The Cedarberg Africa Story

Cedarberg Africa Milestones: Celebrating the Wild, the Wonderful, and the Personal

 A Timeline

• 1995–1999: The Pioneering Boom Years
• 2000–2009: Growth, Tech & Challenges
• 2010–2019: Digital Shifts & Experience-Led Travel
• 2020–2023: Crisis, Resilience & Recovery
• 2024 & Beyond: AI, Sustainability & the Road Ahead

1995–1999: The Pioneering Boom Years

• We launched Cedarberg Africa from two home offices—mine in the Cederberg and Ginny’s in London.
• Focused initially on tailor-made trips to South Africa and Namibia.
• Pioneered ”European-style” self-drive itineraries with pre-booked accommodations and detailed printed itineraries. The business took off rapidly as clients loved the concept. Accommodation security but with independence to do what you liked during the day.
• Quickly began working with international clients from Europe and the US.
• Added privately guided tours alongside self-drive options, always tailored, always personal.
• Later we expanded our offering to include Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia.
• Hired more staff but still working out of a spare, but now crowded, room in our house.

Tech & Marketing back then:

• Operated via fax machines and expensive international phone calls—no internet yet!
• Our only advertising was printed adverts in the Sunday papers. Every Monday, we eagerly waited for the phone calls.

2000–2009: Growth, Tech & Challenges

• Launched our first website in 1998 — a delightful creamy khaki colour with tiny images, but it was revolutionary to us!
• Faxes were out. Emails were in. But internet outages and slow internet speeds were stressful.
• Balanced growing the business with raising young children—maternity leave wasn’t an option!
• Expanded into more destinations: East Africa, Indian Ocean Islands
• 9/11 brought our first global shock when the world suddenly became a scarier place. American clients cancelled, just wanting to shelter in place. We saw how vulnerable travel is to world events.
• 2002 – Moved into our own purpose-built offices which we still use today
• The business settled down and grew more slowly and steadily
• 2008 – the Financial crisis saw a decisive slow-down in business with a gradual recovery

Tech and Marketing back then:

• More interest came from our website and our early attempts at Google Ads
• But clients still loved the feel of a printed brochure
• Print advertising in newspapers died out

2010–2019: Digital Shifts & Experience-Led Travel

• Faced stiff competition from Online Travel Agents (OTAs) like Booking.com with their vastly larger marketing budgets. We – and the whole of the African travel industry – had focused on our personal service. And not enough on explaining that our expertise did not come at an extra cost.
• Learned a key lesson: our services don’t cost more—they simply offer more.

“You don’t pay more with us. You just get more.”

• Expanded our Destinations even more adding Rwanda, Uganda, Ethiopia and Madagascar
• The Ebola Crisis was our only ‘’outside shock’’ even though it didn’t affect our Destinations. (Interestingly demand for South Africa was way down – because of name association – whereas as Namibia saw no dip in demand.)
• Growth of more varied experiences allowed us to customize safari travel even more. A flowering of foodie tours, historical walking tours, art tours and all kinds of soft adventure
• VOIP phone calls allowed us to more easily chat to clients, sometimes for hours

First experiments with Working From Home were mixed as we didn’t have (or use?) the technology to fully engage as a team.

Lookback at Marketing:

• We finally put our last paper brochure to bed and relied solely on our website.
• New client interest often came from our blog articles which gained good traction.
• However we were less successful with Social media. We quickly dropped Twitter to focus more on Instagram and Facebook (as then)

2020–2024: Crisis, Resilience & Recovery

Least said the better.

• COVID-19 brought a very dark time for travel companies worldwide. Luckily having 25 years behind us, we had the financial resources to ride out the storm. But 2 years without significant revenue is hard.
• Celebrations for our 25th anniversary were shelved!
• Post-pandemic, we had a much-needed bounce back in sales.
• Everyone came back to full employment, and we even expanded our team.

2025 & Beyond: Sustainability, AI & the Road Ahead

• Today, we’re a team of 16 spanning safari planners, product specialists, marketing, and finance.
• We operate a hybrid model across our UK and South African offices, with some days in the office and some at home. Online meetings are the norm.
• Stronger than ever is our sustainability commitment— showcasing how our partner lodges contribute to conservation and local communities.
• Much of our business comes from repeat clients and referrals
• We are also actively embracing AI in our business, some of us more than others.
• No plans to increase our destinations – though we did recently add the fascinating island of St Helena

Win a Safari, Because Loyalty Should Be Wildly Rewarded

To mark our 30th year, we’re giving away some complimentary holidays and safari stays  as a thank-you to our clients and supporters.

Check out Our 30^th Birthday Celebrations & Safari Prizes

Three Decades, Thousands of Journeys, One Passion: Africa

A lot has changed over the last 30 years: technology, marketing, how we communicate, and even how, and where, we work.

But the initial core of our business has stayed the same: personal tailormade safari journeys

So we’re looking ahead to the next chapter—continuing to craft personal safaris that connect people with the magic of Africa, whilst helping preserve the places and communities we cherish.

Here’s to the next 30 years of safari travel that truly makes a difference.

Kate and Ginny