Figures from UN Tourism’s latest World Tourism Barometer indicate a “virtual recovery of pre-pandemic levels” as the African continent welcomed 7% more arrivals in 2024 than in 2019.



United Nations (UN) Tourism estimates that 1.4 billion tourists travelled internationally in 2024, representing an 11% increase compared to 2023. The African continent, in particular, welcomed 12% more arrivals during the same period.



“In 2024, global tourism completed its recovery from the pandemic and, in many places, tourist arrival and specially earnings are already higher than in 2019,” UN Tourism Secretary-General, Zurab Pololikashvili said in a statement.



According to the World Travel &amp; Tourism Council (WTTC), in 2019, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the sector–which includes its direct, indirect, and induced impacts–accounted for 10.4% of global GDP or $10.3 trillion.&nbsp;



In 2023, it reportedly contributed 9.1% to global GDP; an increase of 23.2% from 2022.



In April, WTTC President and CEO, Julia Simpson, said, “The future is very bright. We can predict a record-breaking 2024. The sector’s global economic contribution is set to reach an all-time high of $11.1 trillion, which will generate one in every ten dollars worldwide. The sector is also expected to support nearly 348 million jobs, an increase of 13.6 million jobs on its 2019 record”.



North Africa saw 22% more international arrivals than pre-pandemic numbers with Morocco recording a 35% increase since 2019. The nation surpassed Egypt, with a record 17.4 million visitors in 2024, reportedly meeting the target in its roadmap ahead of schedule.&nbsp;



The country’s Minister of Tourism, Handicrafts and the Social and Solidarity Economy, Fatim-Zahra Ammor was quoted as saying that the performance was “as the result of targeted investment by our government in this sector, which is vital to our country’s economy, and of the constant mobilization of professionals in the sector”.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Morocco is set to host the African Cup of Nations in 2025, further bolstering its growth prospects.



Egypt, according to UN Tourism, recorded a 23% increase in arrivals compared to 2019, followed by Kenya and Tunisia, both on 9%. The Seychelles saw an 8% decrease while South Africa saw a 13% decrease.



Statista indicates that the travel and tourism market in Africa is projected to reach revenue of $25.16 billion by 2025.



However, UN Tourism cautioned that higher transport and accommodation costs, economic factors and geopolitical risks remain the three main challenges that international tourism will face this year.



“Growth is expected to continue throughout 2025, driven by strong demand contributing to the socio-economic development of both mature and emerging destinations,” said Pololikashvili.



“This recalls our immense responsibility as a sector to accelerate transformation, placing people and planet at the center of the development of tourism.”

Morocco, Casablanca, Muhammad V Airport

Tourism Sector Recovers As North Africa Records Strong Performance

The Middle East kingdom is on massive building spree—creating private islands, luxury hotels, theme parks, cruise ports, even a desert ski resort. The question remains: If they build it, who will come? 



Whatever your preconceived notion of Saudi Arabia as a travel destination is, it’s about to be get a major renovation. Imagine Sindalah, for example, a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vision2030.gov.sa/en/projects/sindalah/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">7-star private-island resort</a>&nbsp;with three ultra-luxe resorts, 38 high-end restaurants and multiple superyacht marinas. Or Qiddiya, a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vision2030.gov.sa/en/projects/qiddiya/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">futuristic city</a>&nbsp;of 600,000 people rising from the desert floor, dedicated to e-sports and gaming. How about Trojena, a space-age&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vision2030.gov.sa/en/projects/trojena/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ski resort</a>&nbsp;built above the high desert? Or The Red Sea, a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vision2030.gov.sa/en/projects/the-red-sea/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">vast waterscape</a>&nbsp;of 50 luxury resorts and 8,000 hotel rooms spread across 22 islands in a Maldives-style archipelago—powered entirely by wind and solar energy? Also in the works is The Rig, a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vision2030.gov.sa/en/projects/the-rig/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$5-billion adventure theme park</a>&nbsp;built on an off-shore oil platform. In addition, Saudi Arabia is positioning itself as a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cruisesaudi.com/about#block-ourbusiness" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cruise destination</a>, having recently bought a $300-million ship. Across the Kingdom, new roads, airports, golf courses and cruise terminals are rising from the sand. The map is literally being redrawn in real time.



Then there are all the new hotels, with their thousands of freshly built rooms. The world’s most iconic hospitality companies—Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons, St. Regis, Fairmont, Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt and InterContinental—are falling over themselves to jump into a construction pipeline that’s churning faster than anywhere else in the world. Any one of these projects might momentarily pierce the travel industry’s fleeting attention span. But together, what’s going on in Saudi Arabia simply cannot be ignored.



Indeed, it can be often difficult to visualize the vastness of Saudi Arabia’s physical transformation. Some of the most notable ongoing projects—including Sindalah, the 7-star private island, and Trojena, the improbable desert ski resort—fall within NEOM, a $500-billion built-from-scratch region in northwest Saudi Arabia where the Kingdom is creating new cities, resorts and other developments. At 10,200 square miles and bounded by the Red Sea to the south and the Gulf of Aqaba to the west, it’s roughly the size of Albania.



Bankrolled mainly by the Kingdom’s $700-billion Public Investment Fund (PIF), the idea for NEOM was born out of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vision2030.gov.sa/en/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Vision 2030</a>, Saudi Arabia’s grand plan to shake off its historic reliance on oil and diversify its economy. One the scheme’s pillars involves reinventing the country as a global tourism juggernaut. When first announced in 2016, the Kingdom’s tourism goals seemed fanciful: Attract 100 million foreign and domestic visitors to the country every year and grow tourism’s share of the economy from about 3% to 10%. Oh, and do it all in just 14 years.



That aspiration seemed all the more preposterous given that, in 2016, Saudi Arabia had not yet opened its doors to international leisure travelers. At the time, travel to the Kingdom was almost entirely restricted to three types of people: expatriate workers, those with business visas, and religious pilgrims visiting the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.



Then in 2019,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarabrittanysomerset/2019/09/27/saudi-arabia-opens-its-borders-to-tourists-but-not-cannabis/?sh=2823b4b36924">Saudi Arabia announce</a>d&nbsp;it would provide e-visas and visas on arrival to visitors from 49 countries, including the United States. Among other changes announced at the time: Female visitors would be exempted from wearing an abaya, the traditional and otherwise obligatory head-to-toe robe, in public places and would be allowed to travel without a male companion. Tourists would still be required to dress modestly and Mecca would remain off-limits to non-Muslims.



Since Saudi Arabia opened to the international travel market, the speed and spare-no-expense approach to its transformation has stunned even the most seasoned tourism analysts. “We’re seeing hugely ambitious plans, huge amounts of development,” says Caroline Bremner, head of travel and tourism research at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.euromonitor.com/travel" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Euromonitor International</a>. “Billions, ultimately trillions, worth of dollars being invested in infrastructure and in diversifying their economy.” The World Travel &amp; Tourism Council (WTTC) estimated the Kingdom has already spent $800 billion, and that doesn’t include the massive amounts of foreign investments pouring in.



The pandemic delayed some projects, of course, but rather than scaling back expectations, the Saudis ratcheted up their goal to 150 million annual visitors by 2030. Here’s where semantics come into play. In tourism parlance, a “visitor” is defined as someone who visits a site within the country, which is very different from what Euromonitor deems an “arrival,” someone who makes an overnight stay. (Other organizations sometimes call the latter “tourists.”) Saudi Arabia had over 24 million foreign arrivals in 2023 and will welcome nearly 37 million in 2030, according to Euromonitor projections. “So if each of those 37 million overnight tourists visits three sites, you pretty much have got your 100 million visits,” Bremner says. “Then add on top of that your domestic tourists, and their own set targets are quite achievable.”



A more meaningful measure of success is how much foreigners are expected to spend while in Saudi Arabia. Euromonitor predicts that international tourists will spend $38 billion in 2030. But the total economic impact for Saudi Arabia will be far greater after adding in domestic travelers’ expenditures and the ripple effect of one million new tourism jobs. The WTTC projects that, by 2032, Saudi Arabia’s tourism sector could contribute nearly $169 billion to its GDP, representing 17.1% of the total Saudi economy.



“Remember, they’re building this destination on the ledger, essentially from scratch, for the international market, and they are bringing in the best of the best in terms of the quality of people they’re working with” says Bremner. “I can see that they’ve thought through every single aspect of tourism, from the staff to the product, the brand, the service, the connectivity, the sustainability. So it really does feel like they’re building something for the next century ahead.”



Preparing for the future also means recognizing the seismic shift in what the next generations of global travelers will want. Roughly 90% of young Chinese travelers and 70% of Gen Z travelers in the UK, Australia and India say they are looking to discover new destinations, according to data from&nbsp;<a href="https://research.skift.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Skift Research</a>. In that sense, being the new kid on the tourism block is an enormous plus.



“New generations have a lot more information through social media,” Billy Canellas, head of asset management at NEOM,&nbsp;<a href="https://skift.com/2023/12/22/skift-global-forum-east-video-building-sustainable-luxury-cities/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told conference-goers</a>&nbsp;at the Skift Global Forum East in December. “[Younger travelers] are very well educated about the effects of overtourism in traditional destinations,” he added, noting “a clear tendency towards the eco-friendly and sustainable destinations” and an eagerness to learn about a destination’s “culture and the traditions of diversity.”



“The luxury market is getting more diverse and younger, and it&#8217;s shifting to the emerging markets,” says Bremner, noting that the United Arab Emirates, India and China are all highly appealing to this demographic. “We have this fresh-faced luxury traveler, and it&#8217;s not the traditional older generation of travelers with lots of money. It’s the New World luxury traveler, highly digital, very environmentally conscious, and for whom social impact is important.”



“Make no mistake,” says Geoff Freeman, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, “what Saudi Arabia is doing is they’re identifying who are some of the most important travelers are—the people willing to spend a lot of money on experiences—and asking, How do we go get them?”



There are, of course, many ways for the Saudi grand vision to go sideways. First, there are enormous financial risks inherit in tackling so many giga projects all at once, even for a country with bottomless pockets. “The Saudis are running at 82% public debt compared to government revenue,” Bremner says, noting that official public debt as a percentage of GDP was 23.8% in 2023. Still, it’s all relative. The Kingdom’s debt-to-GDP ratio is nearly double what it was a decade ago, but still quite low compared to other countries. For example, Switzerland’s government debt is 41% of GDP. The U.S. and Canadian governments’ debt is 133% and 106% of GDP, respectively. The U.K.’s debt is 98% of GDP.



Bremner’s biggest concern is hotel overcapacity, which would ultimately suppress prices. “That luxury positioning is going to come under a little bit of erosion, because [the Saudis] are moving so quickly. With that level of supply, it is quite hard to balance,” she says, adding that Euromonitor International’s latest forecast model predicts that the average traveler’s spend will have already dropped by 2030. “Too many hotel rooms that aren’t being filled will drive prices down, so that’s a risk.”



In addition, Saudi Arabia has a persistent PR problem among many would-be travelers, especially those from the West. The Kingdom still has strict laws about drinking and severe restrictions for women, not to mention allegations of human rights abuses and attacks against journalists. In 2021, the U.S.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/andymeek/2021/02/25/the-white-house-is-releasing-a-bombshell-report-about-slain-washington-post-journalist-jamal-khashoggi/?sh=772fad154dcb">officially blamed</a>&nbsp;Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the 2018 murder of&nbsp;Washington Post&nbsp;journalist Jamal Khashoggi.



But any concerns about human rights haven’t stopped multinational corporations from investing in the Kingdom’s grand vision. “For some players, it will be a very important issue, perhaps a complete barrier to entry,” says Bremner. “However, we can see that the majority of luxury hotel brands have already shifted from China and the U.A.E. into Saudi Arabia.”



After all, the international travel market loves nothing more than a shiny, new destination in an emerging market and right now, the Middle East is having a moment. “You have the Middle East in the sort of perfect location,” says Bremner, “just like Turkey—within a five-hour flight of Asia and of Western Europe.”



Even with the start of the Israel-Hamas War last October, the Mideast was nevertheless the fastest-growing tourism region in 2023, with international arrivals 23% above pre-pandemic levels, according to the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.unwto.org/tourism-data/unwto-tourism-recovery-tracker" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">UN World Tourism Organization’s Tourism Recovery Tracker</a>. That’s 35% above the global average, as the rest of the world’s tourism is, on average, still at a 12 point deficit compared to 2019 visitor volume.



While just over three million American tourists visited the region in 2023—making up 12.6% of total outbound U.S. tourists—that’s a massive 39% jump from 2019. And though the Middle East’s portion of American tourists was smaller than those of Europe (40%) and Asia (15.7%) last year, it was the only one of the three regions that has grown since the pandemic.



But Freeman isn’t concerned about Saudi Arabia’s ability to lure large numbers of American tourists. “I&#8217;m worried about them trying to attract Europeans, high-spending Middle Easterners, and Asians, who might have otherwise come and spent their money in the United States,” he says.



After all, Freeman says, international tourism is an increasingly competitive sport where one country’s gain is another’s loss: “What gives us pause,” he says, “is that other nations now realize that travel is a global competition to figure out who can attract the customer.”

Traffic in Riyadh at sunset in Saudi Arabia capital city

Inside Saudi Arabia’s $800 Billion Tourism Moonshot

Dr Preeti Aghalayam, the first woman to lead an IIT, hopes to operate at a scale that is impactful and leverages scientific strengths.



The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM), India’s top-ranked engineering and technology university, is set to open its first international campus in Zanzibar, Tanzania, in October, bringing to the African continent its prestigious, world-renowned legacy and expertise headed by Dr Preeti Aghalayam, also the first woman to lead an IIT.



“We&#8217;ve been looking at what makes sense for us [as an institution] because we are nationally ranked number one [in India], and what are the places where our kind of education and research will find value,” says Aghalayam, the Dean of School of Science &amp; Engineering and Director-in-charge of IITM’s Zanzibar campus, to FORBES AFRICA. “Also, which nation, or which region would find useful what we bring to the table, which is quite different than other institutions, say in the West, or even in India.”



The Zanzibar campus is expected to onboard 50 undergraduate and 20 post-graduate students in October for bachelor’s and master’s degrees in data science and AI. The academic offerings are expected to be expanded in 2024.



After over two years in the Office of Global Engagement at IITM and an over 10-year career teaching at IIT Bombay (in Mumbai, Maharashtra) and IITM (in Chennai, Tamil Nadu), where she was a professor of chemical engineering, Aghalayam was hand-picked to lead the campus, as part of a partnership with the Government of Tanzania. Aghalayam is also a former IITM student and pursued her post-doctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States.



“This whole relationship is at the level of the education ministries of [India and Tanzania] and IIT Madras is a designate of the Government of India,” she adds of the new partnership.



“I believe that Tanzania is also very keen on this, especially in the Zanzibar region, because they are looking to expand their education offerings. Apart from being a tourist destination, they are looking if it can also become an educational destination.”



With a challenging and aggressive timeline to open the campus and build the same institutional reputation, infrastructure, and ecosystem in a new part of the world, Aghalayam is tasked with a difficult feat, but one she is embracing as a seasoned academic and researcher. With scientific rigor and research at the core of her ambitions, she hopes to propel the campus to be both inclusive with more diversity than India sees, but also competitive in nature.



“[We] will offer the type of academic programs that are needed by the young people, not only in Tanzania, but also the larger East African region, at the level of quality that is the IIT hallmark,” says Aghalayam.



“It&#8217;s important for us to operate at a scale that is impactful, makes a difference, leverages our scientific strengths etc., because it helps solve global challenges.”

Preeti Aghalayam, the first woman to lead an IIT_ image supplied

Tourism And Tech In Zanzibar: India’s Top-Ranked IIT To Debut Academic Programs In Africa

For a great many of the 16 million people who work in the $2.6 trillion U.S. tourism industry, getting an accurate assessment of travel demand is akin to finding the Holy Grail. For destination organizations and visitor bureaus at the national, state and local level, pinning down where people want to travel is the key to efficiently managing budgets and spending. Airlines gauge travel demand when deciding where to open new routes. Hotels and other tourism-related businesses use demand forecasting to right-size supply and determine how many employees to hire.



But predicting travel demand has become harder over the past decade, and the Covid-19 pandemic has upended traditional forecasting models that rely on recent historical data.



“I used to be able to close my eyes and tell you, ‘Here’s what we’re going do, and this is our audience,’” says Butch Spyridon, president of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.visitmusiccity.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nashville Convention &amp; Visitors Corporation</a>. “And I can’t do that anymore.”



Today, Spyridon and other U.S. tourism professionals are about to get an eyeful from Google. The technology company is launching&nbsp;<a href="https://travelinsights.withgoogle.com/intl/en/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Travel Insights with Google</a>, a brand new suite of free tools that leverage Google Search data to deliver insights into real-time travel demand.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fspecials-images.forbesimg.com%2Fimageserve%2F60eece71c0c0a16f7b59d7a9%2F0x0.jpg%3Ffit%3Dscale" alt="Google travel trends tool"/><figcaption>Destination Insights lets travel marketers glean quick &#8220;focusing facts&#8221; that highlight major trends.&nbsp;GOOGLE</figcaption></figure>



The first tool,&nbsp;<a href="https://destinationinsights.withgoogle.com/intl/en_ALL/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Destination Insights</a>, gives travel businesses, governments and tourism boards a clear picture of where travel demand is coming from so they can plan accordingly. A second tool,&nbsp;<a href="https://hotelinsights.withgoogle.com/intl/en/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Hotel Insights</a>, has been customized to help hoteliers analyze search trends so they can attract new guests based on where interest is coming from.&nbsp;



“It’s really difficult to find any anchor of data to forecast the future, and so we felt it was a good time right now to share some of our search data with the industry to help travel companies understand what users are looking for. And here’s the kind of queries they’re doing, and here’s the data and information they’re interested in,” says Gianni Marostica, Managing Director of Global Business Development for Google Travel.



Google started piloting the Travel Insights tools last December in the Asian Pacific region, where some destinations were already bouncing back early from Covid-19 and looking for directional data to guide where they should spend marketing dollars.



“The launch is very timely for Vietnam as we are looking at reviving tourism and restructuring destination markets post Covid-19,” says Ha Van Sieu, deputy chairman of&nbsp;<a href="https://vietnamtourism.gov.vn/english/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Vietnam’s tourism organization</a>. “The tool is extremely useful for us to understand domestic, inbound and outbound travel demand based on real-time digital data, and to develop marketing strategies.”



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fspecials-images.forbesimg.com%2Fimageserve%2F60eec53a5c09d5e76d59d7a9%2F0x0.jpg%3Ffit%3Dscale" alt="travel trend data Google"/><figcaption>Which destinations are growing in popularity? Destination Insights pulls data from Google Search.&nbsp;GOOGLE</figcaption></figure>



During the initial six-month pilot in Asia, Google received valuable feedback from the governments and travel organizations that test-drove the new tool. “They provided some great insights as to some additional data or different cuts of data that we should have in the tool,” says Marostica. “And hopefully now, moving forward, as we roll this out in the U.S., we’ll get even more insights and maybe do different cuts of data based on what U.S.-based users would like to see.”



As chairman of the board for&nbsp;<a href="https://destinationsinternational.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Destinations International</a>, a trade group representing over 650 destination organizations, convention and visitors bureaus and tourism boards worldwide,&nbsp;Spyridon helped forge a partnership with Google.&nbsp;Now he can’t wait to use Travel Insights to glean insights into where travel demand is strongest for Nashville.



The Music City’s $10 billion tourism industry has traditionally relied on a heavy leisure drive market, says Spyridon, but in recent years it&#8217;s become almost impossible to get a handle on where demand is most concentrated. “The whole country has become our market in the last 10 years. Now it&#8217;s 50-50 fly-drive and just as strong West Coast and Northeast as it is Atlanta,” he says. “That&#8217;s good news for us. But it&#8217;s also hard to retarget that audience.”



Spyridon says his biggest obstacle has been a lack of good intel. “By the time we look at, the data is weeks, months and in some cases, a year old,” says Spyridon. “Putting our arms around current real-time data, we have never had that opportunity.”



The destination tool offers quick insights such as “fastest growing destination globally,” “country with the most inbound interest” and “top city in demand.” Marketers can dive deeper into each data set, and toggle the date range to see how that changes results.



Spyridon sees today’s launch is a game changer for travel marketers. “Google is the best in the business for gathering this data,” he says. “This is the best, most accurate and most real-time data that we will have access to. It will allow us to understand the search trends and meet the demand more effectively and be more current.”



“Responsibly reinvigorating the tourism sector will take ingenuity and effort across the industry,” writes Marostica on <a href="https://www.blog.google/products/ads-commerce/tools-partnerships-help-travel-recover-thrive/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Google’s blog</a>. “As we make progress toward recovery, we’ll continue to seek to find new ways to support the global travel and tourism sector by sharing data and insights that can help the industry rebound.”



By Suzanne Rowan Kelleher, Forbes Staff

Man walking with suitcase at airport terminal

Google Just Unlocked The Mysteries Of Travel Demand—And The Tourism Industry Can’t Wait To Have At It

A tourist magnet, this small town in South Africa faces its own Covid-19 crisis, but the outdoors still entice. 



In the northeastern region of South Africa, nestled in the verdant Mpumalanga province is a capital city named Nelspruit, now known as Mbombela, a stunning and popular getaway for city-dwellers and tourists from other parts of the country.



Personal reasons took me to Mbombela recently, with special permission to move between provinces. And in the current pandemic, with no tourists flocking to the town to admire its iconic scenery or engage with the friendly locals, I had all the time and space to soak it in and capture it all on camera.



I arrived here around noon by road from Soweto, the vibrant township where I reside, 371kms away in Johannesburg.



Mpumalanga was warm in comparison with the wintry Gauteng province, which Soweto is a part of.



Although in the same country, the two provinces have many obvious differences, but the conversations and concerns around the coronavirus pandemic were the same, when I was there.



Despite Mpumalanga recording lower infection rates – and hardly any power cuts as in Gauteng – the face-mask was a common motif here too, from the petrol stations to the parking lots.



An old family friend came to pick me up in a small town called White River. He had arranged a safe place for me to rest and work in at the Kabokweni township, where he resides. The driving was different. I am used to Johannesburg’s beautiful tarred roads but this time, I was up in the bumpy mountains in my 1.4-liter car. I was worried because the locals were speeding up and down and I had to be extra-careful as I negotiated my way up to my place of stay.



I was now settled and able to respond to work emails, make calls and even sample the province’s tap water (although I prefer the water in Johannesburg). The next morning, it was back to business. I was up early like any professional photographer to catch the early rays of the Mpumalanga sun. It was enchanting. My friend and I wore our masks and gloves and topped our hand-sanitizers. We walked down the hill and the first stop was at the local eatery where women were rustling up African cuisine on the side of the road. They could tell I was not a resident because of my accent, but didn’t mind me photographing them. 



About a kilometer down the road, was a church that I had spotted enroute to my accommodation the previous day. I was intrigued by the architecture of this Lutheran Church.&nbsp;



As we continued walking and admiring the landscape, keeping clear of speeding cars, I also spotted a mosque on the horizon, and couldn’t leave without capturing it. We walked up to it and spoke to the caretaker about how they were practising social distancing here.



On our way back, I heard that 13 nurses had tested Covid-19 positive at the local clinic, so the town’s inhabitants had started taking the virus seriously. However, I did discover the face-mask-and-social-distancing rules were being flouted considerably at the shopping malls.



Well before my return to Johannesburg, I had picked up and could now speak a new language: siSwati (Bantu language spoken in eSwatini and South Africa by the Swazi people). I was fascinated by how the locals spoke it and I didn’t really care about what they were saying to me; I just wanted them to keep talking. I have since become a new convert to tuning in to siSwati news on the telly every day, still enthralled by how much a small town can teach fast-paced city-dwellers like me.

MIP_6327

The Road Trip To Mbombela

Meet the women challenging stereotypes deep in the bush in Botswana’s
tourism capital Maun, filling roles conventionally held by men.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



For 10 years, until 2018, Botswana had no First Lady, as President Ian Khama was unmarried. Botswana’s first First Lady, Ruth Williams Khama, the wife of Botswana’s first president Sir Seretse Khama, was recognized for her charitable work with women, and the current First Lady, Neo Masisi, is a champion for these causes too.



 However, Masisi is also an accountant by profession with an MBA and an impressive resume (United Nations Headquarters in New York, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in the Central African Republic). 



But not just on the frontlines, in the deeper realms of this southern African country and acclaimed tourism destination, there are more women defying stereotypes, especially in its famed safari industry. 



READ MORE | <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Bogolo Joy Kenewendo: Dismiss This Beautiful Continent At Your Own Peril (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2019/03/28/dismiss-this-beautiful-continent-at-your-own-peril/" target="_blank">Bogolo Joy Kenewendo: Dismiss This Beautiful Continent At Your Own Peril</a>



In
the country’s tourism capital of Maun, at Kwando Safaris, guests visiting the
iconic Okavango Delta waterways and predator plains of the Central Kalahari
might be surprised to discover that for over a decade, a majority team of women
have been behind the operation. 



“Having
so many women work in the company was never a policy; it just happened that
way. I guess that women were just more capable,” says Sue Smart in her office
in Maun. 



She talks about her role as the Director of Kwando Safaris for 12 years as an accidental occupation, but a gutsy corporate background primed her for the head position. 



“Coming
to Gaborone as a volunteer, I worked with children impacted by HIV/AIDS. Then I
visited the Okavango Delta on holiday. A chain of life events eventually led to
me working at Kwando Safaris’ Kwara Camp, volunteering back of house, in the
kitchen, with housekeeping – anywhere they needed it.”



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Ungwang-Makuluba-Moremi-Air-1-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-41513" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Ungwang-Makuluba-Moremi-Air-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Ungwang-Makuluba-Moremi-Air-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Ungwang-Makuluba-Moremi-Air-1-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Ungwang-Makuluba-Moremi-Air-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Ungwang-Makuluba-Moremi-Air-1.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>Ungwang Makuluba is Moremi Air&#8217;s first local female pilot. Picture: Melanie Van Zyl </figcaption></figure>



Formerly
a Director at PricewaterhouseCoopers, with a background in environmental
biology, it was a chance meeting with the owner that saw her grow from
volunteer to boss in just three months. “In many ways, I was not a conventional
fit for this role. I’m not African, a pilot, a guide, or a man, but my
background in other areas meant I could run a business – even in the bush.” 



Having
a woman at the helm has had significant side effects for the company. Many
women at Kwando Safaris hold high positions, from the general manager to
operations manager to those in reservations to sales and marketing. This
unofficial head office policy also extends into the camps in a formal staff
management plan, where each lodge has a male and a female camp manager always
on duty.&nbsp; 



Looking
at the origins of tourism in Botswana, it’s perhaps not surprising that
(generally speaking) travel in southern Africa has been a male-dominated
industry. After all, the very first visitors to Botswana’s wild spaces were
rough and tough gun-slinging, trophy-seeking tourists. 



The current CEO of Botswana Tourism is a woman and, attesting to the country’s progressiveness, she’s not the first either. Myra Sekgororoane is encouraging about women in the industry saying, “I have not encountered any significant challenges because of my gender. Perhaps, I have been lucky in that the hospitality and tourism industry tends to have a high predominance of females globally.” 



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According
to National Geographic, research shows working women in developing
countries invest 90% of their income in their families, compared to the 35%
generally contributed by men. 



Tumie
Matlhware and Ruth Stewart, managers for Travel For Impact, wholeheartedly
agree. The Maun-based NGO aims to spread the wealth generated from tourism
activities into the community, providing a direct and tangible link between
conservation and its benefits. 



“We
want tourism dollars working beyond the traditional tourism world,” says
Stewart, when we meet for coffee at the charming Tshilli Farmstall, another
female-run establishment in Maun. 



Travel For Impact has a powerful goal, with the slogan of “If every tourist who slept in our beautiful country paid 1 USD for every night they spent here, we would raise in excess of 300,000 USD per year”. 



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">By partnering with exclusive lodges, camps, tour operators and hotels in Botswana, funds generated are put into local community partners, such as support for basket-weaving cooperatives. Looking at the company profile, the NGO funds many projects that support women. </blockquote>



Stewart shares the scientific standpoint endorsed by National Geographic, saying: “Women are the backbone of the community. If you support women, it gets passed down. They buy food, school supplies and more. They are the pillars of society.”&nbsp; 



The corporate social responsibility choice at Kwando Safaris concurs. Smart believes that “the ultimate saviors of animals are people, which is why we sponsor the grassroots initiative, Mummy’s Angels, instead of a more usual conservation project”. 



Mummy’s
Angels started in April 2018, spearheaded by three women in Maun, to empower
mothers with newborns who have little by way of financial support. 



“We
had second-hand clothes and other baby items in good condition and wanted to
donate somewhere it would make a difference,” says one founder, Rochelle Katz. 







<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Mokoro-Sophie-and-Nora-15-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-41512" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Mokoro-Sophie-and-Nora-15-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Mokoro-Sophie-and-Nora-15-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Mokoro-Sophie-and-Nora-15-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Mokoro-Sophie-and-Nora-15-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Mokoro-Sophie-and-Nora-15.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>Poling visitors through the Okovango Delta. Picture: Melanie Van Zyl</figcaption></figure></div>



Thus,
they put the word out and soon began delivering baby bags stocked with
essentials, such as nappies, clothes and wipes, plus pyjamas for the mothers. 



“Items
that seem so indispensable to us count as luxuries to these moms. Women come
from as far as Ghanzi to give birth in Maun, often they have very little with
them, or the moms are young without work or funds to support a family,” says
Katz on a visit to the maternity wing at Ngami District Health Management Team.




“Luckily,
there is no one in need today,” a nurse smiles, as Katz walks in. The local
Maun hospital certainly approves of the initiative, which is driven by need
rather than imposed, and the nurses on duty identify mothers that can benefit
from the meaningful baby bags. 



Speaking
of children, Bontekanye ‘Bonty’ Botumile is a research student based in Maun
specializing in oral traditions and land use. She is also a prolific
story-teller. 



“I
come from a family of story-tellers, and I think maybe because I don’t have
children, I needed a channel for my stories. I created books such as Tlou
the Elephant to share what I’ve learned and to pass on the teachings I
learned at home.” 



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She
believes that women are predominantly custodians of culture, passing it onto to
children in diverse ways that include story-telling. “My challenge isn’t so
much a gender issue, but a sector issue. Carving a niche is hard work. I am
trying to develop cultural tourism in a destination renowned for wildlife. It’s
a steep incline on many levels.” She is also an inspiration for others. 



“If
it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t have joined the tourism industry,” says Wabone
Temane. Hailing from Moeti Ward in Maun, Temane is the current camp manager for
Pom Pom Camp, a luxury stay in the Okavango. She’s been in tourism for almost
20 years but admits to some gender-based challenges. 



“As
a female manager, I come across people who do not want to be supervised by a
woman. They are afraid of change and do not accept criticism easily. They can
even change the whole working environment since they are full of negativity and
very influential on the other staff. It’s very disrespectful at times.”
However, there is strength in numbers. 



“Bontekanye
‘Bonty’ Botumile is my inspiration in the tourism industry. She has always been
very supportive and encouraging – a sister, indeed,” she adds.&nbsp; 



Camps
such as Pom Pom are famed for its forward-thinking environmental policies and
sustainability, but the crucial means to access and experience Botswana’s
remote landscapes is to fly in.&nbsp; 



Ungwang
Makuluba is Moremi Air’s first local female pilot. “About 20 pilots in Maun are
female, and I think 12 of us are locals too,” she says, when we meet at the
Maun Airport. 



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Mokoro-Sophie-and-Nora-14-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-41514" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Mokoro-Sophie-and-Nora-14-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Mokoro-Sophie-and-Nora-14-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Mokoro-Sophie-and-Nora-14-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Mokoro-Sophie-and-Nora-14-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Mokoro-Sophie-and-Nora-14.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>A mokoro is one of Botswana&#8217;s most iconic travel offerings. Picture: Melanie Van Zyl </figcaption></figure>



“The
guys I’ve worked with have been very supportive, and I’ve learned so much from
them. I think we are past the stage of flying being a male-dominated industry
and there’s been gradual change. I want to work for Air Botswana. It’s great
flying across the Delta, but I want to work for my country.”



The
General Manager of Moremi Air, Kelly Serole, has been in charge for over 10
years, reinforcing the notion that women are not new to the safari scene. 



From
the sky to the soil, two more women demonstrate this on the ground. Floating
through on the waters of the Okavango Delta in a mokoro (a traditional
dugout canoe) has to be one of Botswana’s most iconic travel offerings, yet, at
many high-end lodges, you’ll find its a male guide that steers guests between
the tall reeds and yellow-centered waterlilies. 



The
Okavango Kopano Mokoro Community Trust (OKMCT) early on saw the need to include
women in their operations. On an overnight trip facilitated by Delta Rain,
Sophie Kehemetswe and Nora Tsaru, pole visitors through the UNESCO World
Heritage Site waters of the Okavango Delta. 



“More
women are poling the rivers now than men; there are many women,” the two agree
when asked about the gender split. 



“It
can be difficult to get the guiding license though. I studied for a month,
which includes a written test and interview. Some old women in the village
cannot write,” says Kehemetswe, as she gently poles between the swishing reeds.




A
community-run operation, the OKMCT operates in six villages at the southern
access points to the Delta, namely Ditshuping, Boro, Xharaxao, Xuoxao, Daunara
and Xaxaba. This safari offering started back in 1997, and a visit to head
office reveals that women were included in the operation as early as 1998 – just one year into
business. 



“I can
lead walks on the islands as well. I much prefer walks to the canoeing and
seeing zebra is my favorite – that is our national animal. Do you know why? The
zebra is black and white reflecting our history. Sir Seretse Khama, a black
man, married Ruth Williams, a white woman. All people are welcome in Botswana,”
she smiles proudly. The
country’s two First Ladies can be proud. &nbsp;



Meet the women challenging stereotypes deep in the bush in Botswana’s tourism capital Maun, filling roles conventionally held by men.



&#8211;Melanie Van Zyl

Mokoro – Sophie and Nora-12

No Longer In The Wilderness

Private jets, elite lodges, haute cuisine and watching the
perfect sunset – luxury safaris and bespoke experiences can cost anything from
$20,000 to $350,000.&nbsp; 



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



My greatest experience was standing in the Makgadikgadi salt
pan in Botswana, which, as far as you can see in all directions is absolutely
flat and white. Then the sun goes down. All of us have seen beautiful sunsets,
and then there’s the glow and all of us have seen that. But then, there’s a
kind of… grey pause. And then, the real sunset begins. It lasts for 35-40
minutes. The entire sky starts changing color and then the sun is long gone.
But the sky lights up with all these fabulous colors that keep shifting all the
way around you. We watched it every night,” says Christopher Beach, an American
tourist describing a moment on his R3 million ($208,700) tour around southern
Africa in May 2018. 



This trip – a bucket list-adventure for the group of six
friends and partners – was guided by tour company Luxury Africa Destination Management.




A 19-day excursion, this one-of-a-kind experience included
private planes, luxury lodges and a full immersion in the sweeping landscapes
of South Africa, Botswana and Namibia. 



How is ‘luxury’ defined? 



Is it a five-star stay at the Ritz-Carlton in New York, or a
meal from a top chef at an elite restaurant? 



For many top-tier, elite travelers today, ‘luxury’ isn’t
about caviar and diamond-encrusted cutlery. 



‘Luxury’ in travel has changed from a garish display of
wealth to one about experiences, privacy, and unique memories all bundled into
one bespoke package. 



As Angama Mara Lodge co-founder, Nicky Fitzgerald, with
decades of experience in decadent travel and top-tier lodges in southern
Africa, explains: “There are different opinions of luxury. In the end, the
stuff is just the stuff, and if you have enough money, anyone can have gold
cups or build a beautiful lodge. But experiencing good game is unique, and
having a talented guide and caring staff take the experience out of the
ordinary. Luxury is bespoke care for each person. Luxury for the super-elite is
watching the perfect sunset, and seeing the Milky Way from bed.”



The sunset on the Makgadikgadi salt pan in Botswana was such
a luxury experience for Beach. 



“It is more than a poetic experience. It’s a life-changing
experience,” he says. 



A regular traveler, he is the retired President and Artistic
Director of the La Jolla Music Society in San Diego. For over 40 years now, he
and his partner have traveled annually to Venice. A few years ago, Beach and
his sister went on National Geographic’s 24-day ‘Around the World by Private
Jet’ trip (costing a minimum of $82,950 per person and including destinations
like Easter Island and Marrakesh). “[My partner and I] say to everyone – people
know that we’ve spent 40 years traveling and we say to everybody – you have to
trust us. [A trip to southern Africa] is the most transcendent travel
experience of your life. I went on the National Geographic ‘Around The World By
Private Plane’ trip a couple of years ago and it was great and it was
first-class and all of that&#8230; But going on a safari exceeded anything we’ve
ever experienced.”



According to Virtuoso’s annual Luxe Report, a luxury trip
advisory service, “the desire for unspoiled natural beauty is continuing to
motivate travelers”. 



Their 2018 forecast listed Africa as one of the top five
must-take trips. They said in the report: “From culturally-rich South Africa,
which is also 2018’s top adventure destination, to the wilds of Botswana and
Kenya, and to the souks of Morocco, Africa is one of the world’s most diverse
continents. Virtuoso’s advisors say a safari is an integral part of the African
experience, particularly with wildlife preservation a priority for today’s
sustainably-savvy travelers.” 



Though Beach doesn’t consider himself ‘rich’, his trip on
the continent was certainly in the upper echelons of tourist budgets pouring
into the continent. 



As the Southern and East African Tourism Update website
writes: “Millionaire tourism in Africa has been on the rise for several years.
In 2016, a study by a Johannesburg-based research institution found that in a
period of 12 months, around 43,000 individuals with net assets of $10 million
or more visited the continent for a holiday.” 



Stats SA backs up the importance of all tourism in South
Africa: “The tourism sector directly contributed 2.9% to South African gross
domestic product (GDP) in 2016.” 



The lure of the bush and a chance to experience a complete
immersion in landscapes unseen in the West, not to mention close encounters
with animals, are hugely appealing to international visitors. Says founder of
Famba Famba Tour Design Specialists, and winner of Gauteng’s Lilizela tourism
award, Valentino Meirroti: “The tourism industry is growing. There is a growing
market for luxury travel as air travel becomes cheaper worldwide. The
super-wealthy are spending less money on material things and more on unique
experiences.” 



The private villas, the haute cuisine, the sundowners, and
the private jets aren’t the draw cards for the super-elite traveler, Meirroti
explains. The biggest appeal for these luxury tourists is the chance to
experience the raw beauty and these special moments in relative privacy. 



Angama Mara Lodge, a 30-sleeper villa is perched on a hill
overlooking Kenya’s Maasai Mara, with these needs in mind. In peak season,
during one of the world’s most phenomenal sightings – the Great Migration –
guests will pay $1,650 per night per person. The lodge’s co-founder Fitzgerald,
describes: “We have a heart-stopping view from our position over the valley.
We’re absolutely packed in high season. We’re very, very high-end and visitors
find that visiting us on a safari tour and witnessing the Great Migration at
such close quarters is a huge highlight.” 



Beach describes it as well: “This is like being on earth
millions of years ago in the garden of Eden. You are invisible in your jeep.
The animals ignore you. They are acclimatized to you. You’re not a threat,
you’re not something to eat.” 



Patrick Siebel, founder of Luxury Africa Destination
Management, has a whole business built around creating bespoke, luxury tours. 



Most people using his services spend a minimum of R300,000
($20,877) for two weeks, but on his most opulent trip, six people spent R5
million ($348,000) on a 15-day trip. He says he has serviced, amongst others,
Russian oligarchs, American businessmen and CEOs, and super-wealthy families. 



Says Siebel: “Last year, I had a guy, he wasn’t even
planning to visit South Africa I guess. But he had a super yacht with the
tallest mast in the world. While he was here having their main sail fitted on,
he ended up going up to Johannesburg and bought a whole safari camp.
Fascinating people.” 



This type of travel is also falling into the enlarging
wellness travel industry. 



This billion-dollar section of luxury travel feeds another,
equally important part of the luxury traveler’s needs – relaxation and
enrichment. 



Skift quotes Joss Kent, CEO of andBeyond: “Health and
wellness are an increasingly larger part of travel, but these can mean
different things to different people. We’re seeing that guests are traveling,
not to escape their daily lives, but to enrich them.” 



Fitzgerald agrees: “It seems outrageous but people who like
luxury travel have more of an issue with time than money. Some guests have no
clue what they paid for their accommodation. There is so much money for people
to do beautiful travel.” 



Meirroti adds: “Our guests appreciate exclusivity, and a
combination of complete relaxation while having a unique experience. People are
happy to spend money for a bespoke experience that is well-organized and guided
by knowledgeable guides.” 



Perhaps Beach says it best: “When I travel to Africa, I want a place that is private, private, private, and you walk out in the morning and you are the only person in the world looking out over a vast horizon. It feels like you’re in Discovery Channel. And though African safari costs are some of the most expensive trips I take over the world, they are life-changing.”



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Samantha Steele  </li></ul>

Kenya, Rift Valley Province, Maasai Mara, umbrella thorn acacia at sunset

The Rise Of Millionaire Tourism

KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa is not just azure seas and white beaches. It is increasingly drawing business and the MICE sector to its sunny coast, says Sonto Mayise. 

The KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province of South Africa offers a breath-taking vignette of visuals, ranging from the majestic mountains to the azure sea and white beaches. But it also boasts convention centers that bring travelers from the rest of Africa and beyond. Sonto Mayise, the Acting Chief of the Convention Bureau, says you can have the views, the world-class hotels and state-of-the-art conference centers but they mean nothing without the warmth of the people. She tells us how business tourism is growing in KZN and its coastal city Durban:
What are the main attractions in Durban at this moment?
It comes down to what you see when you land. The beauty of our people in the Zulu Kingdom takes it all. You come in and people smile at you, they are welcoming. It is an attraction of its own. It’s the first-hand experience you give a traveler that will make a lasting impression.
How are you attracting business to KZN? 
I see my mandate in terms of going after events and bringing conferences, meetings and exhibitions to destination Durban and KZN; over and above the mandate of bidding for events, of making sure that you give all the support required, you need to make sure you create relationships and that you maintain and nurture them as well.
What are the trends you have noticed in terms of tourism in general in KZN? 
There is a shift in terms of people knowing about Durban as a [leisure] destination. The ICC in Durban is rated as the leading convention center in Africa. We say as a gateway, as Durban, we have what you need in terms of hosting big events. I’ve picked up that people always come as business tourists and a few months down the line or in a year, they come back as tourists. It is like killing two birds with one stone.
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How does the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions) industry here compare with Cape Town, Gauteng and the rest of Africa? 
Internationally, people think of Cape Town and Gauteng as ideal provinces to bring business to and often ask where Durban is. We work twice as hard in promoting Durban as a gateway. We are not only promoting Durban but the KZN province as a gateway. We are still in a space where we compete with Cape Town; in instances, it will be leading in conferences, but in terms of delegate numbers, Durban will always be the highest. More and more people are having big conferences in Durban. We can name the World Economic Forum we hosted in 2016, the AIDS conference which was the biggest in 2016 and the BRICS Business Council we just hosted.
What are the top business sectors Durban attracts? 
This is about creating relationships more than anything else. That is part of the mandate for bidding for events. This is confirmation that I am doing something right in the industry. They can see the best that we are doing in KZN and now we are taking the FORBES WOMAN AFRICA Leading Women Summit to Durban [in 2019]. There is much that still needs to be done so we can change and also empower our black people and young women in the MICE industry.
How has the maritime industry developed in recent years? 
The moment you grow the maritime sector, the more you grow the business events sector. We have one of the biggest ports in Durban so when people want an event in the cargo space, they can’t go to Johannesburg or Cape Town. They need to go to Durban and they can only do that if we grow the sector as a maritime destination.

SontoMAyise_GL

Where Conferences Meet The Coast

The Java House café at The Village mall in Kampala is teeming with customers as smiling waiters serve coffee as hot as the afternoon mercury.
Amos Wekesa, who has run two of Uganda’s most successful tour companies, Great Lakes Safaris and Uganda Lodges, for the last 16 years, is here with friends, chilling in military style shorts and a t-shirt with the words ‘I&#8217;m So Uganda’ on it. Within minutes of speaking with him, it’s clear he is a walking-talking ambassador of his country.
“I have never boarded a plane in the last 10 years without ‘Uganda’ on my chest,” says the amiable 44-year-old. “I encourage every Ugandan to do the same. No one can talk about Uganda better than Ugandans, and everyone should help spread the message.”
With an annual income of $6 million from his companies, Wekesa says he has been fortunate, but has had to work extremely hard. The day we meet is his first day off in four weeks – he started it by running 10 kilometers and slept through the rest of it before heading to Java House.
The whole café seems to know him – customers and staff stop by his table to shake hands and ask about his most recent mountain expedition or his next trip across the Nile.
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Wekesa, born into a family of smugglers in Lwakhakha on the border of Uganda and Kenya, says this is a world away from the life of penury he knew growing up in the 70s. Daily provisions were scarce and from the age of seven, Wekesa would smuggle rations like sugar and coffee from across the border to sell illegally in Uganda, sleeping with his many siblings in thatched houses that leaked. He never went to school until the age of 10, or even wore a pair of shoes until much after.
“The day of a hungry man is an extremely long day. If hunger can’t inspire you, then nothing in life can. And I was hungry for success,” says Wekesa.
Today, he owns properties across Uganda and hopes to build a five-star hotel in Entebbe before he turns 50. He already has two-and-a-half acres of land allotted for this purpose.
Every year, through his companies, he also helps an increasing number of Indians – forced to flee Uganda to the United Kingdom during Idi Amin’s regime – return and re-settle in Uganda.
“Most of them were young and angry when they left in 1972, but are happy to see the changes in the Uganda of today,” says Wekesa, who helps reconnect them with the friends, colleagues and homes their families left behind. By 2022, Wekesa says he aims to “have 5,000 of them returning”.
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The tourism industry helped Wekesa find himself. Until age 28, he did odd jobs – starting out as a sweeper earning less than $5 a month – but his experience as a small-time tour guide led him to save $200 to open his first business, Great Lakes Safaris.
“Uganda is the most diverse country in the world. There’s no other that has as many fresh water bodies… and then the great climate and fertile soil.”
Although Wekesa believes tourism in Uganda has “not yet begun”, he sees a lot of hope as the government knows its potential as a good driver of the economy. Forever the optimist, he says tourism has the capacity to generate as much as $12 billion a year.
The father of three is also a lover of sport, having played competitive tennis “until about five years ago”.
“Competence in sport helps you make better judgments in life. You have to fight for your position and that’s what a businessman does. It helps you understand teamwork.”
He encourages his children to play sport but admits they will never understand the hardship of his childhood.
“My mother is still alive,” says Wekesa, “but cries every time she sees me, as when I was a baby, because of the poverty, she had wanted to kill me but stopped herself when she had a dream one night and somebody told her, ‘don’t touch that child’!”
Luckily for Uganda she didn’t.

‘If Hunger Can’t Inspire You, Nothing Can’

It is perfectly possible to be in Mauritius and not see a spot of sea.
As a business traveler, if you are staying in any one of the upscale business hotels in the central business district of Ebene, where most men in sharp suits ponder the fate of the island as a gateway to Africa, the white sandy beaches and rhythmic Sega dances in the charming fishing villages are but a distant laidback dream.
This is an economy working overtime, with a new ambitious government and a population weaning off idyllic vistas of just the surf, sand and sea, and wanting much, much more – quicker.
“This country got rich too soon,” says Sattar Hajee Abdoula, CEO and Head of Taxation and Advisory Services at Grant Thornton in Mauritius. “So everyone is aspiring to be rich.”
We are driving back in Abdoula’s white Mercedes convertible after a sumptuous three-course dinner in the plush, green, valley-facing home of one of Mauritius’ most-successful senior bankers.
“The mind-set has totally changed in the country,” says Abdoula matter-of-factly, pulling into the driveway of the classy Hennessy Park Hotel in Ebene Cybercity where a room can cost up to $220 a night.
It’s Friday night, and the hotel’s parking lot is packed to the rafters. The swanky customers and swarthy bouncers are all headed to the swish Backstage Lounge Bar in the hotel’s ground floor that has at its entrance an arty installation of a collage of inverted guitars, and once you walk in, meandering hallways that lead to live music and the bar, where hordes of young men in leather jackets and women in lacy tank tops writhe in unison on the dance floor.
Somewhere in the distance, away from the island’s commercial heart, the high tide and the moon, resembling a nail in the sky, succumb to nature’s chorus, as the fierce waves lash on to the shores of this green island in the Indian Ocean.
The land once home to the dodo is a biodiversity hotspot. You hear inspiring stories of people moving to organic farming and the growing prevalence of permaculture; even tales of the pink pigeon that has been heroically saved from extinction. Everywhere you look, swaying sugarcane plantations, and the sweet smell of money.
There is a profusion of green on land and blue in the ocean: and both economies are being revamped by the country’s scientist-president, Ameenah Gurib-Fakim.
The natural resources of Mauritius were a big draw card for CIDP, which runs a sophisticated facility here for high-performance research and clinical trials, sourcing active ingredients for pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies around the world.
“Mauritius is the hotspot for diversity, with a multi-ethnic population we can access for trials,” says Claire Blazy-Jauzac, Group Managing Director of CIDP.
The island is a rich repository of fauna and flora known for several indigenous species – and not just the extinct dodo. Its farming practises are rated among the best in Africa.
“Africa is lanes and streets and cities behind Mauritius when it comes to agricultural practices,” says MD Ramesh, President and Regional Head South and East Africa for Olam, Africa’s leading agri-business.
“Mauritius has a great talent for agriculture and is far better than most of Africa.”
Durban-based Ramesh says he is seriously considering moving to Mauritius when he retires and is actively seeking a Mauritius passport.
Visitors to Mauritius’ gleaming new airport terminals will see the first signs of a country prospering from tourism dollars. For those seeking retirement, the climate – both political and weather – is conducive, says Ramesh.
To most, the tax haven is a haven for more reasons than one, including the comfortable lifestyle it offers, access to amenities and most importantly, the fresh seafood. The juicy prawn curry and rice in any of the eateries in the village of Moka, called the heart of the island, is worth arriving in the country for.
You also can’t miss the bounties of the land. Robert Gordon-Gentil converted a sugarcane field into a thriving restaurant business 15 years ago. Chez Tante Athalie at Pamplemousses in Grand Baie serves authentic Creole cuisine on weekdays for lunch. In its front yard are hulking trees Gordon-Gentil planted with his own hands when they first started; he sources all his ingredients for the restaurant from this garden. Here, he also displays his collection of vintage cars. The foreigners and diners love the assortment of cars and cuisine. Occasionally, Gordon-Gentil also drives his old cars to town, making sure they don’t stutter to a stop on the way.
Surprisingly for a small island-nation of 1.3 million people, peak-time traffic on the arterial roads, especially in Port Louis, is a nightmare. It’s best to set aside enough time to traverse between different parts of the island that the locals categorize simply as East, West, South and North. Also watch out for stray dogs that are rampant and a serious problem in Mauritius.
Getting around is expensive.
“Mauritius presents a real business case for Uber,” says 26-year-old freelance photographer Keshawve Jeewon, who runs his company GrandMoments, offering photography and videography services by the picturesque mountains of Flacq district.
He drives his dad’s old Ford pick-up truck when scouring the island for work, but owns an Audi A4 sedan for his social sojourns.
“An Uber-like service should be started as soon as possible. Someone will get rich very soon,” says Jeewon, almost as if he had been toying with the idea himself.
In the distance, as we drive past verdant Verdun, he symbolically points to Mauritius’ second-highest mountain named Pieter Both, characterized by a rocky formation at the top resembling a human head, in thought.
It’s in contemplative mode looking for new horizons of opportunity, like young Jeewon, and the country itself.

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The Sweet Smell Of Money, Sans The Sea

It was not narcissism that saw Papa Kwesi Nduom name his company after himself. It was that desire to put his reputation on the line when it came to business; that strong belief, born of a brass neck and a steel backbone, to be accountable for his work.
Today, Groupe Nduom sits atop of a business made up of tourism, investment advisory and management, financial services, technology, media, management consulting, cross border trade and sports.
It is a modus operandi born in Nduom 47 years ago, when the first opportunity knocked.
“There are certain stages in life that you get to know things. I had the privilege of getting a scholarship and spending one year in the United States in 1970. Prior to that, I wanted to be a medical doctor. I went to the United States and was introduced to other things. Through that I got to know that you could also be in business. In just that one year I took so many different classes outside medicine which broadened my view in life and all sorts of opportunities became possible,” he says.
His uncanny ability to spot opportunities led to the formation of a business empire, based in Ghana, with 60 companies in its portfolio. When we meet at the Coconut Grove Hotel, on a warm Saturday afternoon in Accra, Nduom has a spring in his step, a broad smile and an energetic “good afternoon” for everyone as he ushers us into his inner office in the sprawling resort.
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<h5 id="eow-description">The final episode of the first season of My Worst Day with Peace Hyde features Ghanaian serial entrepreneur Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom &#8211; who shares his memories of the day he lost $2 million worth of business that threatened to end his consultancy business.</h5>
At 64, Nduom’s attention to detail is slightly intimidating; his demeanor is composed and authoritative. His gaze is attentive as he reminds us politely he is flying out later that evening to the United States to complete the acquisition of a new bank. Nduom’s intuitive timing has served him well over the years. That skill was born of the transition from medicine to business. 
“I ended up at the University of Wisconsin and that is where I did the Bachelor of Economics and PhD in service delivery systems. It is there that I actually went off course. I wanted to be a medical doctor and I took all the admission tests and everything and got to a point where I needed a lot of money to continue if I wanted to get into a high-quality medical school. But I found out that I could take some different courses and take a degree in economics and get to work quickly, so I took that path so I could finish and get to work and make some money.”
“I had to fend for myself. Some of the things I do to make a living today, like finding opportunities, comes from the fact that I had to do those things myself and scrape along to survive. I had to pay my own fees, pay for my rent and go to school at the same time,” says Nduom.
In those lean days, he packed canned beans in a factory; toiled for two weeks on a construction site, in the cold winter; and spent long hours as a parking lot attendant.
“I would do the third shift at work which was at midnight and when you come back there would just be enough time to take a shower and go to school. If they said a semester was 15 credits, I wanted to take 20 because I calculated how many credits I needed to take to get out of school early because it was money I had to pay.”
The search for new opportunities to make money taught Nduom two key business principles: the first was how to negotiate.
“One job I really liked was working second shift at a meat factory. It paid well per hour and you learned how to cut meat, and you were also able to take some of the off cuts home. So you had food. So the people I shared my apartment with at that time were two Somalis who loved meat, so I used the meat to trade for other necessities which I couldn’t afford myself.”
Second lesson: the power of perseverance.
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“Right after university, my first job was with Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance in Milwaukee. I went there and applied with my Ghanaian name and the lady looked at the name Papa Kwesi Nduom and started asking all sorts of other questions. I got to a point where I couldn’t answer all the questions so I failed the interview.”
“I went back to the university and I carried a different identification because my passport had two names in it. So I went and changed my clothes and came back as Joseph Hubster Yorke Junior, which was my other name. The lady didn’t notice that it was the same person. So now, with my new name, she asked me completely different questions, which I answered and she gave me the job and I became a life insurance underwriter,” says Nduom.
Then, Nduom worked at the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wisconsin, a health insurance company, and then the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewage District, a county government institution. Here a rare life-changing experience, in an unlikely place, unfolded through a chance meeting.
“You never know where and when opportunity will make itself available so you should always be ready. I was on the fourth floor of my work building but on the seventh floor was a nice men’s room, which was big and had marble floors, which was really nice. So I would go and use the men’s room on that floor instead of going to the one on the fourth floor,” says Nduom.
“One day I was washing my hands and a guy comes also washing his hands and we strike a conversation. He asked if I would be interested in a job opportunity. He happened to be a recruiter who worked in the building and was looking for people that Touche Ross might be interested in. So we spoke and he set up the interview for me with the partner at Touche Ross and that is how I got the job. It was just an accidental meeting in the men’s room.”
Touche Ross later became Deloitte Touche, one of the ‘Big Four’ accounting firms with revenues of $36.8 billion, according to research company, Gartner. Nduom worked his way up to become a partner in the firm where he would learn his most important business skill, the art of selling.
“Every year they had a book that had all the partners in the US and in that book every partner’s production was there. In it were also the points that you earn as a bonus, so you see the entire top performing partners. So you knew where you were and what your business was supposed to do. So it is important for you to deliver. So you learn how to sell, you learn how to provide service and you learn how to satisfy the need of your customer.”
Nduom became a partner at Deloitte in 1986; with that the pressure to deliver increased. Ronald Reagan was president, Wall Street was booming and business was opening up around the world. Deloitte was in the thick of it.
“When you become a partner in the firm, you are a shareholder in the firm and basically you work for your own account. What you earn is strictly based on the business you bring in. The minimum amount you had to bring in terms of consulting fees was $1 million a year.”
Nduom moved to Washington when the firm merged the Milwaukee and Chicago offices. That put him in contact with the international division at Deloitte; another opportunity Nduom quickly took advantage of.
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“One day, over Thanksgiving dinner I told my wife that I wanted to go to Ghana to see what it was like to work there because I had never worked in Ghana before. So I bought a ticket, came to Ghana and I wanted to spend about a month or so to look around,” he says.
It was this conviction to understand the Ghanaian market that lent Nduom his next big entrepreneurial break. Initially, he sought to offer his services for free to get a feel for the consulting market in Ghana. At the time, Deloitte had representation, with Haskins &amp; Sells, in Accra as well as an association with Akintola Williams in Nigeria. Nduom looked for another opportunity and his instinct paid off, yet again.
“One of the partners said Ashanti Goldfields was their client and it was time to go do an audit, so maybe I should go with them to do an information systems audit. I traveled with them to Obuasi and spent a week, did the analysis of their systems, wrote a report and spoke to the man in charge of the whole area. He said he liked what I was suggesting which was something they might like to do but I should go talk to the managing director of Ashanti Goldfields, which was Sam Jonah, but then he was based at Diamond House in Accra.”
This principle of perseverance, which Nduom had learned a lifetime ago, when he secured his first job as a life insurance underwriter, was to serve him well – just as well, as a frustrating time was ahead.
“So I tried to talk to Sam Jonah several times in Accra and it didn’t work. I went back to Obuasi and somehow somebody there accused me of messing up with their computer systems so they ordered me off the mine. So I left the mine but sat by the supervisor’s door all day and convinced them to let me in because I wanted to talk to him about what can be done to improve their systems. He let me in and I left with an agreement to come back and organize their information systems,” says Nduom.
The contract was for a complete systems overhaul of the gold mine, involving the change of computers, accounting systems as well as payroll. Nduom enlisted the help of Deloitte to deliver the projects. After this, Nduom delivered more projects, including overseeing the merger of Touche Ross and Deloitte Haskins &amp; Sells, forming Deloitte &amp; Touche.
“When they merged they didn’t have a management consulting section and that is what gave me the opportunity to set up Deloitte and Touche Consulting West Africa and brought some other people from the US and hired them to join the team,” says Nduom.
The team had nearly 100 people in Liberia, Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Zimbabwe. Ever the opportunist, Nduom spotted yet another gap in the market.
“While we were here, we realized that nobody was doing consulting work. So I took my own money because the firm said you are a partner in the US and not a partner in Ghana or Africa. They had no interest in setting up a branch of Deloitte USA in Ghana. Deloitte is set up as member firms. So they said we will give you two years after which you will get Africa out of your system and come back to the US.”
The two years taught him resilience. The new West African consulting business was inundated with work. Nduom secured major contracts with Texaco and Elf Oil in Nigeria, the African Development Bank and Malawi Oil. He was also responsible for setting up the computer software for Zimbabwe’s social security system.
“Eventually I became the coordinator for consulting for the African region for Deloitte and the time came for me to go back and I said there was enough work to do here so we set it up as a member firm of Deloitte. So when senior partners will get together every year to have their annual meeting, I would go as the senior partner for the West African consulting practise,” says Nduom.
Nduom became the chairman for the African region for Deloitte and held that position until the end of 2000. His says his success is down to focusing on long-term objectives, while staying flexible enough to solve day-to-day problems.
“We would look for a place to relax or do some work, we couldn’t find anything and so we set up Coconut Grove. We were looking for people to do some software work for us and we couldn’t find anyone, so we took a bus to Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and recruited some students, gave them computers, gave them software to tear apart and build again and then we started a software company. Out of that we set up a software company called TSS, then a hardware company called IBS, and out of that came corporate finance which became Gold Coast,” says Nduom.
The slogan of Groupe Nduom grew beyond expectation and owns a string of companies, from hospitality to entertainment. It has hotels, a football club and an artist management business. In media, it has newspapers, television, radio and advertising; it also owns primary and secondary schools and a university.
Nduom’s intuitive timing helped elbow out competition across his empire; a shrewd strategy that led to his worst day in business.
“I try to forget the date. It was 1995. It is the day I traveled from Ghana to Wharton to speak to graduate business school students about investments in Africa. I was one of the keynote speakers so I traveled from Ghana to Washington and my brother met me with faxes from Ghana, which said number one, I was on the Ghana Airways board at the time and I have been sacked from the board. I had consulting business with Ghana Telecom and it had been canceled. I was doing some consulting business with State Enterprise Commission and it said I was under investigation and in one day I lost over $2 million worth of consulting business,” says Nduom.
He believes this was an attempt by the government of the day to block his businesses for reasons he never found out. The event prompted a passion to be a part of the political system to prevent this injustice from happening to anyone else.
“I didn’t want anybody in Ghana to go through that experience where a government will just get up and, for whatever reason, decide that somebody should not be in business and that they should cancel their contract and just try to move him off the earth. There was a plan to do away with my businesses and everything I was doing in Ghana. They said they would smoke me out and get me to go back to where I came from. This was elevated to an extent that it became a row between the government of Ghana and the US,” says Nduom.
Nduom turned lemons into lemonade and expanded across Africa, leaving trading in Ghana until the impasse was resolved. It was, and 40 years on the business is riding high on its acquisition of Illinois Service Federal (ISF) Bank in Chicago, US. Nduom is older, wiser, with a clear eye for new horizons.
“Working here is like working in our own republic. We are governed by our own rules. You have to send a daily report, monthly report, quarterly report, a mid-year report and a yearly report. The idea is if something was to happen to you, anybody is supposed to look at your business and pick up where you left,” says Richmond Keelson, General Manager of Groupe Nduom Corporate Affairs.
What a journey – from packing canned beans in the United States to owning a bank there – a first for Ghana. The next couple of years will be spent trying to help the bank – the newest entrant into the group – find its feet in the business of its faraway owners.
Nduom is driven by the passion to have a business set up, thrive and succeed beyond Ghana.
That is the legacy Nduom is building; one opportunity at a time.

From Canned Beans To The African Dream Of Owning A Slice Of The States

Tanzania’s reluctance to adopt a joint tourism visa arrangement with its East African neighbors offers an opportunity for the scheme’s proponents to rethink underlying challenges of security and illegal immigrants.
Since 2014, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda have implemented a joint $100 tourist visa. Tanzania, though, instead demands its own $150 visa fee for visitors entering its borders.
Having a joint visa arrangement is a no-brainer for the East African Community (EAC) bloc that is trying to increase earnings from visitor bookings and attract foreign investment into its budding tourism industry. A seamless visa boosts the attractiveness of a bloc because visitors are spared the hustle of having to make multiple arrangements to enter each of the partner states.
Dar es Salaam however maintains that there are always two sides of a coin and will not jump onto the bandwagon until it conclusively assesses the impact of the scheme.
Because of this, there is bad blood between the EAC partners and Dar es Salaam. Tanzania’s neighbors see it as standing in the way of a potential game-changing concept.
Kenya’s Tourism minister Najib Balala recently kicked up a fresh storm when he claimed that Tanzania had pulled out of the joint EAC single tourist visa pact because it was dissatisfied with the manner in which it was ratified. Tanzania denies this and maintains it has never been part of the deal and would only join if there was deeper consensus on security and revenue sharing formulas.
Dar es Salaam’s concerns, especially that of security, must be taken seriously by Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, rather than just focusing on tourism and investment.
It’s not new for some members of economic blocs to reject seamless travel arrangements with other partners. The UK and the Republic of Ireland opted out of the EU’s Schengen visa scheme over concerns on the security risks of seamless travel by visitors to member states. The UK opted to maintain its own borders, and Ireland preserved its free movement arrangement with the UK rather than join Schengen.
This issue has recently featured in key debates in the wake of terror attacks in France and Belgium, with some analysts linking the attacks to the lax border scrutiny that comes with the seamless border arrangement.
Similar challenges are present in East Africa where Islamist militants continue to pose a threat from their hideouts in the lawless parts of Somalia. Kenya and Uganda have borne the brunt of the militant groups, such as al-Shabaab, and the question of border security and immigration should be an obvious concern.
Kenya has also become a major transit route for illegal immigrants heading south in search of jobs, thanks to a raft of poorly implemented regional agreements that allow for the free movement of people.
For example, although Ethiopia isn’t a member of the EAC, its citizens are allowed visa-free travel to neighboring Kenya. This scenario has inadvertently seen Kenya become a transit route for illegal immigrants from Ethiopia looking for jobs as far as South Africa. Hundreds of Ethiopians and Eritreans have been arrested on Kenyan soil for being in the country illegally as they try finding their way to southern Africa.
This poses a serious security risk because militants can sneak into Kenya and onward to other countries in the region. The illegal immigrations also pose a challenge to the targeted countries because of the disruptions caused to their economies, exacerbating the scramble for jobs and housing and other basic amenities.
Countries targeted by the illegal immigrants that pass through Kenya, such as South Africa and Zambia, have witnessed xenophobic attacks due to pressure caused on resources by the uninvited guests.
The EAC partners need to then find workable solutions to keep out any cross-border security threats and illegal immigrants, even as they pursue a dream of a common tourism industry which has its obvious benefits.
On a visit to Kenya in mid-October, South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma raised this issue with immigration controls in Kenya and said they posed challenges.
“We have to ensure that there are no loopholes for criminals to take advantage of,” he said in response to a request by his host President Uhuru Kenyatta to review visa conditions for Kenyans.

Secure Borders Before Making Them Seamless

In the heart of Accra lies East Legon, a cosmopolitan suburb with some of the most prestigious real estate in Ghana. One such Victorian style house, on a private road, is home to Delphine Brew-Hammond, otherwise known as Miss Tourism.
One of the leading lights of Ghanaian tourism, Brew-Hammond’s story has been a journey most people thought she was “insane” to set off on. She is the founder of Miss Tourism Ghana, a beauty pageant with the aim of boosting the country’s tourism, both locally and internationally. The girls that take part in the contest get a shot at a brighter future and are given the opportunity to promote tourism and the economic benefits that come with it.
Twenty years ago, Brew-Hammond was living in the United States with her husband and three children earning a six-figure salary.
She began her career as a marketing executive in New York. On weekends, the family visited other states in America to see how the rich and famous lived. However, her love for tourism was born from a chance encounter. Part of the school curriculum in New York required children to visit key monuments in America. They had to get a parent to join them on the trip and Brew-Hammond was nominated by her then 12-year-old son to be their tourist guide.
“I was really annoyed when I had to go because I had work and I really did not want to take the time off,” says Brew-Hammond.
To her surprise, Brew-Hammond loved the experience. When she returned to Ghana in 2000, she researched tourism in Ghana. She started small by forming clubs that would take students to the country’s tourist spots. They visited national parks and nature reserves across the country. Brew-Hammond was encouraged by how the experience enriched the children’s lives, most of whom had never left their local towns. It was then that she decided to create a pageant – Miss Tourism Ghana.
“When we first decided to do it, everybody told us it wouldn’t work,” she says.
It was a difficult sell. Other competitive pageants, like Miss Ghana, meant that a tourism-focused beauty pageant was unlikely to garner major sponsorship. Brew-Hammond incorporated Miss Tourism Ghana in the country’s National Tourism Development Plan in 2009.
“They called me Miss Tourism in the ministries because I was always walking up and down the stairs almost every other week with a new letter which needed approval,” says Brew-Hammond.
The Minister of Tourism at the time bought into her dream and signed all the paperwork. The next difficult task was selecting the entrants for the pageant.
“In the beginning, we had to beg most of the girls to take part in our pageant. Everyone wanted to be Miss Ghana because it was much more prestigious.”
The idea was to have each girl representing a different region in Ghana. They did everything themselves in the beginning because they simply could not afford to pay anyone else for services.
Brew-Hammond’s plan was to get the queen of Miss Tourism Ghana to take part in international tourism pageants. Unfortunately, none of the girls were granted visas to the United Kingdom.
She decided to take matters into her own hands and arranged to sit down with the British High Commissioner. The problem was solved.
The pageant has been running for six years and has paved the way for several young girls to achieve their dreams. Brew-Hammond’s vision is to find raw talent and turn them into leaders of the future, and in the process, turn her country into a tourist’s paradise.

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‘Everybody Told Us It Wouldn’t Work’

Africa is the last true wild frontier in the world; its wildlife racks up more than $30 billion annually.
But, in countries such as Zimbabwe, less money is reaching the government and animal extinction is becoming a reality.
The ruthless killing of Cecil the Lion in Zimbabwe sent shockwaves around the world. It raises the question of whether Africa is getting a raw deal for its wildlife.
In 2012, the tourism sector contributed 10% to Zimbabwe’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the projection was that by this year it should have reached 15%. Statistics for this year are only available in 2016 but there has been a surge in tourists, particularly from the United States.
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Some American tourists, though, have been caught on the wrong side of the law by participating in unsanctioned lion hunts.
Johnny Rodrigues, a wildlife conservationist, believes the biggest problem standing in the way of animal conservation in Zimbabwe is corruption.
“In the case of Cecil, an American tourist bribed guides for $55,000 to kill a lion that was at the center of major international research. There are many such cases that go unreported,” he says.
In the past 20 years, the lion population in Africa has been depleted by 30%. As of 2014, it is estimated that there are only 30,000 left on the continent.
Zimbabwe has a population of around 1,600 lions, most of which are kept in protected areas away from hunters. Between 1999 and 2009, it was recorded that 800 lions were killed in legal hunts but it is understood that many more were killed in illegal hunts.
Lions, rhino, elephant, giraffe and buffalo are the most popular targets for hunters, but some lesser known animals are also caught up in the illicit trade.
Langton Masunda, a tour operator in Zimbabwe, says poachers and illegal hunters are more equipped and better funded than government rangers. This gives them an obvious advantage over those trying to save the country’s wild animals.
“They have more sophisticated weaponry, are usually better trained and they have communication equipment that the government does not have,” says Masunda.
Not so long ago, more effort was put into protecting the rhinoceros, but poachers shifted their focus to elephants. Zimbabwe has an elephant population of 85,000, with around 30,000 of those being calves. Because of the demand in the Asian market, poachers targeted the elephant at an industrial scale.
“Water sources were contaminated with cyanide. Hundreds would drop dead and in the process other animals, which the poachers had no use for, died too. Even people in rural communities surviving on the same water sources were affected. What makes it bad is that in many cases locals in poverty stricken communities would assist poachers,” says Masunda.
Although they have a harsh penal system for poaching, countries such as South Africa are havens for illegal hunts.
“Each year, more than 20,000 elephants – possibly up to 35,000 – are killed by poachers for their tusks, which are shipped to ivory markets, predominantly in countries such as China and Thailand. In 2014, 1,215 rhinos were killed in South Africa alone, which, when compared with the 13 killed by poachers in 2007, represents a more than 9,000 percent increase in rhino poaching,” says a World Economic Forum report.
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The spiraling poaching figures are driven by the Asian market. In countries such as China and Vietnam, it is believed the rhino horn has medicinal properties that can cure everything from headaches to cancer. Elephant tusks are crushed into a powder and used to make aphrodisiacs, among other things.
The development of rural communities is also a factor that opens trade links with the rest of the world. It makes smuggling easier.
But, in Southern Africa, there is hope that some of the targeted animals can be saved, especially at the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA) that brings together Zambia, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Angola and Botswana.
KAZA is the world’s largest wildlife park, slightly bigger than Italy.
In 2014, on the Botswana side of the park, President Ian Khama banned hunting to preserve the animals. As an alternative, the country is investing in luxurious camps. Last year alone, it was estimated that tourism brought in $337.5 million. A few greedy tourists with rifles should not be allowed to decimate this important source of income.

The Bullets Killing More Than Animals

Before he had reached the age of 10, Amos Wekesa put all his energy into smuggling goods at Uganda’s border with Kenya in the mountainous area of Mbale. He also tried his hand at making mats from banana fibers to earn a little money to support his family that was surviving on around a dollar a day.
Today, all this is history and Wekesa is now considered one of the most successful tourism ambassadors in Uganda, with an annual income of $4 million. He achieved this by founding Great Lakes Safaris and Uganda Lodges Ltd – one of the leading tour companies in Uganda.
“I was born in 1973 in a small village of Wakaka – in the current Manafwa District – to a family that was caught up in abject poverty to the extent that, by the age of nine, I had not gone to school and had been involved in smuggling,” says Wekesa.
“The time we were born was not good for the average Ugandan because everything was in short supply. That is how we got involved in smuggling.”
Wekesa has never forgotten that “the gomesi our mother covered herself with was the same gomesi we also covered ourselves with.”
His life changed when the Salvation Army, which ran a home for less privileged people in the neighboring Tororo District, visited his village looking for two boys from impoverished families. Wekesa was one of the lucky two. He transferred to Tororo in 1983, a district closer to the capital, Kampala.
“At the age of 10, I was taken to nursery school. I remember going for P1 interviews and the head teacher taking me to P2 as I was too old to study with six-year-olds. I liked primary school and wanted to be like every other child,” says Wekesa.
However, when he went to secondary school (Wairaka College for O-levels and St. Peter’s Tororo for A-levels) he did not enjoy studying.
“I liked other activities like sports, drama and was always in leadership positions at all levels. This made me an average [student].”
“Success does not necessarily come because you excel in class but because you have learned something in life,” he says.
In 1996, Wekesa was put on a bus to go to Kampala and look for a tourism school.
“I did a certificate for nine months. In 1997, I went out to look for my first job [and] became a sweeper earning approximately $10 a month.”
Wekesa later became an office messenger at Nile Safaris, earning $20 a month. He then shifted to another tour company, Habari Travels, where he was paid a dollar a day. His last stint at being an employee was with Afric Voyage, for $65 a month. It was during this time that he managed to save $200 in a year and started a briefcase company called Great Lakes Safaris in 2001. Wekesa’s first office was below a staircase in downtown Kampala.
Equipped with a phone and receipts, Wekesa would approach rich people, with Mercedes Benzes and new Coronas, and convince them to hire out their cars.
“I would attend weddings without being invited and market my services as a dealer in posh cars for hire,” he says.
Wekesa would also walk to Parliament and convince MPs to hire out their four-wheel cars to him. He would then go to tour companies and ask them to drive their clients to different tourism sites. Being a driver and having worked as a tour guide, Wekesa had to entertain the tourists while keeping the MPs’ cars in good shape and also making sure the companies were happy with his services.
While doing the tours, and reading books about tourism, his passion for the industry grew.
Off the top of his head, Wekesa can tell you that Uganda is 91,135 square miles, with around 1,056 different species that constitute about 11% of the world’s species of birds. Queen Elizabeth National Park has around 656 species of birds – the highest concentration of birds of any protected area in the world.
“The United States (US) has 784 different species of birds and rakes in $32 billion annually through retail sales only. Uganda’s GDP is only $22.8 billion.”
Wekesa’s change of fortune started in 2001 – the year he bought the first car – after organizing a trip for a woman from the World Bank.
“I gave her a good guide to Queen Elizabeth. She came back happy and said this was the most beautiful country she had ever visited. She told me she would do something for me once she got back to the US.”
“This taught me a good lesson. The sustainability of a business is satisfied clients.”
In the same year, the woman from the World Bank recommended Great Lakes Safaris to a research group from the World Bank.
“I gave the group to one of the best tour guides in Uganda, Martin Okoth. One of the guys was so happy he also promised to do something… I never took him seriously.”
Business then died down and it became so difficult that Wekesa contemplated closing the company.
“Something in me said ‘be resilient’. People advised me to close but I had to cling on. All this time, I would see tourists at the airport and wonder how Uganda could have such tourist attractions and people live in abject poverty. I said ‘I’m going to try to be a solution to this problem’ as my passion for tourism was so high.”
“Later, I got a call from Washington from a guy called Tom Carter, an editor with The Washington Times. He told me he had travelled with me on one of his trips to Uganda and had written about his experiences. The story was published and that is when tourists started flowing in.”
The change in fortunes allowed Wekesa to buy more vehicles and in 2003 he started buying property outside the city. Today, he has an eco-friendly hotel in almost every national park in the country.
Wekesa spends a lot of his time teaching young Ugandans to use tourism as a business. He wants the government to follow his lead.
“We must appreciate the fact that the government is full of people who were around during the hard times in the country. Their mindset is fixed on agriculture. However, I’m now happy the president is talking about tourism.”
He says the government should invest more in marketing tourism. Kenya spends $40 million on marketing every year, Tanzania $12 million, Rwanda $5 million, while Uganda spends just $600,000.
Uganda has the potential to become a favored destination for tourists.
“We have the best diversity of cultures. We have more inland water than any other country, 10 national parks, 12 game reserves, all unique in their own way. Uganda is like Africa compressed. It’s a convergence of all different types of attractions,” he says.
Most of the five-star hotels in East Africa are run by Kenyans, Indians and South Africans. Rwanda is building an $18-million tourism school while Tanzania has the best school in the region.
“Uganda’s government should also develop infrastructures for these tourists to use.”
For those still in doubt, Wekesa has only this to say: “If you want to see the most incredible beauty in the world, come to Uganda.”

Tag: Tourism

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