Author: HFT

The tourism industry has been my bread and butter for most of my life.  It started with my incorporating a tour company in 1995 just as South Africa was opening to international tourism. I was the first qualified field guide in the Eastern Cape and later became the approved tour guide trainer for the region.  At various times I have owned a tourist information office, an advertising agency specializing in marketing tourism businesses,  sat on the board of directors of various tourism organisations and a been a publisher of travel magazines and websites.

Southern Africa is my home and the diversity of cultures,  scenery and fauna and flora are what make it so special.  I have a passion for exploring and have done so by driving, hiking, strolling, cycling, boating, sailing, diving and flying and know that their is still so much more to see.  

Along the way their are so many amazing places to stay and to eat and they are an integral part of what makes this such a special place. These private and public tourism enterprises play a huge part in ensuring that our natural environment remains intact.

I am a fervent conservationist.  I have served on the Board of Trustees of Bayworld and am currently a director of Bay Action Network Alliance. I believe that tourism is one of the few effective ways of protecting a dwindling natural heritage in the face of overpopulation and irresponsible and selfish exploitation of natural resources. Sadly conservation for conservation sake is as out of date as fax machines and typewriters.  Animals and conservation areas must make more money from tourism than they can from exploitation to ensure their long term survival.  It is for this reason that I love working with responsible tourism organizations around Southern Africa.