Welcome to Tailor Made Safaris
Since 2009, we have been offering custom-made self-drive and guided tours through Southern Africa to hundreds of clients and acting as a DMC for a select number of travel agencies. Our Head Office in South Africa is manned by 8 staff, of which 5 are travel consultants.
The bigger picture
Tailor Made Safaris is registered as a Closed Corporation and falls under the umbrella of the Tailor Made Safaris Group of companies, together with Safari's Op Maat, Bhangazi Horse Safaris and Nature's Light Photography Tours. We are owner run, based in South Africa and have offices in South Africa and the Netherlands.
We are a paid up member of Mtubatuba Municipality under business license MBL 128/13, of the Mtubatuba-Hlanganani Community Tourism Organisation under number TOA+00003, and of Tourism KwaZulu-Natal & the Department of Economic Development & Tourism.
We consistently receive five out of five gold stars on an independent review site for safaris in Africa.
We are a paid up member of Mtubatuba Municipality under business license MBL 128/13, of the Mtubatuba-Hlanganani Community Tourism Organisation under number TOA+00003, and of Tourism KwaZulu-Natal & the Department of Economic Development & Tourism.
We consistently receive five out of five gold stars on an independent review site for safaris in Africa.
What we do
We offer our clients self-drive tours, where we book a rental car, all accommodation and activities for the client. The client then drives himself from A to B, but will enjoy various guided activities on A and on B, to enhance their experience of the destination.
We also offer fully guided tours where one of our guides pick the client from the airport in one of our vehicles, and accompanies and guides the client for duration of their entire holiday (usually 10-25 days long).
Lastly, we offer photographic safaris, workshops and gear rental which attracts mostly nature photographers. This we do through our daughter company Nature's Light.
We also offer fully guided tours where one of our guides pick the client from the airport in one of our vehicles, and accompanies and guides the client for duration of their entire holiday (usually 10-25 days long).
Lastly, we offer photographic safaris, workshops and gear rental which attracts mostly nature photographers. This we do through our daughter company Nature's Light.
Our Client Profile
Our clientele is currently primarily Dutch (75%), and the rest of our enquiries come from the USA, UK and other countries. Our self-drive clients are typically couples and families, typically staying for 10-25 days, willing to spend about R 1500,- to 3400,- per person per day. They will then also be counting on R 400 pp spending money per day (for fuel, food and drinks, entry fees etc). Our clients that prefer a fully guided tour are willing to spend R 2000,- to 5000,- per day, with about R 200 pppd spending money.
We have found that our Dutch market enjoys 4 star accommodation (with some good 3 star accommodation every now and again), and our UK and USA market 4-5 star accommodation.
All our clients prefer smaller scale accommodation over hotels.
We have found that our Dutch market enjoys 4 star accommodation (with some good 3 star accommodation every now and again), and our UK and USA market 4-5 star accommodation.
All our clients prefer smaller scale accommodation over hotels.
Reasons for our success?
We understand Foreign MindsetsOur team is an interesting mix of South Africans and European expats having lived and travelled through Southern Africa for the past decade. This allows us to understand and cater for foreigners' standards and mindsets.
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A Team of Local ExpertsWe recommend virtually all our destinations and activities from experience. Everything has been tried and tested by members of our team! Need proof? Check our website: 95% of the pictures displayed were taken by ourselves while inspecting destinations
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Great Rates with Local OperatorsTailor Made Safaris is small enough to offer personalised service, yet large enough to negotiate great preferencial rates with local operators, allowing us to offer amazing tours whilst staying competitive!
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WETU Itinerary with professional quotesWhen planning a tour with Tailor Made Safaris, our clients receive a custom-made quote and a digital, illustrated preview of their itinerary!
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Our Self-drive PackWe're proud to offer our self-drive guests the world's most comprehensive self-drive travel pack, consisting of a hard cover book, GPS navigation and South African Cell phone with SIM!
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Don't be shy, have a 'look inside' an example book to see why our clients are so impressed with us! Would you like to see an example of the format of a quote from us? Click here for a PDF of a standard quote, which would go together with this digital itinerary. Remember that we can brand our book, quotes and digital itineraries with the logo & contact details of our agents.
For a full list of Unique Selling Points refer to our Why travel with us page.
Collaboration Opportunities
Expanding in other regions/countries: Approximately 30% of our clients indicate a serious interest in returning to Southern Africa, using our services which they have became to appreciate so much. However, after already having been to a certain region with us, they often indicate a preference to explore another region or country. Hence we have started to collaborate with suppliers and tourism authorities in other regions to look into putting self-drive tours together to those regions.
In our marketing, we position ourselves as the one company in the world that does not offer everything to the clients, but instead has been proactive in selecting only the 100 best destinations Southern Africa has to offer. We are currently researching which destinations will qualify, which will each get their own 'marker' on our interactive map, and a full webpage on our website. We are calling for destinations to request inclusion in our product range. Qualifying criteria will need to be met.
We are calling for tourism authorities to consider joint marketing agreements with us. As a small company with low profit margins our marketing budget is limited, but if tourism authorities can help on this front, we can offer a significant return on investment. For example:
a R 30.000 marketing donation will be exclusively used for developing a product in 'your' region. This may include a recce tour to come and explore the area and gather information and images. This will then be compiled into a self-drive itinerary which will be sold on both our Dutch and English website, including download links to brochures etc. In addition, 'your' region will also feature under our 'destinations' section on our website. Moreover, we will then market this tour also on our DMC websites, and at travel fairs where we will be exhibiting. In terms of return on investment. Typically on a 3 week tour, we spend about 13.000 rand on accommodation and activities per person. So even if we sell only one tour to a family of four, 52.000 rand would have flowed back to tourism establishments in your region, making the R 30.000 marketing donation well spend. Obviously we hope to sell many more than just 1 tour annually, so the return on your investment is potentially very significant.
We are also calling for high quality guided safari providers and DMC's in other regions to contact us for collaboration agreements. We do not intent to offer guided tours to other regions ourselves, as our guides won't have the necessary knowledge in/about those areas to be able to offer our clients a quality experience. We would rather contract these tours out to other quality 'on the ground' operators that have very knowledgeable and competent guides in their employ. If you feel you can offer our clients a guided tour of similar quality as they have experienced with us in the Elephant Coast, we would like to sell your tours on our website and to our return clients. Please email us for terms and conditions.
For any enquiries about the above, contact Nick van de Wiel, managing director on [email protected].
In our marketing, we position ourselves as the one company in the world that does not offer everything to the clients, but instead has been proactive in selecting only the 100 best destinations Southern Africa has to offer. We are currently researching which destinations will qualify, which will each get their own 'marker' on our interactive map, and a full webpage on our website. We are calling for destinations to request inclusion in our product range. Qualifying criteria will need to be met.
We are calling for tourism authorities to consider joint marketing agreements with us. As a small company with low profit margins our marketing budget is limited, but if tourism authorities can help on this front, we can offer a significant return on investment. For example:
a R 30.000 marketing donation will be exclusively used for developing a product in 'your' region. This may include a recce tour to come and explore the area and gather information and images. This will then be compiled into a self-drive itinerary which will be sold on both our Dutch and English website, including download links to brochures etc. In addition, 'your' region will also feature under our 'destinations' section on our website. Moreover, we will then market this tour also on our DMC websites, and at travel fairs where we will be exhibiting. In terms of return on investment. Typically on a 3 week tour, we spend about 13.000 rand on accommodation and activities per person. So even if we sell only one tour to a family of four, 52.000 rand would have flowed back to tourism establishments in your region, making the R 30.000 marketing donation well spend. Obviously we hope to sell many more than just 1 tour annually, so the return on your investment is potentially very significant.
We are also calling for high quality guided safari providers and DMC's in other regions to contact us for collaboration agreements. We do not intent to offer guided tours to other regions ourselves, as our guides won't have the necessary knowledge in/about those areas to be able to offer our clients a quality experience. We would rather contract these tours out to other quality 'on the ground' operators that have very knowledgeable and competent guides in their employ. If you feel you can offer our clients a guided tour of similar quality as they have experienced with us in the Elephant Coast, we would like to sell your tours on our website and to our return clients. Please email us for terms and conditions.
For any enquiries about the above, contact Nick van de Wiel, managing director on [email protected].