tourism Archives – Afri-love

From mundane to magical with soulful branding

I recently received an unexpected invitation: to share the concept of soulful branding at a Kenya Ministry of Tourism & Wildlife conference! The title of my panel: “From mundane to magical.”

The first African Safari Summit brought together different stakeholders from the sector,to reimagine the African Safari. Players included government, hotel and lodge owners, tour operators and more. The ultimate goal? Over 4 million annual foreign tourist arrivals; over KES 1.14 trillion earned from tourism in 2030; and jobs provided for 3 million Kenyans.

I thought to myself – how progressive of the organisers to consider the power of soulful branding in this context!

To give you an example of how soulful branding can be applied in real life, I’m sharing what I prepared.

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Interview with My Father (My Hero!), Entrepreneur and Author, Paul Kitololo

My father, Paul Kitololo, has been an entrepreneur for all of my life. At the height of a successful career in the corporate world, he gave up the regular paycheck, the company car and, in many people’s opinion – his sanity – in order to start his own tour company. Over the next 3 decades, Private Safaris grew to be one of the most prestigious tour companies in Kenya and East Africa. I remember spending my Saturday mornings at his office as a child, busying myself on his secretaries typewriter (creating my ‘zine). I am still in awe at how my father successfully run the company while also: participating in or chairing several associations and boards; managing the Kenya Special Olympics team; writing a novel, Shortcut to Hell (published in 1983); making it to every single one of my parent-teacher evenings, as well as sports days and plays and; generally being so involved in my life.

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Interview with Social Entrepreneur Laura Marano of Green-Safari

I'm happy to introduce you all to Laura Marano, the driving force behind Green-Safari, a social enterprise that offers volunteer-tourism packages in Tsavo East, Kenya. With Green-Safari, not only do you get to experience the beautiful fauna and flora of one of Kenya's largest national parks, along with a stint at the Coast for some sea and sand – you also engage with local communities and support local social enterprises which contribute to the local community infrastructure (e.g. schools, sanitation, farming practices). Furthermore, Green-Safari is working on making the beauty of our wilderness accessible to all, no matter your abilities or diverse needs.

In this interview, Laura shares how she's gotten her social business off the ground. It's an inspiring story of how you can turn a negative situation into a fulfilling career by pursuing your passions, taking initiative and believing in yourself.

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