Zambian Ground Handlers: Celebrating 10 Years

ZAMBIAN GROUNd hANDLERS

Celebrating 10 Years

Writer: Leelee Ngwenya Photography: Zambian Ground Handlers

When you first meet the team members at Zambian Ground Handlers (ZGH) you are struck by their infectious love of Zambia and wildlife safari adventures. Coming up to the company’s 10th anniversary in the tourism sector, it is delightful to see that they haven’t lost their passion for tourism and making sure that they promote Zambia to the wider world as a leading tourist destination in Southern Africa.

Nick Aslin is the founder of Zambian Ground Handlers. He has been in the safari industry since 1992 when he came to Zambia from the UK and went on in the mid-1990s to run Norman Carr Safaris until he left them in 2009 and formed ZGH. The company’s initial intention was to change how tourism worked in Zambia. The company is an independent ground handler— otherwise known as a destination management company—booking and co-ordinating safari operations in Zambia. ‘Essentially we work with the travel trade all around the world booking and co-ordinating safaris through Zambia for their clients,’ Nick explains.

At the time of inception there were no real specialists in this arena. ‘In the early days, in order for an agent around the world to get someone to co-ordinate a Zambian itinerary, they would have to either go to a destination management company based in South Africa or go to a safari company such as Norman Carr Safaris who owned several camps,’ Nick elaborates. The problem with going to a safari company like Norman Carr was that it came with its own bias and challenges because a camp operator would fill their camps first before filling others.

ZGH began as a small operation with only two people: Nick and his colleague Maggie, who had previously worked under him at Norman Carr. They had a small office with two desks and it all began with one booking which turned into another and they grew from there. Today, 10 years on, they have grown into a team of six consultants under Nick and in 2019 expect to move about 1,500 people through Zambia.

By creating ZGH, Nick and his team have been able to build a uniquely unbiased safari model that accommodates the leading safari camps in Zambia. With his team, which has an accumulated staggering 100 years of combined industry experience working in various parts of the country with different safari camps, they have been able to play a part in changing the Zambian tourism industry.

‘Our experience, knowledge and more importantly independent advice to the trade as to which camps are best for their clients has been invaluable. More companies exist now that offer similar services, if you look back over the last 10 to fifteen years at how safaris were sold and the picture is very different now to what it was back then,’ the team tells me. Maggie Mwale, with 15 years’ experience in the industry, was the first to join Nick 10 years ago. ‘I have grown as a person and a consultant through my experiences in the job and my interactions with the camps and the people who visit them. I have been passionate about wildlife since childhood. I grew up in the Eastern Province and my mother would take us on game drives as children. Travel and wildlife are my passion and I am proud to have a job that allows me an international platform to speak about Zambia and share its beauty,’ she reveals enthusiastically.

For the travel consultants, their background having worked at various camps across Zambia plays a huge role in gaining insight into how to curate these travel experiences for clients. Often, clients have an idea of what they want out of a trip to Zambia, especially if they have lived here or visited before. However, there are also clients and agents who need the expertise and knowledge of the team to create bespoke packages for the greatest safari experience. Being Zambian and having the work experience in camps elevates the work undertaken by ZGH.

‘Working with the international market excites us, building these curated experiences for people to come and discover Zambia is an extremely rewarding process. We work closely with all the camps and have built solid relationships with each of them. We have a strong emphasis to treat all the camps and their operators with the same level of professionalism,’ the team divulges.

With the business of ground handling growing to become more popular in Zambia, preserving their reputation has become important and that is where marketing comes in. The company has a website and recently began using social media accounts like Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram which they utilise as tools to engage with the agents and camps. They have also found clients following them to find out more about Zambia and their Instagram is very client friendly, with campaigns such as Safari Sunday where they feature a different camp or aspect of safari each week, and Wildlife Wednesday in conjunction with The Bushcamp Company. They also run interactive Question and Answer campaigns such as Did You Know? where they give out wildlife facts and the website also offers FAQs and advice on what to pack during which season... and more. This allows the camps to market themselves individually, and the agents as well as potential clients to see what Zambia has to offer in terms of safari tourism. Social media and the use of visuals have been proven to attract business and are effective marketing tools. All of these marketing tools, therefore, showcase how ZGH is a one-stop shop for Zambian tourism.

Travel is an integral part for the team members when it comes to selling packages and they have been fortunate to experience the camps with which they work. This has also given them an insight into how these camps run and how they might suit client needs and expectations. Speaking with the team members it is clear that one of the most gratifying parts of being a part of ZGH is seeing how their work with agents makes clients happy. Reading letters that say ‘We had the safari of a lifetime’ are the driving force behind what Zambian Ground Handlers are all about.