When different organisations bring their expertise together for one project, something special happens: openafricaltravel.com.
This is a new campaign site, built by Flow, where travel bloggers share stories from their epic road trips, as part of #WeOpenAfrica.
I like to think of the collaboration like making a delicious sandwich. Firstly, the two outer layers that hold everything in place: in this case, Open Africa and Tour2.0. These two companies create immersive, off-the-beaten-track tourism routes that promote small entrepreneurs in rural communities, and give travellers the opportunity to live like a local and experience some of the spectacular heritage of Southern Africa.
Between these two, Flow has built a platform to showcase these great experiences – that's openafricatravel. From here, you can also read more about an area via Open Africa, or if you are ready to book your holiday, you can do that via Tour2.0.
Providing the delicious fillings for the inside is Destinate, which has conceptualised the #WeOpenAfrica campaign. Its travel bloggers will be creating a huge buzz about these new experiences on social media, and posting a series of blogs – with tales from the road – on to the campaign site.
Anyone interested in following along can look at the blog page, and check out the social wall. This will pull together all posts tagged #WeOpenAfrica from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram – so you can always see the latest updates in real time.
"I love the clean look and feel of the site and the beautiful, rich imagery," says Claire Allison, marketing manager for Open Africa. "It captures the magic of the places and the people we work with, and we hope it inspires travellers to book a trip to visit these great places and enjoy these one-of-a-kind tours."
Whether it's a one-day trip to Mbokhota in Limpopo, learning to play drums and mbiras with local musicians and then jamming until the sun sets, or spending five days in the Richtersveld Community Conservancy in the Northern Cape, getting to know the land and its people, these are the kind of experiences you won't find in high-end glossy magazines.
"Flow was always professional and – most importantly – very friendly and easy to work with. The project plan was clear and our communication strong from the get-go, resulting in a pain-free process. I’d like to say a massive thank you to Kate [Rau, Flow Cape Town manager] and Stuart [Buchanan, Flow media developer] for working with us on this new adventure. It’s an exciting space for Open Africa to move into and it’s reassuring to know we’ve got people like you behind us."
Flow developer Lwandle Mthombeni says the openafricatravel site was "challenging to build but exciting at the same time. I am very proud of how the website came out – it is fully functional on mobile and desktop, user-friendly and has such a great design."
With more experiences coming online next year, and hopefully some improved functionality too, make sure you bookmark openafricatravel and keep checking back. And then, when the travel bug hits, you can hit the road knowing exactly where to go!
