort of place where the night beyond your accommodation is black, where seeing another light is unlikely. Exactly as it was at Cedar. Calling it a Guesthouse is a bit misleading, as it comprises three distinct options; a large Victorian period house, surrounded by immaculate gardens; the Just for Two cottage, an uninspiring but practical name for the gorgeous little place in which we stayed; and the Cob cottages, set against cliffs and built of mud, adobe bricks, strawbales and poplar beams.

An empowerment initiative by Cedar owner Linden Booth, it reflects an unusual attitude in this thoroughly isolated part of the country.

I haven’t met 30-something Linden, but he seems to be on a mission of sorts. A trustee of the ‘Another Way Trust’, he seems determined to change the way things have been done ever since the ‘Kloof was settled; among them putting a stop to the farmers’ persecution of leopards (they have a taste for easily accessible sheep), and encouraging the better treatment of farmworkers.

Paying them a living wage for starters, and providing them with opportunities to better themselves. I’m told he isn’t a popular guy with the established, largely conservative farmers of the region, who one can imagine to be naturally fairly set in their ways.

Cedar Guesthouse is ostensibly self-catering, but staying true to his empowerment initiative, Linden allows Willem Maganie, the farm caretaker, and his wife, Marta Jumat, to run the show (while Linden and his wife Jeanne live in Knysna). From her dining room in the almost designer barn-cum-lounge, adjacent to the pasture where the sheep feed, Marta serves up really good food for those who need a break from self-catering. She keeps the proceeds.

Outside the ‘Kloof, in the late 19th century town of Willowmore, there is a scattering of accommodation establishments, the double-story, late 19th century Willow Guest House being the one we tried (and enjoyed). Immediately on sitting down to coffee and something sweet at Sophie’s Choice coffee shop in town, we started picking up on local stories. More of the gossip variety, it involved the relationship between the owner of the guesthouse and Sophie. But it’s complicated, and someone in the town library tried explaining it to me without success.

So for now I’ll stick to looking for leopards, klipspringers and stories of landowners looking to the needs of their staff. And while tourism grows in this Baviaanskloof MegaReserve, lets hope development is held in check. I’ll work meanwhile at planning a ride through its close on 300km of rare scenic enjoyment, possibly South Africa’s last real wilderness, an area that needs some serious care.

This is an excerpt from AfricanStorybook.com, an initiative of Angus Begg, who recently launched African Storybook Media, operating in the field of print, photography and TV/DVD. Begg believes it’s much more effective to sell a destination through its stories.

This leopard was recently spotted at Tintswalo Safari Lodge located in Mpumalanga Province on the private Manyeleti Reserve concession.

The below was received from Cape Town Tourism last week. Let us know any comments by posting them below or sending them to editor@tourismupdate.co.za.

Dear partners in tourism,

The issue of safety and security in our city is always one of great concern, especially considering the negative impact that a single violent incident can have on Cape Town’s global reputation. Much is being done to prevent incidents and make our streets safer. However, when incidents do occur, there is also a lot that can be done to limit the fall-out.

As an example, I would like to share the details of an incident that occurred on Friday 27 November near our City Centre offices. A young Australian tourist called Grant Mitchell was mugged at gunpoint in Adderley Street at around 2pm. He was directed to our offices in Burg Street and arrived in extreme shock.

The Cape Town Tourism guest relations team of Nicole Moody, Marisah Smith and Inge Dykman snapped into action to implement our proactive Band Aid programme, designed to offer immediate support to travellers who are victims of crime. They took Grant to a quiet place in our offices, gave him a drink and arranged for the police and a counsellor to meet him at our offices. They then asked him what his dream Cape Town experience would be, and arranged a tailor-made tour for him to enjoy on the weekend.

Most of all, they were at his side to offer support, and to highlight that these kinds of incidents are isolated and do not represent the full picture of our destination .

The result is the email, below.

Please share my pride in the sterling efforts of my Guest Relations team.

Regards

LIANNE BURTON

EXECUTIVE MANAGER: MARKETING SERVICES

CAPE TOWN TOURISM

The rains came early to Livingstone this year… and brought with it, little Mayoba!! When the Thorntree River Lodge elephants went out for their elephant back safaris they found “Mayoba” – now one month old.

With all the thunder and lightning Mayoba got confused and in the process got separated from his herd. He was found that morning wandering around the place…

However, when he saw our elephants from Thorntree coming down the road, he ran towards them and instantly became part of the family! Natalie – Assistant Camp Manager for Thorntree gave him this lovely name, and is also taking great care of him!

Well done Natalie and a warm welcome to the delightful Mayoba!

Thanks to the help of the Three Cities Group August 2009 saw the first official Cape Leopard Trust Children’s Camp taking place. The first camp was designed specifically for the grade 4-6 pupils of the Dwarsrivier and Eselbank Primary Schools, based in Cederberg. These young students have been taking part in the Cape Leopard Trust’s educational programme throughout the year, the highlight of which was a greatly anticipated camping trip.

Fourteen very enthusiastic pupils ventured into the unknown world of camping, delighted on arrival to learn that they were the very first group to use the brand new camping equipment. Erecting the tents was the first major challenge for the young campers, none of whom had been camping before. The kids watched closely as they were taken through a brief demonstration on tent erecting. After all the technicalities of set up were complete the next challenge was at hand – the Treasure Hunt. The children needed the knowledge they had acquired in their weekly outings with the Cape Leopard Trust to help assist them, presenting moments of confusion, listlessness, realization, motivation and delight all rolled into one activity. 

From locating the Leopard spot to hiking up to the Wolfberg Cracks, not a moment passed by when the children weren’t enthralled by their surroundings and how much there was to learn in the great outdoors. On completing their afternoon hike, rest was a necessity and a very relaxed second half of the day took place, with an introduction to colour perspective in an art exercise. By all accounts the entire trip was packed with exhilaration and eagerness. When it came time to say farewell nobody could believe the trip was over. The Three Cities Group is proud to have been part of this educational experience and hopes the camps in the future will be just as rewarding and successful as the first. The Funds raised from the October Three Cities golf day will go towards the next sponsored Three Cities camp, which is scheduled to take place in November.