Jenny Revesz, a senior agent at Personal Travel Management, had met Abby Olemisiko several years ago and was always singing his praises around the office. Jenny had taken 3 Boutique Safari tours with Abby on her co-worker Janice Hague's recommendation. Jenny was so smitten with him that she asked Abby to walk her down the aisle at her wedding!
Jambo!!
In March 2020 our agent Darci Murray was scheduled on a trip to meet Abby and get a feel for the Boutique Safari experience. The purpose of the trip was to see if Personal Travel Management would be able to represent Boutique Safari in Canada and promote it to both the end safari client and other agencies. Unfortunately, COVID put this trip on a VERY LONG pause and Personal Travel Management did not make the journey to Tanzania until April 2022! With several agents itching to travel the April 2022 familiarization trip turned into a 5 person journey as agents, Janice Hague, Jenny Revesz, and Darci Murray alongside Personal Travel Management owner Rikki Hepburn and photographer Tara Mitchel all met Abby on the 25 APRIL 2022 with oodles of donations and hugs!
The trip was a smashing success and the current 11-day EXPERIENCE TANZANIA itinerary was created. We visited several hotels and narrowed it down to Tanzania-owned hotels. It was important for us to choose hotels that allowed our travel dollars to stay within the country of Tanzania. It was also equally important to us that we chose hotels that treated the guides with respect. On several of our hotel inspections it was very clear that the guide accommodation was not at the standard we wanted for our guides.
The EXPERIENCE TANZANIA itinerary perfectly encapsulates what we want our clients to experience while in Tanzania. YES.... Tanzania is known for safari but it's also known for its people. The tag line for BOUTIQUE SAFARIS is "Supporting the Maasai people one Safari at a time". Abby and his wife Martha started the EEMPS school in 2017. The school now has close to 200 students that live in a dormitory setting producing academic results that the entire staff is thrilled with. The students of EEMPS come from families that are unable to provide for their kids and each student is grateful to have been selected. The school has several ongoing projects and when Boutique Safari participants choose the EXPERIENCE TANZANIA safari they actually stay on the school premises and engage in projects while interacting with the kids.
The Personal Travel Management team traveled in April which is Tanzania's wet season. We were really happy to have this experience as it was not as busy with tourists and we loved the green grasses contrasting with the animals. The dry season/migration season tends to be pricier and busier. There is no bad time to travel to Tanzania... every month has something different to offer.
Please watch the video that was created while on our familiarization trip -