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African Tour Operator Beks Ndlovu. Zimbabwean. Human.

May I share an inspiring, challenging and fascinating e-conversation I’ve recently enjoyed with Beks Ndlovu, owner of African Bush Camps - an operator in Zimbabwe and Botswana?

… BEE, marketing, colonial tourism, humanity - there’re lessons here for all of us.

BEKS NDLOVU: Thank you for your regular updates and news letters. Whilst I write news letters myself about my business for my suppliers and clients, I usually don’t read other newsletters because I just don’t have the time. However, yours caught my attention because of the phrase ‘barefoot’ which is a very powerful description for us and one that we’ve always used to describe the safari life and the world we sell in our safari camps in Botswana and Zimbabwe.

In am writing to you now because of your newsletter ‘Uthando - Helping Tourism To REALLY Make a Difference’ which I found fascinating.

My wife and I have a number of projects which are active in the areas alongside our camps. We have very similar ideas [to Uthando] when it comes to community development and involvement and have so far dedicated personal funds to our projects - and when we find the time and expertise we plan to open our projects to our clients and the public for donations and fund raising. This always becomes tricky, though, because we are so averse to organisations in the safari industry that publicise their efforts in community development to the point where they becomes nothing more than marketing mileage.

How does one separate oneself from this?

This is why we registered a different name, one that’s un-attached to African Bush Camps - to separate the two and have the humanitarian side of things stand on it’s own two feet.

Our concept is that whilst we support the endless efforts of people saving wildlife through research and direct donations, we firmly and passionately believe in using the tourism dollar to help and develop communities surrounding our safari camps - and that by offering them an opportunity in life, people will join our passion for wilderness areas and wildlife.

However, all our efforts are still in their embryonic stages - but we’re excited at the potential ahead. My wife, who is my business partner, is the driver of our community projects and passion is a mild description of her feelings of being plugged-in and involved.

MARTIN HATCHUEL: I’m interested in what you say about safari organisations who use their humanitarian work as a marketing ploy. Would you care to expand on that a little?

BEKS: Generally I find that it has become very fashionable for tourism companies to get involved with humanitarian work and be associated with it. Often this becomes part of their marketing strategy particularly because most overseas suppliers are now moving to supporting responsible tourism. Their effort is also towards convincing their clients that their tourism dollars will fall into the right hands. Whilst the genuineness may come from the overseas supplier, one questions the total commitment and sacrifices that the safari company on the ground actually has and how much of a difference it really is making.

Is the company only paying and getting away with the bare minimum - as per their pledges or their tender for their concession? Is it a question of doing the humanitarian work because it’s in their interest to remain in good favour with the community in order to get renewal of tenure to operate? If they were operating in a Government concession (e.g. a national park) where they have no obligations to a community, would they focus on trying to employ locally and would they embark on community-based projects and spend money in those communities? Would they self-impose a levy? Would they put their money where their mouth is and, for example, give from their profits and pledge their visitors to match that?

These are the questions we should all be asking.

Sometimes my wife and I feel that perhaps we ought to just keep it quiet for fear of being painted with the same brush as those who provide excellent lip service - but really aren’t in it for the right reasons.

However, the reality is that as one’s business grows, it becomes more and more difficult to stay in the background and to not enjoy the PR one gets from your efforts in developing communities.

It is a question of finding the right balance. I’m sure you’ll find that in South Africa and other countries the trend is growing, but as it does grow and people start to align themselves with being green, there needs to be a self-audit mechanism of some sort.

I hope this all makes sense. What is important is for one to make a difference in one’s own way, no matter how insignificant that may seem. As they say: “every journey begins with a single step.”

We are certainly infants at this and we are keen to learn from others who have done an excellent job in empowering local communities far and beyond.

MARTIN: Please can you tell me a little about the challenges you and your company are facing in tourism in Zimbabwe at the moment, and what your feelings are about the future for the industry in that country?

BEKS: Zimbabwe is one of Africa’s finest non-commercial tourism destinations and still has remote and very unspoilt places for the adventurous.

The potential for tourism here is overwhelming. However, over the last ten years we’ve seen what was one of Africa’s top destinations for British and Australian travellers descend into being one that people associate with strife - and in fact now associate with war-torn countries such as the Sudan, Sierra Leone, etc.

This country was one of Southern Africa’s strong-holds in terms of a sound economy with huge investments coming in. Two and a half years ago we developed a safari camp in Hwange National Park (Somalisa Camp – www.somalisacamp.com). This is an area I’ve always been passionate about because its near the village where I was born and where I lived for the first few years of my life.

When I first started guiding more than thirteen years ago, there were more than 35 safari camps in the area: today only a handful still operate. You can imagine the ripple effects on non-employment and tourism value - which is no longer as prevalent as it was.

If you think about it, each of the 35 camps probably employed well over 20 people each – that means over 700 people. And the chances are that each of them supported at least an average of 4 people: this brings the number of people to roughly 3,000 that tourism was supporting, not to mention the various associated industries and businesses around Hwange National Park.

Today this is reduced to less than 500 people - one sixth of what it used to be.

Without employment and with economic strife people have no incentive to protect the natural resources. Also, people (guests) simply don’t want to travel and worry about their safety. With the recent travel advisories in the UK and Australia, the British and the Australians won’t come here because they cannot even get travel insurance. For example by law in the UK, the travel company has to advise the traveller in an almost discouraging way that Zimbabwe has a travel warning and that non-essential travel is not advisable. We are very fortunate and have had some outstanding support from our travel partners in the UK, Australia and the USA who continue to support Zimbabwe regardless, but it is a tough sell - especially when you think about the tonnes of other destinations offering great safaris (and above all - safety!).

The story is simple: no visitors = no tourism = deteriorating natural resources.

A few of us have taken ownership of the areas in which we operate and are protecting them and their surroundings and encouraging the local communities to get involved - the idea being that if we can hold out, we’ll still have a fine product to show when the situation turns around. However with very little tourism, we can only hold out for so long.

So many overseas people in the industry are upbeat and keen to see the situation change and they want to start selling Zimbabwe again - but it’s too much hard work at the moment trying to sell Zimbabwe and there are too many frustrations in trying to convince people to travel to Zimbabwe when there is so much else of Africa on offer.

Why Zimbabwe?

MARTIN: The future?

BEKS: I’m confident about the future of tourism in Zimbabwe, I feel it is necessary for us to stay and get involved in tourism as the country will need its people to re-build it when it takes the positive turn.

As I write to you we are looking at developing two more safari camps - in Matusadona National Park (which is an awesome Black Rhino haven) and in Mana Pools (which is a World Heritage site that’s often described as God’s own play ground because of its beauty and its abundance of wild life).

It is crazy to be looking at spending millions on developing a tourism product at this stage in a country like Zimbabwe. The challenge will be three-fold: 1) the logistics of getting anything done - like paper work, permits, etc. - bearing in mind the frustration of people expecting back-handers to encourage them to do what they’re employed for; 2) keeping financially alive and holding out and to keep going by convincing tourists to travel to Zimbabwe; and, 3) finding capable and passionate labour and human resources to stay in Zimbabwe and help grow the business and the economy.

So yes, there is some serious potential for the country and so much could be done. I know for a fact there are big companies investing on the quiet at the moment - so obviously there are other people who see the potential.

It’s a question of having the capital to plug in and wait it out.

MARTIN: Now for the sensitive one - and on another tack altogether: most of the smaller tour and safari organisations I know are owned and managed by whites. Where are the blacks? Does my perception about ownership hold true - or is it just in South Africa? If so, how do we ever get over the bwana game colonial style of African Safari - and is it necessary to do so? Or does one offer the tourist what he or she wants, bearing in mind that most non-African tourists (to South Africa at least) come from the UK and the EU?

BEKS: There is a certain aspect of what a safari is associated with and we will never get over those perceptions. There is a certain romance associated with the safari and there’s too much history embedded in the concept. However, times have changed now and it is up to the black tourism people to stand out and face the challenge with confidence and display their ability to be competitive and offer as good a product as anybody else.

The challenge is there purely because of association of some of the bad eggs that have come through the system.

Also, some black people have burnt certain operators overseas who have tried to support them - which leaves a bad taste - but whilst there are as many white people who have done the same, the association is never the same. The challenge will be there for many years to come and it is harder for a black tourism company to break in than it is for white-owned businesses: but it is possible and you need to be prepared to go through some serious testing and undermining (from your competitors and even your suppliers) before you’ll be accepted.

This has been a challenge - certainly for me - but having been involved from the age of 18, I’ve been focused and exposed myself to the right circles and kept at it and fought through it.

My understanding and experience in the industry has helped me break through.

Whilst it is a challenge doing business for the first time or approaching suppliers that do not know me, it is possible to get their attention, but it takes time and lots of focus and energy. Often I find on my marketing trips that people do not know that I’m the owner until much later - when we start doing business - and sometimes that is the best way.

This is how it should be: it should first be about what you have to offer in terms of your product and thereafter about the kind of people behind the product and their philosophy as opposed to their colour.

It is our responsibility as tourism people to educate people from overseas and show them that there is tourism outside the colonial mould. And people actually want to know what else there is out there - often when I guide safaris, my guests tell me that their experience would not have been complete without the interaction of local people and communities.

As the world becomes more liberal it will become easier and no doubt black people who have a good product and the right principles will become the new faces of Africa as opposed to the dying breed of bwanas - so your perception holds true.

MARTIN: Thanks again for your support for TTW, Beks - and I’ve subscribed to your newsletter, too.

… Wonderful thing, This Tourism Week - it puts me in touch with the
most amazing people.

Beks Ndlovu, CEO – African Bush Camps Group

beks@africanbushcamps.com - www.africanbushcamps.com