Lions at Sankuyo Plains Camp
Also, check out Sarah Fazendin’s trip report from her recent trip to Botswana.
Contact us for more informaion on traveling in the green season.
It is commonly understood in the African safari industry that the safari as we know it was started in Kenya, and reinvented (some will say “perfected!”) in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe was for many years widely recognized as having the best guides, the best lodges and some of Africa’s best wildlife. This was all of course before the regime of Robert Mugabe, but it seems that the tide is now turning and this great safari destination may be on it’s way back.
Victoria Falls ~ Zimbabwe on the right and Zambia on the Left
I was in Livingston for only one night and the talk of Zimbabwe and Mr. Mugabe was already prevalent in casual conversation. I was very interested how visitors and local people alike felt about the situation and how they projected the near future to play out. For the last several years it’s been simply a story of tragedy. However, the more I asked around on this October 2009 afternoon and the more I listened, I heard glimmers of hope and positive feedback. In fact, while on a boat cruising down the Zambezi River, which bisects Zimbabwe and Zambia, I had the chance to talk to Chris Worden, Professional safari guide and Senior Consultant for Zambezi Safari and Travel Company, who lives in Victoria Falls but operates his company out of the UK. Chris informed me that tourism in Zim was really starting to turn around and that in a few years it will be the emerging hotspot in Africa. Even though he proved to be very knowledgeable about the travel industry, I was very reluctant to believe him. I explained that all the news in the US was pessimistic and that people were afraid to risk taking a vacation to the politically-torn county. Chris explained that the news in the UK was very optimistic about recent politics in the country.
At first I wondered why the UK had news that the US didn’t. What did their reporters find out that we couldn’t discover? Then I did my research. The US was reporting positive news about Zimbabwe; it’s just the negative angles that the world over hog headline space.
Here are a few recent articles on Zimbabwe:
“Even some diplomats who were most skeptical about Mr. Tsvangirai’s deal to govern with Mr. Mugabe, 85, now sense an opportunity to weaken “the old man,” as he is called here.”
“There’s a creeping sense that we are in an endgame, that there is a new dynamic here,” said one Western diplomat who spoke anonymously according to diplomatic protocol. “Never before has the government been this prostrate. Never before has ZANU-PF been so weak or the opposition in office.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/20/world/africa/20zimbabwe.html
At The Fazendin Portfolio we look forward to the re-emergence of Zimbabwe as one of the great African safari destination. We look forward to exploring the camps and lodges that will have made it through this dark time in the destination’s history, and supporting and promoting the rehabilitation of the wildlife in this country. We look forward to the access and additional itinerary option Zimbabwe can offer within southern Africa, particularly in combination with Mozambique.
For nearly forty years Mozambique suffered at the hands of both colonial and indigenous governments. By the 1990’s, years of war and drought left Mozambique one of the poorest, least educated countries in the world. Much of today’s workforce in Mozambique grew up knowing nothing but war, have had little or no formal education and have certainly had no tourism training. The one exception would be those employed by the coastal tourism industry, historically focused on the mass, mid-market travelers coming primarily from South Africa.
Today Mozambique is a destination that many in the African tourism industry have recognized as capable of conservation and able to sustain luxury travel product (travel product that follows the low-volume, high-yield approach). Not entirely unexpected, the majority of funding for conservation and community initiatives across Mozambique is currently coming primarily from international investment and from luxury tourism development.
I came across a few articles in Travel Weekly this week that shed some light on where industry experts think the global travel industry is heading in 2010. I guess it’s that time of year, right? When everyone starts looking to 2010… and to be honest many people in the travel industry will probably be plenty happy to leave 2009 behind.
First of all, for the first time in well over a year, the publicly held travel companies that the magazine follows on a weekly basis (tracking % growth or decline on an annual basis and aggregating that for an industry snapshot of sorts) was up 5.9%. Clearly things were pretty bad this time last year, but at least we’re seeing positive growth numbers vs. the steep declines we’ve seen week on week for the past year.
Next, the magazine spoke to U.S. Travel Association researcher Suzanne Cook, who talked about how it remains to be seen if the current tendency for American consumers to hoard resources (when it comes to travel) will become a permanent normal once the economy recovers. Apparently their research indicated that this mind-set is one that could have staying power, and the travel industry will have to work harder to get consumers to open their pocketbooks. Having said all this, her key red flags were both for the business travel industry and the US in-bound industry. Of leisure travel in general she said, “Leisure is down too, but this is not as urgent. This is the dominant form of travel in the U.S. People love it.” The marketer’s challenge is to have products seen as attractive and valuable, she said.
Leisure travel will ultimately benefit in 2010 from its “very positive perception in consumer minds… there will be pent up demand,” she said.
I’ve written about this before, but lucky for us in the African travel industry, African travel is a big ticket trip and one that people are not flippantly going to pass up on if the opportunity presents itself. We should find our industry recovering in 2010, albeit with some “new norms” such as shorter booking lead times, trading down on level of accommodation or cutting days off a trip to save a bit on costs, and perhaps even a consolidation within the African travel industry and stronger definitions of operator, wholesaler, agent, outfitter, etc. ultimately strengthening relationships for the long term.
In the same issue of Travel Weekly, Nadine Goodwin reports that “leisure sales have hit bottom” however industry execs expect “significant discounting to continue through 2010.” Also, whether it’s re-embracing preferred supplier relationships or vetting new supplier partnerships… the message from the travel agent consortiums is clear, now more than ever the supplier relationship will be critical in selling travel and being profitable in 2010. This rings especially loud and clear when it comes to African travel.
So, at The Fazendin Portfolio how are we going to be spending our fall, bearing in mind the emergence of these “new norms” and this cautious optimism for 2010? We will continue to run educational webinars where we can reach out to our industry partners across the US and Canada with ongoing, in-depth product training, we will be attending trade events such as the Adventure Travel World Summit and World Travel Market where we will have a great opportunity to strategize and plan for 2010 and beyond, we will continue to organize itineraries and marketing materials from within our portfolio to provide our travel agent and tour operator partners here in North America easy, useful tools to help close sales, and somewhere in between all that we’ll find time to travel across Africa checking out properties and experiencing destinations to maintain the all-important current product knowledge and insight that is necessary in this amazing world of African travel.
We look forward to working with you, please don’t hesitate to contact us at any time. Here’s to a strong 2010 and beyond!
Gorongosa National Park (GNP) has already received many proposals of interest on the part of diverse national and foreign tourism operators, after a notice was published by several media publications in which GNP invited companies to nominate themselves for the development of tourism activities inside the limits of the Park.
Areas where the GNP is accepting proposals for the development of tourism activities
According to the administration of this conservation area, the investors’ response to the contest, that in this first phase is accepting letters of intent up to the 1st of October of 2009, has already surpassed expectations. Subsequently, the proposals will be evaluated by a Selection Committee fully composed of Mozambican citizens, using the following criteria:
- Financial resources
- Experience in Ecotourism and marketing capacity
- Commitment to local communities
- “Green” business practices
It is important to accentuate that during the meeting on the 15th of October, the Selection Committee reserves the right not to investigate the proposals in which the candidates do not include the mandatory requirements. In this context, there will be another opportunity to receive more requests that will be evaluated in 2010.
Concerning the matter, we interviewed the two members of the Oversight Committee of the Park who represent the Carr Foundation and the Ministry of Tourism.
We began our interviews with the representative from the Foundation, Mr. Greg Carr.
Carlitos: Many international television programs have made documentaries about Gorongosa and I believe that the time has arrived for National Geographic to produce a film about GNP. Can you give us some details?
Greg: A few days ago I saw a rough cut of the National Geographic film with a small international audience. They loved the documentary and the comments showed how amazed they were with the beauty of Gorongosa. The film will premier to the world in the beginning of next year and I know that it is going to attract a large number of tourists to Mozambique.
Carlitos: What has the response been so far to the national/international public competition for the development of tourism activities in GNP?
Greg: Many investors expressed interest and we have already had visits to Gorongosa from a large number of international and national tourism companies for them to evaluate the opportunities to build camps and “lodges”. When they arrived they were astonished with the quantity of wild animals in the Park. They were also pleased with the professionalism and integrity of our team, 99% of which is from Mozambique. Similarly, they were satisfied after learning that the financial management of the Restoration Project is transparent and after understanding that they will know exactly how their financial contributions will be applied for the protection and conservation of natural flora and fauna, in the case that they are accepted in the contest now in progress.
We also asked a few questions to the representative from the Ministry of Tourism, Mr. Beca Jofrisse:
Carlitos: You, Mr. Beca Jofrisse, in cooperation with Mr. Greg Carr, constitute the Oversight Committee of GNP. Can you speak a bit about the other members of the management team?
Jofrisse: Our new management structure consists of Carlos Lopes Pereira as the director of Conservation, Mateus Mutemba, director of Community Relations, Vasco Galante, director of Tourist Development and William Wright, director of Operations and Infrastructure.
Carlitos: What are the interactions like between each one of these departments and tourism operators?
Jofrisse: Each tourism operator should implement a sustainable development project with the nearest communities and Mateus Mutemba will help that happen. Carlos Lopes Pereira, as the director of Conservation, is going to work with the tourism operators to reduce illegal hunting so the tourists can see a great deal of wildlife in the Park. Vasco Galante, the Tourist Development director, will help the tourism operators to publicize their services and activities on an international and national level in order to increase the amount of business and consequently the revenue of the Park. Bill Wright, as the director of Operations and Infrastructures, is going to help the tourism operators in the planning of their camps and “lodges”.
Carlitos: What statistics does the Gorongosa Restoration Project take about the 2009 tourist period and about the visitors that the PNG has received?
Jofrisse: Progress has been noticeable and this is shown by all the people that have come to visit the Park. We have had many thousands of tourists, of national and international origin, including South Africans, Portuguese, American, German, Dutch, English, Italian, Spanish, Chinese and Indian. In 2009 we expect a growth of 40% in the number of visitors in relation to 2008, knowing that in 2008 we had a growth in that order of magnitude in comparison to 2007.
This is remarkable, considering the current international financial crisis. One of the key factors for this success is undoubtedly the interest of international and national news media about the Restoration Project of Gorongosa National Park, one of the places that tourists that visit us invariably come to know as one of the last Paradises on Earth.
He gave an example among many that can be seen on our website www.gorongosa.net: The famous Portuguese singer Rui Veloso was with us for three days and visited us to fulfill an old dream: to go on a photographic safari in a place that would represent the best that the African savannah has to offer. I can attest that the expectations that he brought were largely satisfied and the reporting team that accompanied him is soon going to show excellent images of Gorongosa that are going to attract more and more tourists from all over the world to our country and to Gorongosa.
Here are the first renderings of the new Mbali Mbali lodge in the Western part of the Serengeti in Tanzania. The company’s owner provided the following update as well:
We are building 25 Tented Chalets. As you can see the decor is a classic, modern African feel. The location of the property is in the Western Corridor between Serena Lodge and Mbalageti Tented camp. Currently we are using the Seronera airstrip to transfer to the lodge. The lodge is built high up on a hill amongst the rocks. The location is absolutely breathtaking and there is truly no other site in comparison in the Serengeti.
Chalet Bathrooms
Pool area overlooking Serengeti plains.
Today, Coral Lodge 15.41, a unique luxury lodge at a prime beach location near the UNESCO World Heritage site, Ilha de Mozambique, announces their launch into the North American Market. This new property, ideal for a post-safari beach getaway, is modern with a distinctly African flavor, and offers guests the latest in luxury and comfort while maintaining an authentic feel of Mozambican pureness.
Royal Enfield Motorbikes in Malawi
Step back in time and hire Ulendo’s brand new Royal Enfield Motorcycles to tour the country. Royal Enfield motorcycles are not designed for high speeds or revs but a more comfortable, relaxed ride. The Bullett Electra is a single cylinder thumper which has not changed much since its original design in the 1950’s. This is a modern bike with a classic look and feel which won’t rush or tire you. Malawi is the perfect place to experience a holiday on two wheels.
Travelhorizons, a nationally representative survey, co-authored by Ypartnershio and U.S. Travel Association shows that the travel intentions of United State’s adults are on the raise. Nearly two-thirds or 63% of adults living in the United States say they expect to take at least one leisure trip between August and January, up 2% from statistics in July. If Americans act on their intentions, it will mean nearly 142 million adult Americans will take at least one overnight trip in the course of the next six months.
Ulendo Safaris is the official tour operator for the Lake of Stars Festival 2009 in Malawi, taking place 15th – 18th October, 2009.
Sunset on Lake Malawi
The festival was born from a desire to raise money for a developing economy, help promote Malawi as a tourist destination and expose Malawian artists to international crowds. Set on the shimmering, palm-fringed shores of Lake Malawi, international and African artists gather for a musical, social and cultural exchange unlike anything you will have seen before. For many the festival is the focal point of travelling around this beautiful country, forming part of an itinerary spanning what Malawi has to offer.
As the official tour operator for LOS ‘09 in Malawi, Ulendo has created some amazing LOS ’09 packages, to suit just about every budget. Ranging from the beautiful Club Makokola on Lake Malawi to offering your time and assistance to some of Malawi’s local communities, not to mention a safari experience of a lifetime to South Luangwa National Park – Zambia.
The well trained and knowledgeable team at Ulendo Safaris, will be able to offer you expert advice on all facets of Malawi and Zambia, including accommodation, transfers and airline tickets.
Check out this sample program!
10 October Arrive into Lilongwe International airport where clients will be met and assisted to the transfer vehicle. Road transfer from Lilongwe airport to Kumbali Country Lodge, a family run property on the outskirts of Lilongwe(30mins). Accommodation at Kumbali Lodge in an executive room on a dinner, bed and breakfast basis
11 OctoberAfter breakfast clients will be transferred by road to Zomba (4h).
Accommodation at Ku Chawe Inn, situated on the rim of Zomba Plateau, in a superior room on a half board basis Zomba was the capital of Malawi until 1975 and was the seat of parliament until 1994. The town is dominated by Zomba Plateau which is an impressive mountain rising to 1800m. The hotel, Ku Chawe Inn, is located near the top of plateau and has amazing views across the south of the country
12 October Full day on Zomba Plateau – walking on the mountain, birding, horse-riding. All activities can be arranged through the hotel at extra cost.
13 October Road transfer from Zomba to Liwonde National Park to Mvuu Lodge (2h)
Accommodation at Mvuu Lodge is in standard luxury safari tents, situated on the banks of a lagoon that flows off the Shire River, on a full board and activity basis. Liwonde National Park is one of Malawi’s premier game parks. It offers some of the most scenic game viewing in beautiful riverine surroundings. There is a wide variety of game – from elephants to sable antelope and warthogs. The park is well known for its prolific bird watching opportunities.
14 October Full day of game viewing activities – game drives, nature walks and boating safaris
15 – 18 October After breakfast clients will transfer by road to Club Makokola beach resort (2h), situated just north of Mangochi, on the palm fringed southern shore of Lake Malawi. Accommodation is in a superior room on a bed and breakfast basis.
Club Makokola is set in 10 acres of immaculate gardens with 600m of sandy beachfront. Attend the Lake of Stars Music Festival at the nearby Nkopola Lodge (3min road transfer) A four day festival ticket is included in the price of this itinerary
19 October After breakfast clients will transfer by road to Pumulani, a luxury property situated near Cape Maclear (1h). Accommodation is at Pumulani in an ensuite luxury chalet on a full board basis including non motorised activities.
20 -22 October Full days to relax and enjoy Pumulani. Activities available include snorkelling, fishing, nature & village walks, sunset cruises on the dhow and kayaking. Activities available at extra cost are motorised watersports and scuba diving (off site)
23 October Morning road transfer from Pumulani to Lilongwe (3h) to connect to international flight. End of Arrangements
Contact us for pricing and more information.
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