ecoAfrica celebrates 10 years of responsible travel!     




 

History and initial concept

What is now ecoAfrica Travel (eAT) started life as African Alternatives back in 1995, on the cusp of the internet revolution that was set to change the world.

Back then already our slogan was “Promoting Responsible Tourism”. The idea of promoting responsible travel, and specifically ecotourism, stemmed from some research that Ralph Pina did into ecotourism and adventure travel for an MBA dissertation in 1994. That, Sias Mostert’s and Ralph’s (the founders) interest in matters environmental, South Africa shaking off its pariah status and the promise of the World Wide Web presented an opportunity with low-risk and minimal capital requirements that couldn’t be passed up.

The original name, African Alternatives, was born out of the idea of “alternative tourism”, which is a catch-all term for all those “tourisms”, including ecotourism, that are the antithesis of “mass tourism”. Some of the following quotes may convey the spirit of alternative tourism: "...independent, drifter travel by relatively small numbers of people to remote destinations, principally in the developing world"; "the traveller is preferred to the tourist, the individual to the group, specialist operators rather than large firms, indigenous accommodation to multinational hotel chains, small not large..."

With time we narrowed the focus to “ecotourism” because of its emphasis on nature-based, ethical travel, which fitted our interest in nature and conservation more closely, but which also – importantly - relied on what we regard as Africa’s unique competitive advantages, her wildlife and wilderness.

During 1997 our website was rebranded as ecoAfrica.com to reflect our increasing interest in ecotravel to Africa. Following a merger in 1998, an initial period of rapid growth but subsequent events which saw the founders’ ecotourism concept gradually being eroded and diluted, the company was reinvented as ecoAfrica Travel. On 1 February 2003 ecoAfrica Travel commenced operations under new management, with a new operations team, fresh energy and a fresh commitment to promoting true ecotourism.

The ecoafrica.com website has been in operation for ten years and in that time it has brought in excess of 20000 visitors to Africa on more than 10000 safaris and tours.

The ecoAfrica brand

The ecoAfrica brand differentiates itself from other travel brands by promoting true ecotourism. We strive to ensure that environmentally aware travellers are ensured of travelling with responsible hosts, in a sensitive manner to pristine places that have largely retained their ecological integrity. In this role we try to give peace of mind to the traveller that such a travel product has been selected and evaluated. We position ourselves to make the selection process easier and to strongly promote operations that strive for the extraordinary. This is our essential promise.

An essential component of our brand is the quality of our team and their values. We have for the first time been able to employ graduates qualified in ecology and environmental studies. This has paid dividends and lent credibility to our offering, greatly improved the quality of our team and the level of discourse within it. To this end we have run environmental ethics workshops for the team with a leading, local environmental philosopher.

Of our board of directors, two are post-graduates in environmental studies. Lynton Burger, our director for environmental ethics is a practising, environmental consultant while Ralph recently graduated with an MPhil in Environmental Management and wrote a research project on ecolabelling in tourism.

We employ a set of criteria, which reflects our value system, by which our travel partners are selected for inclusion on ecoAfrica.com:

Essential criteria
Products must:
1. Provide an authentic, nature-based experience of Africa's ecosystems
2. Enhance guests’ understanding and appreciation of the natural environment and optionally of indigenous cultures.
3. Provide ecologically sensitive facilities and operation
4. Not actively promote luring, taming or killing of wildlife

Optional criteria
5. Contribute to environmental research or conservation
6. Contribute to sustainable community development

Back in 1998, we developed ecoQuest as a sort of private ecolabel. But recently it has become a centrepiece of our strategy. Travel partners that satisfy one of the optional criteria above and “that go the extra ecological mile” are highlighted under our ecoQuest brand. ecoQuest is an information feature and not a grading or rating and does not pretend to be an ecolabel. With ecoQuest we try to channel business to the more ecologically friendly products. It is always positive, never judgemental. It highlights unique ecological, cultural and conservation features - such as conservation projects, benefits to local rural communities, superior guiding, reduced ecological footprint and awards and ecolabels - in the hope that this will inspire the traveller to visit or use these travel products.