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On a Tour with Tourpedia Travel
137 Plays2 years ago
Tara Gbedemah, Founder & Chief Travel Officer of Tourpedia Travel joins me on this episode to talk about her love for wellness and travel which led her to establish Tourpedia Travel, a company that delivers authentic immersive experiences which celebrate and display rich African culture through travel.
Join us on this tour with Tourpedia Travel.
Enjoy !!
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Transcript
Introduction to Podcast and Guest
00:00:12
Speaker
Hello friends and welcome to this episode of the Entrepreneurs Speaks Podcast. My name is Kufi Animidu. My guest is the founder and chief travel officer of Torpedia Travel. In these rules, she has overall responsibility for ensuring brand and sales growth.
00:00:32
Speaker
corporate innovation, program development, customer satisfaction, client-focused problem solving, and outstanding service delivery. With over 17 years of experience in business operations, project management, and travel in both the United States and Ghana, she has a stellar track record of building brands and developing business opportunities through strategic communication and effective management.
00:01:03
Speaker
She has held operations and project management rules with a number of Fortune 500 companies. My guest hosts an MSc degree in international business and an advanced certificate in project management. My guest loves hiking, working out, traveling, and exploring new destinations every time.
Tara's Background and Passion for Travel
00:01:28
Speaker
A passion for wellness and travel led her to establish Torpedia Travel, which is a destination management company that embraces wellness at its core. My guest today is Tara Bedema. Tara shares an entrepreneurial journey on this episode. Welcome to my show, Tara. Hi, Kofi. Thanks for having me. All right.
00:01:55
Speaker
Let's start a conversation by you telling us a bit more about yourself and your childhood. Oh, wow. Okay. So my name, well, my name is Tara and I was born in Nigeria.
00:02:06
Speaker
I grew up in Ghana and I spent most of my adult life in the States. So typically I have a blend of all these of the cultures of all these places that I have lived up until this point. As a child, I traveled quite a lot, both on the continent and internationally. I traveled from Nigeria to Ghana. We did Ghana to Liberia. We've done Togo.
00:02:27
Speaker
UK and Canada, all I remember my first trip, the first trip that I actually remember was when I was about four and made a trip to Ghana. That's what I remember. I also remember being a little older and making trips to Liberia. So that was a bit of my childhood. I was very active. I grew up with a big family. I had lots of cousins at every point in time, siblings, friends.
00:02:50
Speaker
I always had a lot of people around me. I also love sports. Sometimes you could describe me as a bit of a tomboy because I was very boisterous. I loved running. And then as I got a bit older into my teenage years, I picked up volleyball and also badminton. So I've always been very active. I've loved keeping myself busy with activities as I've grown. When I was younger, one of the things that I really wanted to become was an interior decorator because I have this
00:03:20
Speaker
creative streak as well. I used to make greeting cards for our families, and I'm quite particular about aesthetics, so about how things look. I'm not just about the functionality of things, but I also want to be specific about the way they look. So those are some of the key things that I remember as a child when I was growing up. As I became, should I say, a younger adult,
00:03:42
Speaker
I still took a liking to fitness.
Fitness and Hobbies
00:03:45
Speaker
So I got more intentional and more purposeful about living a healthy life, trying to adopt a healthy lifestyle, watching what I was eating, making sure that I was exercising consciously. Because you know, when you're younger, your metabolism works on its own. You don't have to think about it. But as I got older, I realized I actually took an interest in being particular and being sure about
00:04:09
Speaker
the things that I was putting into my body and how I was maintaining my body. So I used to work out quite a bit. I also used to do an annual 5K run in Philadelphia from 2011 to 2017. So that also kept me on my fitness journey, on my fitness goals. And then also as I got older, I appreciated travel more. It was very exciting to go to new places
00:04:33
Speaker
understand how people live, see how differently or how similarly cultures were or the way they went about their daily chores, the way their lifestyles were, the kind of foods they ate. I was very excited about all of this stuff. So I made a few trips with it again within the continent. I visited Namibia, I visited Jamaica, Switzerland, South Africa, Japan, Paris, the list. I think at my last count, I was at about
00:04:59
Speaker
16 or 17 countries. So it's something that I really enjoy doing. And it just brings me joy. So that's a nutshell of about how I grew up, my childhood, schooling years, and into kind of who I am today. All right. Very, very interesting. So I can describe you as a travel freak.
00:05:24
Speaker
Yes, that would be perfect. Exactly, exactly. So we'll talk about your company torpedo travel, but proud to its setup. Did you try setting up any business?
00:05:42
Speaker
No, I wouldn't say I tried setting up any businesses. I did have some hobbies that I took very seriously. Again, I mentioned earlier that I had a creative streak. So I realized that a lot of my hobbies, yes, kind of leaned towards that. I did try my hand at making candles.
00:05:58
Speaker
I didn't get into making that a company. I would sell a few to my friends and family, but it never really was a business. Yes. And then I also, I was also very interested in wrapping things up and making them look pretty. So I used to do gifts, gifting services, like luxury gifting services, again, for some friends and family, but they were not a business that I actually had started.
00:06:22
Speaker
Okay, all right, that's fine. Let's now talk about your career.
Corporate Career and Skills
00:06:27
Speaker
Can you walk us through your career and the amazing things you've been involved in all these years?
00:06:33
Speaker
All right, so I would say that my introduction to corporate world started out through sales. I worked with, yes, a Fortune 500 company. I did sales with them. And through that, it was interesting talking to clients, understanding what it is they needed, and then trying to align our products with their expectations.
00:06:57
Speaker
So that was like my first, I'll say my first job. And I enjoyed it because it was very satisfying in speaking to someone and getting a solution for their issues, their concerns. From that point on, I was promoted to a routing manager for the state within the northern part of New Jersey. So that I took on a bit more responsibility. It was not now just the one on one face to face customer interaction, but this was
00:07:25
Speaker
working with the technicians in our company, dispatching them, making sure that they were completing their routes in a very efficient manner, and they were getting the job done within the timings that they were expected to. I also then grew into an administrative and customer service manager, so that
00:07:45
Speaker
introduced me that was I would say one of my biggest openings into the world of operations because then you're taking an even bigger look here you have more oversight over the day-to-day runnings of the business about how everything is functioning making sure that from the clients who call in they're getting great customer service over the phone to coordinating again working with the technicians making sure that
00:08:09
Speaker
When a customer requests a service, we're out there on time. So just all those little nooks and crannies and all those details were key in running the operations of the company. From then, I took an interest in project management as well. All right. So after that, I got an interest in project management.
00:08:29
Speaker
So I took some courses in project management and started working as a role of a project manager. Now, this role also entailed a lot of coordination, a lot of working with engineers, working with a client, and making sure that their deliverables were
00:08:50
Speaker
you know, were presented within the time, again, within the timelines that we had set out for these projects to be completed. So again, it was very, it takes a lot of organization, staying on top of a lot of things, making sure that you're managing the scope. We're staying on track because, you know, from time to time, the clients would try and add or say, oh, could we add this on? Could we do that? And we had to be able to
00:09:12
Speaker
manage their expectations, explain to them what was in the scope, what was out of the scope. And if they wanted to include those, it would extend the timeline. So with my experience in project management and then also administration, I realized that these are skills that could be applied to any kind of industry. And they were just a great core set of skills that once you have, I believe that you can work in any industry that you
00:09:40
Speaker
you wanted to in terms of the operations and the general oversight. So that's about that in terms of my administrating and operation roles.
Torpedia Travel's Mission
00:09:50
Speaker
And then I also worked in the travel industry, and that is one of the major points for me as well, which kind of took all these skills that I had, all these soft skills and core skills that I already possessed over my years of working in
00:10:09
Speaker
in corporate in corporate America. And I just put those together and apply them to travel. So when people we help people schedule their travel to to Africa and looking and playing playing with all the different factors. Again, my role in sales came in handy because it's understanding what the client wants. The role in administration came in handy because it was organizing their travel, working with vendors, working with service providers. So it just seemed like the perfect blend
00:10:39
Speaker
of my passions and the skills that I had acquired over the years. And that was one of the blossoming or the big points for me in my career.
00:10:50
Speaker
Okay, very, very interesting. Let's now talk about your company, Torpedia Travel and any activities. But before that, why the name Torpedia? Well, the name Torpedia because when I thought of, when I have the conception of this travel company, this destination management company,
00:11:12
Speaker
I wanted it to be all-encompassing. So the word encyclopedia came to me. And I said, well, the best way to attach this to your travels would be to put the word tour because we want to be able to capture everything that you are looking for in a tour. So I figured, I said, well, the name torpedo sounded good. Let's put the two together and then put the travel at the end. So we encompass everything that you're looking for in a tour, and then we help you travel. So torpedo travel.
00:11:42
Speaker
It was an interesting pick. Yes. It sounds very nice. Topedia travel. It's quite catchy. A couple of clients told me like, oh, that's a good...
00:11:58
Speaker
Now, let's talk about the story, the story behind the set up. What is the story behind the set up of your company, Torpedia Travel? What is the story behind the set up? Okay, so to be able to tell you the story of the set up, I think it'll be good for me to give you some background into what Torpedia actually is, the type of company that we are. So we are a wellness focused destination management company, and we strive to deliver immersive experiences
00:12:25
Speaker
And we are also celebrating the rich African culture through travel. So what's what PDI does is that it helps people interested in exploring and visiting Africa. We have a full range of destination management services, which include flights.
00:12:38
Speaker
We have the ground transportation, the accommodation, your tour guiding, if you have meetings and events. So as I said, all encompassing. We're putting everything in there, but we're making sure that the key of all of this is wellness focused. So we work with different types of clients. We have families. We have individual travelers. We have some private groups. We have corporate organizations. We also have educational institutions that travel with us.
00:13:07
Speaker
So that's a bit of a nutshell of what torpedo travel actually is. As I mentioned earlier, throughout my childhood and my adult years, there were two major interests that have always been consistent. And they've seemed to have grown with me as I've gone through childhood, being a young adult, turning into who I am right now. And the first one I would say would be that the excitement that I always feel, the desire, the passion,
00:13:36
Speaker
that I have for exploring and discovering new places. So it's not just with new places and experiences and travel, but sometimes even within whichever environment I find myself. It's always exciting to find a new restaurant or to find a new experience, a new theater. That always brings me joy. And then secondly, the dedication to the lifestyle of staying fit and healthy. That has seemed to be a very consistent
00:14:02
Speaker
pattern throughout my life. And it's not that I'm doing it just because I know I have to do that to stay healthy, but actually enjoy doing it, actually have fun doing it. So I figured that why don't I combine both of those and make it a business, something that I really enjoy doing. So when I moved from the States to Ghana at the end of 2017,
00:14:28
Speaker
I would go around, visit different places, and I'm quite big on social media. So I'm always posting pictures. I'm always sharing pictures with my friends, sharing videos, telling them, oh, look what I'm doing. I'm out here in this village. There's a festival going on. We're doing some drumming and dancing.
00:14:44
Speaker
After that, I'll send pictures of maybe the food that has been prepared. So it got a lot of my friends, especially those back in the States, asking, whoa, all of this looks really exciting. It looks really fun. How can we do this? How can we get around doing it? And to me, it just seemed easy. I'm like, well, you just get on a plane and then come over here and then we'll make it happen. But just connecting the part of what I thought was not a big deal to realizing that people actually needed help
00:15:14
Speaker
at creating such experiences. So that sparked a little flame in me, like, hmm, you could turn this into something.
00:15:25
Speaker
So I had the idea of starting it and then in 2020, and then as we all know, that's when the world was hit with COVID. So that was, you know, it seemed like, oh, what a letdown. You had these big plans for travel and you are so excited about all of this. And now we have COVID. No one, everyone's kind of stuck in their countries. No one can get out of where they are. You know, what are you going to do? Right around the same time, I had also, um,
00:15:52
Speaker
I was also undertaking my master's degree course. So my topic that I picked for my thesis was wellness tourism in Ghana, its challenges and prospects. So considering and knowing what I wanted to do with travel, it seemed like the perfect topic. And again, it wasn't just the thesis that I was writing because I had to write one, but it was something that I really had an interest in.
00:16:21
Speaker
So using this time of schooling and then also of COVID where no one could really travel, I was focusing more on doing the research that went into wellness travel, wellness tourism, basing the business plan
00:16:37
Speaker
in line with the theory of wellness travel. So it's not just standing alone. The whole concept of our travel is actually based on the foundations of research and in theory. It's not just, oh, this seems like fun. It does seem like fun, but then it has a solid foundation. So that was, as much as COVID was a really down time for travel,
00:17:05
Speaker
I kind of turned it around and said, there are certain things that you would not be able to do when you have clients coming in because you need to be focusing on the clients.
00:17:13
Speaker
So that first year, that 2020, which was really terrible, I kind of used that to do a lot of my research, to put together my papers, to really structure the business in a way that I would be set up for success once things started to ease up. So in a nutshell, I could say that it was a fusion of my passion as well as with a theoretical foundation.
00:17:39
Speaker
It helped me also hone into the actual type of wealth. Because when I started out, I was like, oh, it's just going to be wellness. But with the research I did, I got to understand the different types of wellness travelers, which section of them are growing. We have primary wellness travelers. We have secondary wellness travelers. And this is something I'm really excited about. So I could go on and on and on about. But it just helped me. This research and the academic side of it actually helped me hone in
00:18:08
Speaker
and understand the type of clients, the kind of customers who I was going to be selling this idea to. So I think that that's about the story of how we came to be. And yeah, I'm really happy about what we did and where we are right now. OK. All right.
00:18:29
Speaker
So I've been looking at what you're doing. I visited your website. I see a lot on social media, Facebook and all of the other platforms.
Tour Packages and Cultural Focus
00:18:39
Speaker
So can you share some of your local and foreign talk packages with us? Some of our local and foreign packages. Okay. So as you said, we are quite heavy on social media and our website does have a ton of them, but I would pick
00:18:56
Speaker
one of them, the one of the local ones we have is called the Wellness Wonderlust is one of my favorites because it's a, I would say it's, it's just about a five day tour. So it's not too, it's not, it's not too demanding of people. And it's one of my favorites because as much as it's one of the local packages, it's one that people coming in from, from outside of Ghana could also participate in and, and get some benefits from. So,
00:19:23
Speaker
The tour starts off initially with like an intention setting ceremony that we have, which helps you just look within yourself and come to terms with the reason why you're coming on this journey. What is it that's within you or what is it that you're trying to achieve by the end of this journey? Because it's a wellness, it's one that's heavily focused on wellness.
00:19:45
Speaker
You are asking yourself, are you trying to detox from technology for a little bit? Are you trying to find some meaning of your life? So whatever it is, we set aside some time for you to just do some deep introspection and see what you want to achieve by the end of this.
00:20:07
Speaker
throughout the package, throughout the tour experience, we do have yoga sessions. We have like an early morning yoga session, which kind of, again, sets your mind and your body right for the duration of the trip. We have some light hiking because there's not everyone who's a very robust
00:20:24
Speaker
people are not we don't have all our clients being heavy you know very high on activities so we have a light hike in between there as well there's an experience in there where you get to to sit with a local family and you learn how to make some very nutritious foods in a
00:20:42
Speaker
in a very eco-friendly way. So we have the fires over the stones and then you're using clay pots. You're just really detoxing from all the gadgets that were used, you know, the electric stove or being served dinner. But you're there and you're actively participating and just enjoying nature and being one with the people that you're around as well. And then one of the highlights that I really enjoy about this as well is we have a drum circle
00:21:10
Speaker
in the evening. So it's like a moonlit drum circle on the beach. So that's also very nice. You get to drum, you get to sing, you get to meditate out loud with a few other people. If you came on a group tour with the other people that are on the tour with you. So that's one of my favorite wellness ones. Because at the end of it, you leave feeling very relaxed, you feel refreshed, and then you have another
00:21:34
Speaker
session where you just kind of reflect and ask yourself, were we able to or was I able to achieve the goals of this wellness wonderlust that I embarked on, you know, four or five days ago? So that's one of my favorite local packages that I'm happy to share with you. And then in terms of the foreign ones, yes, that's the local one. Well, we have a foreign one where we have a trip to Seychelles.
00:22:04
Speaker
which is in Eastern Africa. So you leave your country of origin. We arrive in Seychelles. Again, there's a welcome dinner where we welcome everybody to the country, let them know what to expect on the tour. The tour is filled with museum visits. There's a botanical garden visit as well. There's a city tour. You get to experience the food, you get to experience the people. We have some island hopping tours as well,
00:22:31
Speaker
that you can go on to. Seychelles is one of the countries that also has a pretty famous yacht week. So a lot of their sailing and their boating experiences are things that people look for when they travel. If you go to Seychelles, majority of the time you would be doing one island activity or the other. So we incorporate that as well.
00:22:53
Speaker
you get to touch on or experience a bit of culture, a bit of history, a lot of wellness, and a lot of fun as well. So those are two of the packages that I think are my current favorites. They keep changing from time to time. But for now, those are my two favorites on the local and the foreign trips. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for sharing your favorites with us. I'd love to see you come along on the
00:23:20
Speaker
Oh yeah, oh yeah. So, local tourism has now seen a lot of interest with a number of interesting packages being put forward by players in your field.
Promoting Local Tourism
00:23:31
Speaker
What are your views on how we can effectively promote local tourism?
00:23:35
Speaker
Well, I find this to be a very interesting question because I think prior to 2020, when COVID had everybody more, let's say, stuck in their home countries or wherever you found yourself at the point, a lot of times we would think of travel or would think of vacations and we're thinking about leaving the continent or leaving our country. COVID made us understand that there are certain things that we can enjoy right here because even if you had the means to go out, other countries were not open.
00:24:05
Speaker
We were kind of encouraged to consume our own. So I think that that was one of the, let me say one of the upsides of COVID. I try to look on the bright side of things. I'm not always looking at the negatives, so I'm trying to see the light in whatever situation we have. And I would also commend the Ghana Tourism Authority because they've done a good job with promoting local tourism.
00:24:35
Speaker
They have these programs kind of like the See Ghana, Eat Ghana, Wear Ghana campaigns, where they encourage the Nians to actively be involved in showing off our country and experiencing it ourselves.
00:24:48
Speaker
eating foods made in Ghana. They've had a number of food festivals where we can go. There was one not too long ago, which was, I think, the Wache Food Fair. That was heavily promoted as well. Yeah, there's one that's coming up for World Water Day, which is the water is life thrill. And it's really promoting, yes, what we have in here. We promote very heavily the Kewu Easter,
00:25:17
Speaker
where now I know we have hot air ballooning that's actually been added to the lineup. There's the Takarati Carnival. So there are lots of things that we have here, so many cultural activities and experiences that we could participate in.
00:25:33
Speaker
So I think that I would commend them for doing the promotions that have been done up until this point. Some additional efforts that I think would even help boost local tourism a bit more would be to work with the government to improve the road networks into some of the more rural areas.
00:25:54
Speaker
A lot of some of our untapped opportunities are in pretty remote places, which are a little harder to get to. So that's a little discouraging when you're trying to maybe you have just three or four days and you want to experience Ghana. Chances are you end up just experiencing a geographical area that's of closer proximity to you because you don't want to be traveling for long times. You know, so if we had maybe
00:26:22
Speaker
a good real transport system or maybe more access, more affordable air access to some of these countries. It'll make it, sorry, not some of these countries, some of these areas within the country. It would make it easier for people to get up and say, oh, I'm going to spend a weekend in the northern part of Ghana or I'm going to spend a weekend at the, you know, the furthermost western point because it's not too, it's not too much of a drive or it's not too much of a flight to go out there and see these things. So I think
00:26:52
Speaker
These are some of the things that help. Also, if we promote more of community-based tourism, where we educate people in the area, more about the history of where they are, the tourism potential that they have.
00:27:07
Speaker
it makes each individual in the community more or less a guide, a tour guide. So it's easier for them to share their history when people come in there rather than having to create a full package for people to be able to learn about some of the history, some of the culture, some of the heritage in our local areas. So when you focus more on the community-based tourism, you'll realize that there's more sustainability in that because
00:27:36
Speaker
There's oral documentation of passing down these stories, passing down these histories through generations and getting it to spread. And then you also have these eco-friendly experiences because
00:27:48
Speaker
You're keeping it local. Like I mentioned, the experience where you're cooking over a local fire, it's very eco-friendly. You're using firewood. You're there interacting with the people. You're probably eating out of a leaf. And these are things that the locals know about. This is their life. This is what they do. So just giving them a little bit more encouragement and teaching them about these things will help them pass that message on to visitors, to their areas, to their communities. So I think these are a few of the things that
00:28:18
Speaker
we could do to keep promoting local tourism. OK. So you've been on this journey for some
Challenges in Wellness Tourism
00:28:28
Speaker
time. Like any human endeavor, I believe there's been some challenges and lessons you've picked up. Let's start by talking about some of the challenges you've encountered in running torpedo travel. Can you share some of these challenges with us?
00:28:45
Speaker
And yes, Torpedia Travel is really a service-based company. So we're relying on a lot of vendors and other service providers to be able to provide services to our clients. So for example, when a client comes in and we're handling
00:29:05
Speaker
their ground transportation, we're handling their accommodation, we're handling their meals. We are relying on transport companies, we're relying on hotels, we're relying on restaurants. And then all the waiters, the wait staff, room service drivers, we're relying on this entire network of service providers. And the service industry in Ghana could really use a bit of work.
00:29:34
Speaker
We do have certain establishments which have kind of got the hang of it, but I know that that's an area where we have had some challenges, where sometimes you show up to a hotel and they're not really ready for you. Meanwhile, they've had this reservation for months. You have called them two, three, four times, reminding them that your guests are coming.
00:29:53
Speaker
You have made all your payments, you know, you've gone over and over and over with them, but you still show up and they're like, oh, you know, the two of the rooms are not here already yet. Your clients are on their way in there. So that's one of the things that we realize sometimes happens. Yeah. So the service industry could still like, we have had some challenges with some of those. Some of the standards of the facilities outside the main cities are not really
00:30:22
Speaker
up to, should I say, international standards. So it makes it difficult to patronize some of these sites, some of these attractions, because you know that maybe they're not safe enough or they're not clean enough to the standard that your guests are expecting, because you're dealing with people who are travelers, they've been to other international destinations, and they have an expectation that we need to be able to meet. So unfortunately, the poor standards of some of the
00:30:48
Speaker
some of the sites just automatically eliminate those sites from the tour package that we can offer our clients. So as I said, the maintenance and preservation of some of the monuments and sites could, you know, we need to focus a bit more on making sure that those are
00:31:04
Speaker
kept in good condition for visitors and for locals, for anybody who wants to visit these spots. Another thing that I would say that has been a challenge has been sometimes we have clients go back to their home countries and we do follow up with them, touch base with them, see how they're doing after their trip, if they're planning to come back with other friends. And sometimes when we hear as well, we went to such and such place and
00:31:34
Speaker
We would have loved to have picked up some literature or some brochures or some really nice souvenirs of these places to help us relive the experience. But we don't really have the most of the sites you go to. If you're lucky, you'll find some t-shirts. But you don't really have brochures that kind of walk you through the experience. When you go back, at least you can share those with your friends. So they end up relying just on pictures, maybe short videos they took with their phones. But it would be nice to have
00:32:02
Speaker
some appropriate souvenirs, yes, and literature available. And I think one of the biggest ones that
00:32:09
Speaker
we have dealt with is that Ghana is typically not marketed as a wellness destination. Ghana is marketed as a cultural, you know, a country or a destination which has a lot of culture, has a lot of heritage, which is correct. But with our niche, we are looking to push more of the wellness. And for us, it's been a bit of a challenge. So, I mean,
00:32:33
Speaker
We like a good challenge. And we have had discussions with a few of the officials at the Tourism Authority about talking about how we could put Ghana on the map internationally for its wellness options as well. So we're hoping that that goes well. But I think that these are about the few challenges that we have encountered in running Torpedo, making sure that we're delivering service, exceptional services with Torpedo. Yes. OK. All right.
00:33:04
Speaker
So just as you share these challenges with us, I believe there's also been a lot of lessons you've picked up on this journey.
Lessons Learned and Advice
00:33:12
Speaker
Can you share some of these lessons with us? Well, I think that the biggest lesson for me is that every single day is a learning opportunity, every single day.
00:33:25
Speaker
some experience in the industry. I have written a thesis on the niche, so I felt like I was very well equipped to come in to get on this platform and then deliver the services and run this company. But it's been intriguing. It's been exciting. There's, as I said, there's a lot to learn.
00:33:47
Speaker
um, there's never a dull adult day. And one of the things that one of the lessons I've learned is not to be afraid to take risks because they do, you know, you take risks and then you, you, you get rewarded for, for some of them, but the ones that you don't get rewarded for, at least you learn from them. So, um, I, I feel that every day comes with learning opportunities. Um, we're growing every day. We're learning something every day. And with, with travel opening back up globally, it's,
00:34:15
Speaker
It's showing us that just being persistent and persevering, regardless of the conditions or the current situation around you, will get you to your destination. You just have to keep pushing, just have to keep going. And again, in being in such a niche,
00:34:32
Speaker
One of the questions I had was that no one's really doing this wellness tourism thing. So you're going to be the only person doing it. And what kind of support are you going to get? So you could look at it that way, or you could look at it and say, hey, no one's doing it. So the market is there for you. So there are many untapped opportunities. There are lots of benefits. And I think I've mentioned before that I'm always up for a challenge. And it's been an interesting journey.
00:34:57
Speaker
in terms of learning and just growing the business and shooting it to exactly what our clients our clients want. Okay, so we're just about wrapping up. I have two major questions before we end this conversation. A lot of my listeners and viewers are all
00:35:22
Speaker
either in business or looking for opportunities to start a business, to start something and grow it. So what would be your advice to someone with that desire to start something in your field? What would be your advice to such a person? Something in the tourism field, if they wanted to start. Exactly, yes. What would be your advice to such a person?
00:35:50
Speaker
Okay, so I would tell them that tourism, sometimes from the outside looking in, it looks like everything is just a tour. Once you're traveling, it's travel and tour, it's travel, it's tour. It's just that. But I think that you could get carried away or pulled into many different directions if you don't identify your area of focus or what it is you want to do. Do you want to do adventure travel?
00:36:14
Speaker
Do you want to do cultural and heritage travel? Do you want to do medical travel? What is it that you want to do? I think the first thing to do would be to do some research, look at your strengths, judge the environment you're in, and then use that to decide on your area of focus. That would be the first thing I'd say you should do. I'd also say it's also very useful to research your competition. Coming into the fields, it's good to know
00:36:42
Speaker
who the big players are, who, you know, who you're up against. And it also helps you strategize in terms of what kind of alliances are you going to make or what, you know, who's already in the field that can complement what you are bringing into the field. So I think that that's a key aspect you should look at.
00:37:00
Speaker
I also know for a fact that you need to identify and understand who your ideal customers are going to be. Because if you don't know who your ideal customers are, what are you giving them? How are you offering something that you know people need? So you need to do some research in that as well. I would say that I think this goes without saying, you should be able to also provide exceptional experiences. Experiences that have people talking about what you've done, have them talking about your company.
00:37:28
Speaker
of them talking about your staff, like sharing the word so enthusiastically that this is such and such as doing this in tourism. And I took a tour with them and I was blown away. You should be aiming for that. And then it's also important that you showcase the best of your destination.
00:37:45
Speaker
So wherever or whichever destinations you decide are going to be your destinations, find the best places, find the hidden gems, the jewels, and then highlight those for your customers. They'll walk away feeling like they've gotten something very special.
00:38:01
Speaker
in this day and age, I would also tell you that technology is your friend. So if you want to figure out the best way, yes, the best way you can talk about your company or get the word out there, tell your story out there with technology, because the old school way of doing things is really not going to get you anywhere in this environment, in this day and age, you know, figure out how to put your business on TikTok and figure out how
00:38:26
Speaker
you are reaching your ideal clients through whichever mode has been shown that they are using, whichever mode of social media or communication that they are on. Target that and then speak to them on that. And finally, be prepared to take the risk. It can be scary. You're about to jump into something. Maybe you have some experience and maybe you don't, but I think you should follow your gut and take that risk and do it.
00:38:56
Speaker
Okay, so listeners you've had it to take that risk Okay, so before I wrap up will be your last words to our listeners and viewers before we sign off
00:39:13
Speaker
So I'd like to thank you all for joining us on this episode of The Entrepreneur Speaks.
Invitation to Explore African Cultures
00:39:21
Speaker
We're really happy that you stuck with us throughout the whole interview and the whole discussion. I would like to say to you that you should visit Africa. I don't know if you have visits from the countries before, but if you have, pick a new country and come back.
00:39:37
Speaker
The continent has so much to see, so much to explore. We have amazing people. We have wonderful cultures. Come over, visit us, get first-hand insights and perspectives from the locals because that's a truly immersive way to travel.
00:39:56
Speaker
and to experience the culture of people, to sit with them, eat with them, talk to them, have them open up to you and tell you some of the aspects of their culture, aspects of what they do that you don't see online, you don't see in books. These are things that you'll only hear from locals, you know, first-hand experiences.
00:40:15
Speaker
We welcome all travelers, whether you're an adventure traveler, you're here for leisure, for culture, for, you know, if you're an educational traveler, we welcome you. And especially if you're a wellness traveler as well, we'll be very happy to host you. So come visit Africa, come visit, you know, come see us. There's a lot to discover, there's a lot to learn, there's a lot to explore, and there's a lot to experience. So we hope to see you on the continent soon. Thank you. Thank you, Tara, for sharing your rich experience with us today.
00:40:45
Speaker
on the Entrepreneur Speaks podcast. We wish you the very best. Thank you, Kofi. Thanks for having me. It was my pleasure. Wish you all the best. Yeah, thank you so much. So this has been another exciting episode of the Entrepreneur Speaks podcast. I'll come your way next time with
00:41:10
Speaker
another interesting episode. I remain your host Kofi Annivenu. As always, you take good care of yourself and let's continue to keep hope alive. Cheers!