A Note From Our CEO

Dear Travel Family

As the year draws to a close, I once again have the privilege of speaking to you all about the year that was and talk a little bit about our hopes for the future.

The industry in Southern Africa has seen a tumultuous year in 2019. Between intermittent load shedding, SAA strikes, droughts in Namibia and Botswana, elections in South Africa and Namibia, negative media reports regarding crime and unrest, it certainly has had its fair share of challenges! The rest of the world didn’t fare much better, with the sad demise of Thomas Cook plc, the ongoing Brexit negotiations, the impeachment of Donald Trump, the riots in Hong Kong all having an impact on economies, travel patterns, and the tourism industry. There have been some bright spots too: the South African government finally saw the light and revoked the “Unabridged Birth Certificate” requirements for tourists, the Western Cape dam levels are at their highest since 2014, the #nowherebetter campaign has resonated locally and abroad and the Rand hasn’t done quite as much flip-flopping as in recent years.

South Africa winning the Rugby World Cup must count as one of my personal highlights. The incredible stories around the players that were able to win in the face of personal adversity, the deep humility and human-ness of our captain Siya Kolisi, the demonstration of how much can be achieved if you just want it badly enough and work hard for it, have lifted the South African people up, brought us closer together and broken down barriers like nothing I have seen.

I most certainly don’t want to compare Private Safaris to the Springboks, but there is one thing that the team here has in common with them. Despite the odds, and despite a really tough economy and tourism outlook for Southern Africa, Private Safaris has prevailed and has come out on top. We have managed to more than double our business over this year – an incredible achievement considering the circumstances. And we have done so whilst celebrating each other, keeping our sense of humour (well, mostly 😊), learning and improving as we’ve gone along, and by working hard and believing that we can do it.

When you make an omelette you also need to break some eggs, so I would like to most importantly thank our dear clients for their patience this year when we were in the thick of things; for their willingness to go on this journey with us, and for their friendship and partnership that has allowed us to become better and hopefully create lasting memories for our mutual customers along the way.

We could also not do any of this without the support from our supply partners: thank you for believing in us when times were tough, and for all you do to make our travellers’ experiences unforgettable.

It’s no secret that I love the team at Private Safaris, and that I regard it as one of my life’s great joys to be able to come to work every day and see the passionate, funny, hardworking, and sometimes quirky individuals that make up the team in Cape Town and in Windhoek. You know you’re all amazing, and now you can also proudly say that you were part of the team that saw us go from strength to strength!

The reality is that the state of flux in the world is the new normal. In order to thrive in this climate of constant change, a business has to dedicate itself to identifying opportunities to becoming more flexible, more responsive and more curious. That is what Private Safaris hopes to achieve in 2020: finding ways in which we can work faster, smarter, more accurately, so that we can free ourselves up to do the things we’re really good at, which is providing excellent service and destination expertise, and making dreams come true.

Wishing you and your loved ones a wonderful time between the years, and a blessed and prosperous 2020!