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hoedspruit
Africa, Community and Events

Event Recap – Welcome to Travel Massive Hoedspruit

The Travel Massive community got event bigger with the launch a new chapter in Hoedspruit, South Africa, which held its first event on September 19 at eKhaya Private Villa on Hoedspruit Wildlife Estate. 

This event recap was written by the new Hoedspruit chapter leader Sharon Gilbert-Rivett. Sharon is is an award-winning travel writer, content creator and marketing expert who consults to the safari industry. She’s the Head Honcho of The Safari Collective – a coalition of sustainable tourism aficionados offering a range of services to help grow tourism businesses. 

The start of something new in Hoedspruit

Hoedspruit is a small but thriving bushveld town situated at the foot of the Drakensberg escarpment, in South Africa’s Limpopo province. It is widely regarded as the Big Five safari capital of South Africa and is a major hub for the Greater Kruger National Park region.

During the launch event, we were honored to have Neil Jansson of Travel Massive Africa as a host who told us all about the Travel Massive movement and its impact on the community.

Our sponsors were African Trilogy, who provided our venue, drinks and snacks; and Zwakala Brewery, who hosted a special tasting of their award-winning beers.

The event blew all of our expectation out of the water with the incredible support given to it by the local tourism community. We had 45 members attend, and there was a waitlist of more wanting to attend. Travel Massive Hoedspruit is definitely off to a fantastic start, and we look forward to even better things to come.

hoedspruit

Shout out to some of the guests

The event was attended by lots of new members and guest members from other chapters! Hosted by chapter leader Sharon Gilbert-Rivett, Mike Lawrie of African Trilogy, Luca Tooley and Katherine Smit of Zwakala and assisted by Dijon Pinard and Lisa Martus of Love Limpopo, the guest list was impressive.

Tony Smith of The Great Outdoors, Ian Mitchell of Ashtons, local scribe Dianne Tipping-Woods of Afribird, Quintus Strauss (editor of Kruger Magazine) and Sarah McSmith of Makumu Lodge were there, as were Jeanre Brooks from HESC, Doris Paul of Jewel of Africa, Bodien van der Merwe of Rent A Bike and Sarah Bergs from Nourish.

We had members of the Hoedspruit Chamber of Commerce in attendance and everyone had a fantastic afternoon, in spite of the heat. Rita Strachan from 15 Raptors Lodge came along, as did Doug Kirstein of Little 5 Safaris. The list is too extensive to include everyone, but thanks to all of them for making the effort to show their support and get the ball rolling.

What’s next?

Speeches were kept to a minimum with the focus on networking and introducing the Travel Massive brand of community building to Hoedspruit. A list of proposed upcoming events was circulated to guests for them to see what kind of things the new chapter has planned for them.

There was an interest in workshops on marketing, sustainable tourism, conservation, guest experience and skills development. Working with communities also ranked highly, as did the subject of putting Hoedspruit on the map.


Join the Hoedspruit chapter on Travel Massive to get updates for future events, and connect with Sharon and learn more about her project Safari Collective


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