One of the key people within the Green Safaris organization is Rosalind Hine who holds the position as business development manager. It was quickly apparent that Roz is deeply invested in African tourism especially in Zambia.
During our brief discussion about her and her role at Green Safaris she emphasized her love for the African bush and iterated that affordable African safari tours are within reach for just about anyone that is willing to jump on an overseas flight
Thank you Roz for your insights and all that you do to make affordable African safari tours available to any adventure traveller
RJZ: Why should overseas visitors come to Zambia?
RH: Well, Zambia itself has three amazing national parks, two are very well known, South Luangwa and the lower Zambezi, and the one lesser-known one is Kafue National Park. Having sold Zambia for the past 15 years and being involved in selling the whole of Southern Africa, I can say without a shadow of doubt that the game viewing is far superior from a game density point of view, as well as the low density in vehicles.
Since it is not that well known, it is almost like a jewel that has not been discovered. For example, the Busanga Plain up in the Northern Kafue. It is the size of the Mara and there are only four lodges in the whole area. I have just come back from spending three days there and it was just blew my mind.
So quality game viewing, you allowed off road and night drives without the major density of vehicles. It is almost as if you feel like you are in an area that has been untouched humans. While you still have the luxury of the various lodges, you feel like you are completely immersed in Africa. Then you combine that with the Victoria Falls. There is so much diversity, that is what is so wonderful about Zambia.
RJZ: Tell me what problems do you solve for either the tourist or retailers like myself? What problems does Green Safaris solve?
RH: Actually, quite a few. One of the things I think that has happened in the last while is that need to make sure that there is some sustainability around what we are doing, and it has not been whitewashed. Green Safaris was born out of being a foundation first and foremost.
After building their first lodge, Green Safaris realized the need to address the communities living outside the parks. As an example, trying to create water security for them. In this geographic, there is big rain for three months of the year, and then nothing for the rest of the year. So just be able to capture that water and hold it for eight months of the year, whilst allowing free flowing water gives the communities that water security and therefore food security. Green Safaris has made this a huge priority, in fact the tourism aspect comes second to the foundation.
There is an audited report that one can download. So just travelling with us, you already are contributing towards the sustainability drive in Africa. The 2nd thing is we realized that because it is not a well-known country, putting a trip together was always a bit difficult and expensive because you had to charter flights, etc. So, we have some great deals that incorporates our lodges and flights too. Four nights or more, you have your flights included, your airport taxes, your meet and greets.
We make sure that all the airports have lounges, so our guests do not wonder around aimlessly. We have introduced a WhatsApp up group between the lodge managers. So, you find out little nuances around clients at one lodge that maybe they forgot to tell their agent. That information gets fed back to the next lodge manager, which heightens and increases the client’s service at the next lodge. So, we are always trying to make things easier for both our clients and retailers to sell Green Safaris.
RJZ: Roz, what is your favourite destination personally and why?
RH: I have been very fortunate to be in this industry since I was 19 and on Thursday, I turn 57. So, I have been a consultant for a tour operator, managed lodges and now business development manager for Green Safaris. I have always loved travel in Africa. I have zero desire to travel outside Africa. It is the weird thing.
I think once you have seen one cathedral, you have seen them all. But for me, there is something spiritual about travelling in Africa. I love the connection with the people in Africa. I love the, the remoteness of it. But I am very blessed to have done Botswana and Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Malawi. I have got two sons of 20 and 16. I have been travelling with them since they were born into all these countries, and I would do it again and again and again.
My children love it, we love it. But my favourite destination must be Zambia and I am not just saying it, it always has been, even though I only got to the Busanga Plains for the first time in 2021.
RJZ: How do you see the tourism sector developing in Southern Africa, in the next sort of 5-10 years?
RH: That is an interesting question. I think that there are some Southern African destinations that have reached the ceiling in terms of what they are charging. There are some areas that will always be extremely popular. Zambia is still a very remote destination in terms of knowledge.
A lot of people do not know about it, must be sold rather than asked for, which is why we host a lot of family trips all the time trying to get people through so they can understand the product. I see more development in the communities. It started a long time ago, the social awareness and its sort of starting to gather speed. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be any parks that is untouched by poaching.
Even some of the well-known parks like the Sabi Sands who have major anti-poaching units and stuff like that have had two leopards that have been poached. So, yes, you have to start addressing community developments outside the parks and you can see that shift happening already and there will be a lot more of that.
RJZ: Can you give me a fun fact or experience, one that particularly sticks out, in your head in the last sort of 30 or 40 years since you have been in the industry that has happened to you?
RH: Oh my god, my favourite thing I ever experienced was in the lower Zambezi having lunch in the water. It was a complete surprise. They put us in the hovercraft boats. This was before Green Safaris purchased Sausage Tree. I was staying there even before they did their 2018 renovation and it was still my best holiday ever.
My husband says the same and my children were very young then and they put us on this hovercraft boat and we came around the corner and there was this huge marquee in the middle of the water on a sandbank and there the waiters were standing and we climbed out and we had this lunch while we were sitting in the water and my children were swimming, It was pretty hot, it was September / October got to about 40 degrees during the day and they were swimming in the water pretending to be crocodiles. I got the most incredible photographs of them in there. That has never left me nor my family.
RJZ: Just to end off, can you give me a sort of a brief, succinct description of who you are, where you have come from and how you have gotten to where you are today?
RH: So, I started off by going to hotel school when I left my high school. At the time, I did not come from a very wealthy family. We could not afford university. I went off and did a year’s course as a front office manager. I then ended up getting a job at hotel Braamfontein which had an in-house tour operator and I then gravitated from there into tourism as it were.
I decided I did not like really working at hotels because of those long hours, but I rather enjoyed planning people’s trips and seeing what came out of it afterwards. I then met my now husband, who was a ranger at Sabi Sabi Game Lodge. I had become a reservations consultant at Sabi Sabi and because we wanted to be together, we ended up managing a lodge in the Sabi Sands. In 94 we left to go overseas for a bit. I ended up opening a tour operating division in London. I missed South Africa, I missed Africa so much.
I think I lost the year in the UK and then headed straight home and got involved in being a reservations consultant to a tour operator. I ended up doing sales and marketing for a tour operator that specialised in Zambia and Zimbabwe and then Tongabezi which is now a lodge of Green Safaris for 15 years which is where our paths crossed.
My husband and I opened a retail agency selling last minute South African residents’ rates to South Africans to full the of gaps for the lodges. We bought into a lodge ourselves in the Sabi Sands, a little sole-use villa which we still own and my husband runs. Vincent asked me to come back in 2021 to Green Safaris and that is how I’ve ended up back selling the country that I love.
Interested in finding out more about great deals to Zambia, please feel free to email me: rael@wildsunsets.travel or check out some of our specials at www.wildsunsets.travel
