A very long time ago, our Dutch founder Jaap and his wife, settled on these shores after having travelled the entire globe as marketing executives in the tourism industry, to start their own South African travel agency. As a true peoples person, it is never long before Jaap finds himself in an interesting conversation. And so, one day he met Loyiso Mfuku. Loyiso was working as a security guard at the gateway to Robben Island. Loyiso and Jaap were chatting away about life, work, family, South Africa, politics and missed opportunities in life. They became friends and Jaap, impressed by Loyiso passion and zest for life, asked him to work with him. Jaap taught him everything he knew about the tourism industry and doing business and Loyiso soon became one of the most knowledgeable consultants in the company. It only took the trust, time and mentorship of one person, for Loyiso to learn new skills and excel at the job he didn’t study for, but that now could support him and his whole family.

Inspired by this, Jaap and Loyiso dreamed up Abang Africa Travel. They wanted to have a bigger positive impact and looked for opportunities to support others to create and grow too. Tourism became the vehicle for that opportunity. Together they looked at different ways for local South Africans to share in the benefits that tourism bring, but, concerned of the potentially negative long term effects that tourism also has, think of new more eco friendly ideas to reshape South African holidays and safaris entirely.