Thornybush

Exciting things are happening at the Thornybush Luxury Game Lodge Collection. On the edge of Kruger National Park, the classic bush landscape is home to the Big Five, and guests come from around the world to experience the iconic South African safari while being hosted in the unique Thornybush accommodation. With big investments recently and about to get underway, this is a business moving forwards with confidence.

The Thornybush Luxury Game Lodge Collection in Limpopo and Mpumalanga is opening the door on a new growth phase as it welcomes a new CEO, a recent 50 million Rand investment in Saseka Tented Camp and a further 15 million investment to modernise and refurbish two of its sites.

First fenced in 1955 and built and operated since 1961, Thornybush [Please add in that Thornybush is now unfenced, forms part of the Greater Kruger National Park which encompasses Kruger National Park and a selection of private reserves to the west of Kruger National Park. In total the entire area covers 20,000,000 hectares of unfenced, wild reserve with free movement of animals across this entire area. Thornybush, which sits on the verges of the Kruger National Park, is the second oldest commercial lodge in South Africa. Its reach spans some 14,500 hectares and its 12 luxury accommodation offerings wow both international and domestic tourists every year.

At the beginning of July, Thornybush announced Joanne Dickson as the company’s new CEO. An industry veteran with more than 25 years experience in African travel and tourism, Joanne brings a wealth of knowledge and ideas that will help the business to further improve its reputation with guests.

First on her to do list is refurbishments at Chapungu and Waterside, while investigating other new opportunities.

“We have two lodges that will be completely overhauled,” she says. “First is a tented safari camp which is immensely popular but we want to relaunch that with a complete refurb and rebuild in some areas. We are also totally refurbishing Waterside. We are in this for the long-haul, we are passionate believers, and we are strong investors. Our shareholders are not conservative in their investment; they have committed a further R15 million over the next five years to the two refurbishment projects and they are always receptive to new development opportunities, if the business case makes sense to them.

“In May, we opened another luxury tented safari camp and we are looking at a couple of other properties and opportunities with land where we could build, but we are not committed to anything at this stage.”

BEST VALUE

Joanne describes the Thornybush offering as one of fantastic value. Driving value and enhancing the guest experience are two key areas of concentration for this safari-focussed business. Apart from fantastic accommodation offerings, Thornybush wants to expand upon its current service offering. “As the custodians of our guests precious time and dreams we have a responsibility to deliver magical moments. We want our guests to leave with magical memories that will last a lifetime” she says.

“We will remain focussed on the core safari experience but we believe we can add more value there,” she says. “Typically, a safari experience is a morning and evening game drive. This is already an amazing experience but we want to expand on that by possibly introducing more walking activities, we’re looking at day and overnight residences at waterholes so that people can spend more time closer to the animals, and we are developing key programmes around family travel. Most lodges will tell you that they are family friendly, but we want to do some special things around that. We are also looking at things like special excursions to see big tuskers – we are extremely fortunate at Thornybush and on the adjacent Kruger as we have elephants that have phenomenal tusks – and we are developing the idea of a helicopter tour to see big tuskers if that is a passion for people.”

All of these offerings are designed to ensure guests feel they are receiving value for their money. In such a competitive landscape, value is a fundamental trait that helps companies to differentiate.

A trip to a Thornybush lodge is not about just a comfortable bed and a well-decorated bar. The idea is to deliver experiences that go beyond superb accommodation. “We do not see ourselves primarily as an accommodation establishment, we see ourselves as an experiential organisation and everything surrounds the guest experience, which surrounds the safari experience,” explains Joanne.

By creating valuable experiences that guests take away and remember for life, spreading the word to friends and family, is one of the primary goals for Thornybush. This is something that so many businesses aim for but few really achieve. TripAdvisor tells the perfect story: “We had the most spectacular and memorable three days.” “From start to finish, every aspect, every detail, was amazing.” “This trip of a lifetime did not disappoint and we highly recommend,” say genuine Thornybush guests.

“The measure of value is what you experience is greater than the perceived investment. That is a consistent focus for us – we want to be perceived as a five-star operator that charges four-star prices but delivers six-star service. Value is at the core of everything we do, and every member of our team is focussed on it every minute of every day.

“We also believe we need to deliver value to our own team members, to our local community members, to our guests, and the wider community at large – we have a responsibility to work for the wildlife community in which we operate,” details Joanne

COMMUNITY BUSINESS

The third focus for Thornybush, apart from value and experiential excellence, is its community. By investing heavily in local community upliftment projects, the company expects to build a stronger and more resilient society around it, both regionally and nationally.

“More and more now, there is a real focus on optimising job creation from your local communities - we hope to be leaders in our region in this regard,” states Joanne. “For a business like ours, everything from collecting firewood to renovating the lodges to where we procure foods from – we are hugely shifting towards local community service provision versus looking to the big towns around us.”

Involving the community in the value chain brings finance and experience to a remote area that could otherwise become isolated - the Thornybush impact is big, and growing. “We will continue to find ways to bring more of this into our lodges,” confirms Joanne. “Whether it’s construction or wood or other materials – right now we are mostly purchasing through regular channels but we are changing all of that so we can create opportunities, find people, incubate them, and help them to supply services to us and other businesses.

“We will be leading the way about how to really make this a part of the genetic fabric of the business and achieve real depth. It’s a nonnegotiable way forward for us. I will question every single thing that the business does moving forward and ask why it couldn’t be serviced through a local community business or person. I hope that it helps to set the tone and more lodges will think about doing it.”

The perfect example of this type of business comes from the Thousand Herbs and Vegetable Garden. Started almost a decade ago as a CSR project, the garden is now a fully-fledged business, woman-owned by members of the Utah community.

“It is just one of our projects, and our position and focus is to be an incubator where we identify people and opportunities and put them together. We put a great deal of work into getting the people and businesses off the ground. We give a lot of mentorship, we help set up distribution channels, we help implement accounting systems - we aim to get them to a point where they are an independent, self-sufficient, sustainable business; that is where we have got to with Thousand Herbs and Vegetable Garden. The ladies there run the business, it is theirs, they are profitable, and they are almost completely independent. They provide their vegetables and herbs to our lodges and other lodges. They also sell into the Hoedspruit local community to the likes of Pick n Pay and more,” says Joanne.

Projects like this have become increasingly meaningful for Thornybush in the past five years. While the company has always been a fundraiser and donor, it is now focussing on community projects on a full-time basis. “A lot has been achieved and that has inspired us to do more,” says the CEO, who also admits that this process of doing things differently is challenging but rewarding.

STIFF COMPETITION

Internationally, a key driver of tourism into South Africa is its safari experience industry. Long-standing and well-serviced, the sector is home to many big-name players who attract guests from around the world. This is a challenge for Thornybush – differentiating itself from the rest. That is why it is investing into additional guest experiences and refurbishment of its lodges.

“There is a lot of strong competition,” admits Joanne. “We are a key player; recognised, respected, reputable, relied upon and strong. There are a lot of people who are looking to enter the industry as, in South African terms, it is a key industry. What you see is affluent people, who come from other industries, have a great deal of interest in this sector and they are often willing investors.”

Asked for the way Thornybush will navigate this environment, with growing new and high--quality existing competitors, Joanne is clear that continuing to improve on experiential delivery is the way forward.

“I already believe that we deliver a great service, I read every guest feedback review at the end of every month and that demonstrates that we are already delivering an incredible experience but my five-year plan is to ratchet that upwards so, if we are delivering five-star now, we want to be delivering six-star. And I don’t mean that in a hotel standard way, I mean that in an experiential way.”

Fortunately, the tourism market is one which is receiving significant attention and investment from both the public and private sector and this is a real help for businesses like Thornybush. In April, former Tourism Minister, Derek Hanekom announced a commitment to creating jobs in tourism. “The global focus on creating jobs in tourism fits in perfectly with South Africa’s strategy to tackle unemployment, poverty and inequality through inclusive tourism growth…

We are confident that we can achieve the National Tourism Sector Strategy’s target of supporting one million direct jobs in tourism by 2026,” he said.

In August, new Tourism Minister, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane reaffirmed government’s commitment to tourism while on a working trip in Mpumalanga. “President Cyril Ramaphosa has set a target for us to attain 21 million tourist arrivals by 2030, and this can only be achieved if we work together to create conducive and inclusive environments for tourism to thrive,” she said.

This enthusiasm around tourism is invigorating for Thornybush and Joanne is excited about the future.

“We are certainly very optimistic but we know there are no guarantees,” she says. “The key tourism stakeholders are hopeful that the government will continue to make inroads that will positively influence tourism. There has been a sense from industry stakeholders that bad decisions were made, in terms of visas and other issues, which didn’t help us. But those have mostly been addressed now and we are actually seeing things go the other way, where visa requirements are being lessened and more countries are coming for a short-term holiday without a visa. The word on the street, and from our President, is that they will be doing everything they can to enhance tourism, and we are hopeful that it will translate into more travellers coming into the country.

“Tourism, directly and indirectly, is a major job creator. If you look at tourism across all of its touch points – airlines, car rentals, Uber through to hospitality, restaurants and retail – its reach is enormous and there are job creation opportunities all the way, hence government’s focus on stimulating tourism.”

The tourism sector is a shining light in what is a relatively dim economy. In the first half of 2019, economic growth slowed significantly but tourism continued to provide opportunities for business. During tough economic conditions, confidence is lessened and people usually hold onto their money, assessing every spend more closely. But Joanne is not concerned about the short-term performance of the SA economy; she lists other issues as the biggest concerns.

“There are greater issues, security for example – that is a key consideration for people when looking at our destination. We are also hugely influenced by world events as we are in the international tourism market – over the past 12-months, travellers are down from the UK and Europe, and that is directly associated with Brexit, but arrivals from North America are up.”

Despite these worries, Thornybush continues to thrive. Its sustainable and responsible approach to business is positioning it as a regional example to follow. With Joanne’s appetite for success backed by a resolute ambition of shareholders to continue building a first-class operation, Thornybush is enjoying a strong period.

“I knew the opportunities that were available to the business. Thornybush is a beneficiary of a longstanding, solid operation and reputation. In the tough times, the weak flounder and the strong either maintain or flourish. That is the situation here. We are not struggling and not feeling negative at all,” she concludes.