A Rhino Round Up
It’s been another humdinger of a year!
We survived the supposed end of the world in May. We survived the struggling economy – people will always want to travel. We said goodbye to Oprah, Amy Winehouse and Steve Jobs. Apple lovers cried. Tiger Woods fell from grace. Google+ tried to trump Facebook. There was a Royal Wedding. Three women from Liberia and Yemen won the Nobel peace prize. Same-sex marriage was legalised in New York.
And at Rhino Africa… we were just as busy. We launched our new website! We’ve been updating it continuously, adding new luxury properties and exciting tours to bring you the best travel information and advice that we can. We moved offices, just a few hundred metres down the road, but what a great move as now we look out over the city of Cape Town and the beautiful Table Mountain from our windows. Take a look for yourself here.
We cycled across Namibia’s Damaraland desert for Challenge4aCause, raising a remarkable R658,062 for various charities. See the adventure here. We led a campaign to save the rhino outside Parliament in Cape Town with hundreds of supporters. Watch the video here. We also took Cape Town Pride by storm winning ‘best float’ with our Save The Rhino parade (watch the video here). Tragically the number of rhinos poached in 2011 increased to 443 which means that we must redouble our efforts in 2012 as the war against poaching continues.
We also launched our Mobile Site, a mini Rhino Africa in bite sized chunks summarising our most popular destinations and tours. Of course there is no substitute for our full site where you’ll find a whole continent’s worth of information and HD videos to inspire your next African trip.
Watch the video – Rhino Africa Migrates to Mobile
In September, we launched our French division and relaunched our German website. Read more here. A Spanish division is next in the pipeline. Estupendo, sí?
We established our new Flight Desk so that we can offer you some of the best available international air fares. Simply request a quote from one of our expert travel consultants when planning your itinerary. Booking your international flights with us means that we’ll have full control of your entire booking, increasing flexibility and reducing hassle for you. We also started Rhino Africa Corporate – a Division of Rhino Africa Safaris that acts as a full service travel agency specialising in bespoke corporate travel and providing travellers with swift, professional service and consultation.It’s travel at the speed of business.
We attended two IGLTA events this year. Our Rhino Africa MD and Founder, David Ryan is the South African Ambassador to the IGLTA and gave a speech at Cape Town’s first IGLTA meeting – read more in our blog. We also attended the IGLTA’S 28th Annual Global Convention in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and will be attending next year’s convention in Florianopolis, Brazil from 12-14 April 2012.
In 2012 we’ll also be attending the Los Angeles Times Travel Show from 27-29 January at the Los Angeles Convention Center and the New York Times Travel Show from 2-4 March at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, so if you’re in town, be sure to come and visit us.
We celebrated our 7th Birthday this year, took part in the Movember Challenge growing our ‘tashes to the extreme, played with tigers in Africa – believe it or not, and went on several inspiring educational trips to all parts of Africa – Botswana, East Africa with Singita Game Reserves, Victoria Falls, the Quirimbas in Mozambique, and shark cage diving on the Garden Route, to name a few. At Rhino Africa we spend a lot of time and money sending our team on educational trips to see and experience the destinations, lodges and hotels that we recommend to you. This allows us to provide you with the very best first-hand advice. Of course, we also spent most of the year taking you to the greatest destinations, hotels and lodges in Africa.
Experience these incredible destinations for yourself with our several unique to Rhino Africa specials. Visit the Specials page on our website and contact us to book.
Social Media
We spent a great deal of time this year – well, at least our video guru Ryan did – producing fresh new video content for our YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/rhinoafricasafaris). Be sure to give it a browse – to scratch your itchy feet on and let us know if we can take you to any of these wild and wonderful destinations.
Our Facebook page has also seen some updating and we’re growing in fans daily. Be sure to follow us or get your friends to “Like” us because, in the spirit of Christmas, we’ve been running a special “1 Like – 1 Dollar” drive. For every new Facebook Fan we receive, we’ll donate $1 to the Wildlife ACT Fund until we reach a target of $3,000! The quicker we get there, the quicker we’ll hand over the money to Wildlife ACT Fund – a group of dedicated on-the-ground conservationists on a mission to save our threatened and endangered wildlife species from extinction. ‘Like’ the Wildlife ACT Fund Facebook Page to find out more about what they’re up to.
We ended this year with an awesome Rhino Africa Christmas/End of Year Party – it was a mix between The Amazing Race and James Bond 007. Read about the adventure that was here. We gave back by hosting a special Christmas Party in Khayelitsha for Khumbulani Day Care – a charity we have supported for several years now. Read more about our Doing Good efforts for 2011 here.
It’s time to book your 2012 holiday! Make it a year that stands out from the rest by going on an African adventure of a lifetime. Our expert travel consultants are here to offer you free, no-obligation advice, so contact us today and let’s get planning!
We hope you had an amazing year too! We wish you a peaceful festive season filled with good cheer and dreams of Africa!
The Rhino Africa Team
I think we should raise money and awareness by selling flags and car mirror socks! We have to do something to get the support and awareness that is needed to protect these animals!
this is so sad!!!!! Wish we could do more….