CEO of Dragonfly Africa and Green Route Africa, Mike Waller, ponders on what he terms a “magnificent November”.
If Movember moustaches were attributable to a rebound of the tourism industry, many of us would resemble (the band) ZZ Top by now. What an extraordinary month it has been for us all in tourism, and no less so for Dragonfly Africa.
A year ago we placed a moratorium on our team taking leave in November, to ensure our leaner post-COVID machine could operate Dragonfly’s largest ever high-end pure incentive travel programme – perhaps even the largest incentive travel programme to operate in Southern Africa – with 850 American insurance brokers, many first-time visitors, pouring into Johannesburg off 17 international flights.
Together with our Green Route Africa brand, we somehow operated nine other programmes stretching from Rwanda and Kenya to Mauritius and Cape Town, over the same 10-day period. And simultaneously hosted a USA family trip to the Mara and the gorillas, and dispatched two of our sales team to Brazil and Scandinavia.
I can only describe it as a formidable team effort from all 47 of our staff. No task was too big or small, and every detail tackled with gusto and ‘gees’ (spirit) – even the Springboks would have been proud.
The Highveld weather played its part, with a seamless dispatch of no fewer than 160 charter movements to 49 private game lodges, from Pafuri to Phinda, Kapama to Madikwe and Thornybush to the Sabi Sands.
It was an intricate and meticulously planned chain of events, pulled off without a hitch. I am immensely proud of what our team achieved. The massive programme concluded with three incredible evening events in the Mother City. The gala evening was staged in a massive jet hangar transformed into the Cape Winelands, with a send-off from the internationally acclaimed Ndlovu Youth Choir.
There must have been some hiccups, you could ask. A man fell off his e-bike, hordes of guests continually lost and were reunited with their i-Phones, sneakers and other assorted paraphernalia. But that was it. Not a single stray suitcase, and there were mountains of them. No missed flights (two technical issues but we had standby aircraft), no grumpy clients and no spats amongst staff. What a November!
