City and Safari entrenches footprint
Established in 2017 by two highly passionate Batswana, City & Safari International is one of the leading Destination Management Company (DMC) for Meetings, Incentive Travel and Luxury Safari in Southern Africa. Based in Gaborone, the company offers full Professional Conference Organising (PCO) services for large and small conferences and VIP/Diplomatic Post Conference Tours. The success of the company, and its growing footprint is noticeable particularly as Botswana is now positioning itself as a MICE destination.
Just this year alone, the country has hosted the second edition of the Forbes Under 30 Summit, where the company offered delegates a taste of Botswana, the US- Africa Business Summit, and will soon host the 73rd session of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Committee for Africa to be held from August 28th to September 1st. According to its Co-Founder, Tshepiso Mganga, they leave no stones unturned when it comes to offering their clients the best services possible.
This sees them working with reputable and creative suppliers. Committed to offering clients a seamless service, they arrange everything from airport transfers, hotel bookings, venue selection, registration, translation services, gifting, technical and spouse programmes. On top of this, they also offer post conference tour safari experiences combining lodging at luxury camps and lodges that offer a range of activities such as phenomenal game viewing activities, mokoro ride, scenic helicopters, hot air balloon safari, boating, and cultural experiences.
On top of these, Mganga explains that they offer meeting planning services. “One of our core offerings is bush boardrooms. We assist our corporate clients to plan unique meetings and hosting at serene destinations. We have top pick destinations for the board meetings which are also customised according to clients’ requirements,” she notes. In other news, she happily shares that community building is at the heart of City & Safari International ethos. One of their successful initiatives happens to be the Tourism Business Coaching & Mentorship (TBCMP) which was founded in 2020.
To date, the programme has mentored and coached nearly 100 tourism and hospitality enterprises in Botswana. The programme, she explains imparts practical skills to aspiring entrepreneurs who wish to venture into the tourism and hospitality industry, as well as tourism businesses that are already in operation including but not limited to hotels, lodges, guest houses, mobile safari operators, travel agents, tour operators, and travel photographers.
“The benefits derived by both start-ups and existing enterprises include but are not limited to the enhancement of awareness on aspects of running tourism and hospitality businesses in relation value proposition development and branding of products and services, financial management, legal and regulatory requirements, value chain management, key partners relationship management, as well as customer journey mapping,” she explains. Furthermore, the insights empower existing businesses to reposition their brands and offerings in the market to sustained competitive advantage and success of the various enterprises.
“This annual flagship programme concludes with an educational tour of the Chobe Game Lodge. The tour crystallizes elements of the Programme, specifically on running a sustainable facility in a remote area,' she said and further explained that the tour demonstrates the value of environmental sustainability, with the participants being sensitized on the level of investment that goes into developing and running an ecotourism product, including encapsulating aspects of reduce, re-use, and recycle in relation to all inputs of running the business.
Additionally, the participants also get to appreciate the return on investment of ecotourism in terms of reduction of costs of operations, enhanced profitability, as well as conservation of the ecosystem. For the next intake, she notes that they are planning to add an exhibition component to the programme, which aims to provide a platform for SMME sector to showcase product offerings.
The next year’s programme dates are also revised to February to April 2024 to align with Botswana’s low season since our programme has an educational element to it hosted in the northern part of the country, she says. 'We stop at nothing to make clients' experiences memorable, whether it be a conference, post conference tour or safari,” concludes Mganga.