Hello from southern Africa

So, we hope that this edition of the TOU E-NEWS finds all of you well. It’s been four months since our last TOU E-NEWS and we are approaching the end of our season. Once again, we have a fair bit of news and updates and are not going to waste any time getting right into it. Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any queries, or just a need to say ‘HELLO’!

Tourism update
Tourism in southern Africa has continued to boom, and it has been an amaizing year in southern Africa, with record occupancies and a great deal of interest. The region has coped extremely well with the ‘boom’ and ensured continued quality and security for all guests to the region.

NAMIBIA:
A lot of development has gone on over the past 12 months with regards to new camps and lodges. We have managed to see most of them and are pleased to say that most of them are of exceptional standard and all based on low volume tourism. A few that come to mind are; MUSHARA OUTPOST, ONGUMA TREE TOPS CAMP, WOLWEDANS BOULDERS CAMP and the HOANIB CAMP (of which we have almost exclusive use). The developments within Etosha National Park have also come to an end and we are impressed with the result … it was an overhaul long overdue. We have also been able to offer an authentic bushman experience, using NHOMA CAMP which is situated in the heart of what was once known as Bushmanland. It really is a once in lifetime experience.
Air Namibia has decided to drop one of its direct flights from London, and added another weekly flight from Frankfurt. This means that there are still 7 direct Air Namibia flights out of Europe per week. Air Namibia has also increased its weekly flights between Maun, Victoria Falls and Windhoek, which will greatly assist with our Namibia and Botswana combination trips (they now fly all day except Tuesdays and Thursdays).
The ZAR (South African Rand) has weakened and again strengthened, but now seems to have stabilized.
Namibia has become extremely popular, and we can’t urge you enough to BOOK WELL IN ADVANCE. We still have fair capacity (but filling rather quickly), but it seems that our suppliers (camps and lodges) don’t. Namibia has the fastest tourism growth in Africa at present, approximately 7% annually.

REST OF THE REGION:
The entire region seems to be on a high, with the exception of Zimbabwe. Huge amounts of developments are going on in Zambia and it is becoming ever so popular. Botswana and South Africa are stable as ever and consistently busy. Botswana also has a lot of problems with availability and ADVANCE BOOKINGS are essential. Please bear in mind that until the middle of June Botswana offers fantastic low season rates. We have also run a few trips into east Africa with great success, but are obviously still very patriotic over the southern part of Africa and still think southern Africa offers one of the best tourism products around (especially Namibia).

So, we really hope that many of you decide to travel to Africa with us again soon, and that you book well in advance ... we can’t stress this enough.

Tou Safaris update
Tou Safaris has had a great high season and we have surpassed all our projections, which seemed very ambitious targets. The key now is to maintain this and to continue offering the quality and personal service we pride ourselves in.

GUIDES
Our guides have been very busy and are looking forward to a well deserved break. We had a new addition to our guides in the form of Tim Theron. Tim is an expert guide with a lot of experience. We have had great feedback regarding his work and are proud to have him on board. Uanee, Larry, Jerome, Tristan, Ole, Jan and Volker have been out on safari for most of the season, and as a result have returned with many great stories and sightings reports (the game viewing has been absolutely brilliant this year). Highlights were : Wild Dog sightings in Botswana, numerous leopard sightings in Etosha and fantastic birding.

‘CLIENT EXPERIENCE PAGE’ ON OUR WEBSITE
Larry is working on a ‘Client Experience Page’ for our website, where all sightings and guest experiences can be posted. It will be interactive and also allow you, our friends, to post ‘memories’ (photos, journal entries, poems, experiences, etc.). This will be kept up to date and should give you constant entertainment and keep Africa close by. Larry is currently busy with our webmaster and we hope to have it up and running soonest.

TRAVEL INSURANCE & TOU REFERENCE PAGE
We have also added new links to TRAVEL INSURANCE brokers, to ease this part of the planning of a trip to Africa. We are also hoping to have a ‘REFERENCE PAGE’ where we want to list guests with their phone numbers all around the world, to act as references for Tou Safaris. This will be on a truly voluntary basis and we may be contacting some of you in regard to this.

NEW VEHICLE
We have ordered the first of our new safari vehicles. The first one will be a converted 8-seater Toyota Land Cruiser, with plenty of space, air conditioning and a ‘pop-up roof’ for easy game viewing. Delivery date is in April 2008 and we hope to order another two (with different numbers of seats) soon after that. This is all in view of maintaining our reputation of offering the most comfortable safari vehicles available.

LOW SEASON
December, January and February seem to be quieter than the high season just past, which will allow all of us some time to catch our breath and get to all the things time didn’t allow for during the season.

SPECIALS!!!
TOU SAFARIS is running numerous specials (reduced rates) over this period, so please do not hesitate to contact us for a quote. The birding and game viewing are good during this period, and it is something special to experience a green Namib Desert. There has been virtually no rain thus far, and predictions are that we are not going to be getting much this summer.

DESTINATIONS
Namibia and Botswana are still our most popular destinations. Our east African trips have also become popular (Tanzania and Gorilla trekking in Uganda), but must add that very early reservations are essential (up to 18 months before travel).

TRIP ADVISOR Trip Advisor (www.tripadvisor.com) continues to bring us steady business. Thank you to those who have been involved and we would greatly appreciate any feedback on the site from guests who have had a good experience with us, as it appears to be quite popular and credible. This is really important to us and we appreciate any participation from you on this site.

SKYPE
Our SKYPE has been a popular method of communicating, especially through ‘written chats’. It is extremely affordable and very time efficient when trying to get all your questions answered quickly. Give it a try and we look forward to hearing from you.

NEW NAMIBIA GUIDEBOOK
We are delighted to inform you that our brand new ‘TOU SAFARIS NAMIBIA GUIDEBOOK’ is complete and has arrived with us. Each of our esteemed guests will be presented with this comprehensive 100 page guidebook on Namibia.

Tou Team
Our team has remained reasonably constant. Uanee will be back with us full time from March next year, when his contract with NWR (Namibia Wildlife Resorts) expires. We are delighted to have him back. Berlinda goes on maternity leave from the 15th of December and we wish her all the best for the birth of her second child. Tristan and Michele have finally decided to ‘tie the knot’ and recently got engaged at the Mowani Mountain Camp. Wedding plans are still in the making, but the wedding should take place sometime next year.

Tou Trust
The Tou Trust has had a good year, with not only the regular contributions from Tou Safaris coming in, but also numerous additional contributions coming in from our guests. We wish to thank the following guests for their contributions:

Tou Contributor (€ 249 and below):
Kathrin Blättler (Switzerland)
Uwe Schreier (Germany)
Arnold Schefer (Switzerland)
Tristan Cowley (Namibia)

Bronze Contributor (€ 250 - € 499):
Elizabeth Schwander (Switzerland)
Clive & Doris Cowley – Journey into Namibia (RSA)

Silver Contributor (€ 500 - € 999):
Hans Rütsch, Heinz & Ursula Widmer & Andreas Burckhardt (Switzerland)

Gold Contributor (€ 1,000 - € 2,499):
Tou Safaris (Namibia)

Our designer is currently busy with the new design for the official donation certificates. These will hopefully be done in the next months and all contributors will be receiving their official certificates.

Our next project will be to award a 2 year scholarship to an up and coming Namibian guide at the Namibian Academy for Tourism and Hospitality (NATH). The course fees are approximately NAD 30 000, with living expenses still to come. Tou Safaris will employ the guide as a trainee guide during the period of study, in order to ensure the candidate has some form of income. A selection process will take place early next year.

Tou Media
We are delighted with a recently published article by a journalist from Switzerland in a well known magazine called “GLÜCKS POST” in August of this year. The trip was guided by Tristan and was a great success.

Tou Involvements
Tou Safaris is still involved on a national tourism front, spending a substantial amount of time in the service of the boards of NATH, FENATA and TASA. Tristan is currently the Chairman of TASA and the Vice Chairman of NATH, while Larry is the Treasurer (both Larry and Tristan also lecture at NATH). Uanee will be lecturing at NATH from next year onwards. We are delighted to have the ‘TRAINERS’ of guides working for us and guiding our guests.

Conclusion
We sincerely hope you have enjoyed our fourth edition of the TOU E-NEWS, and we look forward to hearing from all of you, and hopefully welcoming you, your friends and family in southern Africa soon.

The Tou Safaris Team