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Specialist African Safari Consultants and Safari Booking Agents. |
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Specialist African Safari Consultants and Safari Booking Agents. |
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Eco-Tourism... as seen by Wilderness Safaris
Please click on
the hyperlinks for more detailed information...
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African Safari Consultants and our
colleagues whom we represent, offer you an Africa of vast, wild spaces and unparalleled
luxury, embraced by a commitment to care - of land, wildlife and people - for which, to
name just one company,
Wilderness
Safaris, has received worldwide acclaim.
The exclusive camps and lodges we have chosen to list on this "Safari Directory", are synonymous with the most breathtaking locations, personalized service, interpretive wildlife experiences and fine cuisine. |
Wilderness Safaris' Credo:-
At Wilderness Safaris we
believe that in the world’s wilderness areas lies
the preservation of humankind. We want to make a
difference in people’s lives by enabling them to find new
paths, and by leaving a legacy of conservation for our
children.
Since 1983, Wilderness Safaris has specialized in privately hosted safaris and memorable wildlife experiences in the most remote and pristine areas in southern Africa. Our goal is to share these wild areas with guests from all over the world while at the same time making use of the benefits of tourism by contributing to the local communities, helping to ensure the future protection of Africa’s spectacular wildlife heritage. Why Choose Wilderness Safaris There are many safari companies in Africa and a vast array of areas to choose from so why choose Wilderness? You will notice that our brochure focuses on the incredible wild places in which we are privileged to operate and less on our lodges. These magnificent areas, far off the beaten tourist tracks of Africa, represent for our guests and for ourselves a way of reconnecting with our primeval nature and spirit that often gets trapped in our busy everyday lives. The locations and the feeling of being in true, prime and remote wilderness areas means everything to us. The way we host our guests enhances the physical beauty and spirit of these pristine areas. Passionate and dedicated people run our camps. Our aim is to share with you all we have learnt: - on game drives, on foot, by canoe or mokoro.
The key to a successful
African safari is to ensure that the company you choose is
truly capable of providing what you are looking for in
terms of the reserves in which the lodges and camps are
situated, the wildlife viewing opportunities, the design
and style of the camps and most importantly the knowledge
and quality of the guides and staff.
The reserves we profile are
large, exclusive and offer unbeatable experiences. We have
displayed these areas in our brochure knowing that each
camp and lodge has a superb location. Here are some good
reasons why we feel you should consider choosing
Wilderness Safaris to host you in southern Africa:
* We have 21 years of
experience in running southern African safaris.
* Dedicated conservationists and guides own and run Wilderness Safaris and in doing so, they do what they enjoy most. * We have the best locations and are privileged to traverse over vast acres of prime, mostly completely private African wilderness. * Even though some of our camps are located within countries where malaria can occur, we have a superb malarial safety record. Our camps are sprayed regularly and are far removed from populated areas where malaria may occur. Many camps have the new "Mossie Magnet" machine that further helps to minimize the mosquito numbers. * Through The Wilderness Trust, we support strategic conservation causes across southern Africa * We contribute directly to the upliftment of the communities who live closest to the parks and reserves in which we operate. This ensures that these communities become conservationists in their own right and do not have to turn to poaching to survive. We turn the potential poachers into ardent conservationists * By working with communities, we have converted close to half a million acres of land into prime wildlife reserves and conservancies that now have formal conservation protection. * Wilderness Safaris is recognized worldwide for our efforts in conservation. We don't practice conservation in name only. In January 2003 Wilderness Safaris was awarded the "Oscar" of the eco-tourism industry - The World Legacy Award for nature based tourism presented by Conservation International & National Geographic. In October 2003 Wilderness Safaris received the prestigious ASTA Environmental Award * Our camps are small and intimate - most have less than 10 rooms. * We have a no hunting policy in all our reserves, so animals are relaxed, enabling us to offer the best possible game viewing. * Repeat guests form a huge portion of our business and many of our guests have been on safari with us more than 10 times. * We ensure that the camps have their own individual flair. Although the design of each camp varies, each lodge or camp has a warm homely atmosphere. We are not offering a sterile hotel chain in the bush. * We take our responsibility to the environment seriously and look for the same sentiment in our guests. Wildlife and wilderness is our prime motivation and the main reason why our guests choose us. It's an opportunity to escape the pressures and excesses of city living Ð a life changing experience, a journey of self discovery and enrichment. * Wilderness guides take a more holistic view of the environments we operate in and give our guests a broader and more rounded experience than other more traditional areas of Africa where the emphasis is sometimes solely on the "Big 5" and spas in the bush.
Our Credo
*Our credo is what everyone
working for Wilderness agrees on, prior to joining the
company - and what we do as a company to guide us in our
day-to-day decision making.
*We are a group of likeminded
companies and individuals who strive to provide the finest
possible safaris in Africa's truly wild places. Marketing
and operating under the Wilderness Safaris umbrella, these
companies, which operate independently in each country,
are driven by core values.
They are all holistic, conservation-orientated, non-consumptive, caring and ethically driven operations.
*We believe that low volume,
low impact, non-consumptive tourism is the most successful
way to create a sustainable engine for economic growth in
a country, for its peoples, our staff and partners. Our
activities must help stimulate these economies, so that
all stakeholders help protect the environment and its
wildlife.
*Everything we do as a travel
and safari company must add value: from the countries in
which we operate, the environment, the local communities,
the people who work for us, our guests, our partners and
finally, the company.
*We put the environments in
which we work above everything else. Our company's ethos
means we can say no to guest's requests if that request
compromises our principles (i.e. is harmful to the
environment, their safety or the safety of our employees).
*We recognize that one of our
primary resources is our staff. They are, in every
respect, the interface between our products, the
environment, our guests and our clients.
*We believe that it is our
responsibility to employ from, train and help uplift the
communities in the areas where we are represented. We wish
to promote the prosperity of these rich cultures, the
wildlife that surrounds them and the unspoiled places they
occupy. We aim to provide the framework to enable these
communities to fully embrace their environmental and
cultural heritages and become the custodians of the
future.
*On our safaris and in our
camps, we host, entertain and educate our guests, striving
to give them holistic experiences that will produce new
(or reaffirmed) conservationists and create guests for
life. At the end of the safari, our guests should become
the new ambassadors for Wilderness Safaris and for Africa
taking Africa's messages of hope and conservation success
around the globe.
*Hosting guests is our primary
concern. We endeavor to create an ambience in the camps
that makes our guests feel as though they are in their
hosts' home. Our employees have to enjoy interacting with
guests and understand that our future depends on how well
we look after our guests and how much they enjoy their
stay with us.
*Guides, their knowledge and
the way they interact with our guests can make or break a
safari and Wilderness firmly believes that we have gone
the extra mile to train our guides to a level that is
unrivalled in the industry. They also have a genuine love
for their countries, what they do and the people they
meet.
*We always live by the
principle of 'under promising and over delivering' and
always act in all our dealings with integrity!
Our vision and goals
Around 80% of the world's
terrestrial biodiversity can be found on only 5% of the
earth's surface. The key to the continued species
diversity on the planet is to be found in the sustainable
protection of this 5% - the areas known as environmental
"hotspots". These are areas of extremely high species
diversity (or "endemism"), that are found nowhere else on
earth.
The core philosophy of
Wilderness Safaris is to run a good business ensuring that
southern Africa's most pristine wilderness and wildlife
areas remain sustainably protected - while delivering a
great experience for our guests and fair returns for
shareholders and stakeholders. Wilderness Safaris tourism
projects must help protect and nurture these wild places
and our environmental "hotspots". Nearly every region
where we have developed a low-density tourism operation,
is in an area of high species diversity and/or is a key
wilderness area. We are proud that our projects have
helped to protect these reserves and have often increased
the amount of land under conservation protection.
We achieve this protection by
hosting guests in remote areas and by sharing the income
streams with the governments, villagers and communities
who live on the periphery of these great wild areas and
reserves. When rural villagers are brought directly into
the tourism mainstream through our unique partnership
models, we are able to nurture the potential poachers and
convert them into the best gamekeepers. The benefits of
tourism through this model (dividends, cash, jobs,
training and community upliftment) while at the same time
conserving the land are what is needed in Africa to ensure
that rural communities have the necessary incentives to
protect their wildlife and neighboring reserves.
It's a true win-win model for
everyone.
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Our guests experience the ancient drama of Africa's great wildlife spectacle - a theatre to which people are drawn again and again. It begins in the intimate lodges and camps, located in many private game reserves and national parks across the continent, blending evocative architecture with innovative cuisine and personal service. We welcome each guest as a friend, and hope to offer the traveler with a rich experience which leaves them enlightened uplifted and even spiritually renewed. From our lodges and camps, our guests embark on game drives and guided walks, (or on horseback or even from atop of an elephant) probing the wilderness. Guests are guided by rangers, game scouts and trackers who are rigorously selected and trained, for it is their interpretation which unlocks the mysteries of the wild, introducing guests to a new philosophy based on harmony with the forces of nature. |
Awards Received by Wilderness Safaris
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2002/3 World Legacy Award |
| 2002/3: Awarded World Legacy Award by Conservation International and National Geographic Traveler, for pioneering work with communities and conservation. |
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2003 ASTA Ecotourism Award |
| Wilderness Safaris received the 2003 ASTA Environmental Award at the ASTA (American Society of Travel Agents) World Travel Congress, in recognition of its outstanding achievements in the preservation and protection of the environment, particularly as it relates to responsible tourism. |
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2003 Harpers & Queen Ultimate Travel Guide: "150 Greatest Escapes in the World" |
| The River Club (Zambia) was named one of the world's most luxurious camps by the Harpers and Queen Ultimate Travel Guide: 150 Greatest Escapes in the World. According to Harpers and Queen, "the River Club in Livingstone embodies all the eccentric character of colonial-style Africa. Ten sumptuous open-fronted chalets look down on the sparkling waters of the Zambezi River." |
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2003 Imvelo Award for best Community Tourism Partnership - Rocktail Bay |
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Rocktail Bay Lodge won South Africa's Imvelo Award in 2003 for the
best community tourism partnerships. The Imvelo Awards enable
hospitality and tourism businesses to illustrate their commitment
to responsible tourism and to showcase their economic, social and
environmental achievements. The Imvelo Responsible Tourism Award, a benchmark award for responsible tourism, came into being in 2002 at the World Earth Summit. The criteria for this award include sound environmental, social and economic principles that offer a way to minimize environmental impact, benefit local communities and reduce poverty. Rocktail Bay Lodge won the inaugural award in the category of Best Community Initiative. |
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2004 Conde Nast Traveler - Mombo Camp |
| Mombo Camp ranked sixth in the Best of the Best in the World category as well as the second Best Safari Camp in Africa in the Conde Nast Traveler 17th Annual Reader's Choice Awards. |
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2004 Travel & Leisure Awards - Second Best Tour Operator |
| Travel and Leisure Magazine, largest selling travel magazine in the world, named Wilderness Safaris as the second best Tour Operator worldwide in their 2004 World's Best rankings. These rankings define excellence in travel around the globe. In addition, in the Overall Hotels category, our Mombo Camp in Botswana ranked 12 best in the world. |
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2004 UNDP Equator Prize - Torra Conservancy |
| Namibia's Torra Conservancy - including Damaraland Camp - made history by becoming the first Southern African rural community to win the prestigious US$30 000 UNDP Equator Prize 2004. This prize promotes sustainable use of natural resources, honoring outstanding community projects that effectively reduce poverty through conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity-rich equatorial belt. |
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2005 Condé Nast Gold List |
| Mombo
and Ongava Lodge are on this latest Condé Nast list of the World's
Best Places to Stay, in which more than 20,000 Condé Nast Traveler
subscribers completed the reader's choice poll, naming the world's
best hotels, resorts and cruise lines. Out of the entire Africa
and Middle East region, Mombo received an incredible 100% of the
votes in The Best Hotels and Resorts in the rooms and activities
categories. In addition, Mombo obtained 97.4% of the votes in the
service and design categories. Ongava Lodge (Etosha, Namibia) was
included on the Gold Reserve List. |
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2005 Tourism for Tomorrow Conservation Award |
| The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) named Wilderness Safaris' Damaraland Camp as the overall winner of the Tourism for Tomorrow Conservation Award 2005. |
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2005 Travel + Leisure - 3rd Best Tour & Safari Operators |
| Wilderness Safaris came third in Travel + Leisure Magazine's WORLD'S BEST Tour Operators and Safari Outfitters. Their readers rated the very best in travel in the magazine's 10th ANNUAL WORLD'S BEST AWARDS READERS' SURVEY. |
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2005 UK Telegraph Travel Award for Ethical Tourism |
| In October 2005, Wilderness Safaris received the UK Telegraph Travel Award for Ethical Tourism at the Royal Opera House, London. It was presented to Colin Bell of Wilderness Safaris by Graham Boynton, UK Telegraph's Travel Editor, for the company's outstanding work in sustainable safaris, investing in local communities and ensures the protection of African wildlife. |
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Other awards 1999-2001 |
| 2001
Condé Nast Traveler - Best Tour Operator Wilderness Safaris was awarded "Best Tour Operator" by Condé Nast Traveler Magazine in its June 2001 issue. 1999 Tourism for Tomorrow Award Rocktail Bay Lodge won the British Airways Tourism for Tomorrow Award, which recognizes organizations that make a positive contribution towards their local natural and cultural environment. |
Please use one of the links below, to get a better understanding of how Wilderness Safaris is involved in Nature Conservation and Community Upliftment.
We invite you to celebrate with us the exotic splendors of this dear land, and become part of a unique experience in conservation and harmony.
Please complete our short safari
inquiry form, in order to enable us to assist you with the planning of
a vacation of a lifetime - a Safari in Africa!
African Safari
Consultants
1042 Willow Creek Road # A101 - 240
Prescott, AZ 86301
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