The Elfin Trail in Constantia with VoiceMap
A fantasy-themed audio walking tour through the beautiful and least-known forests and glades in Cape Town
[Soft instrumental music starts playing.]
“Welcome, traveller”, I hear a distinctly Irish female say in my ears. “You should be standing alongside a small wooden hut in the parking lot of the entranceway to the Cecilia Forest. We’ve got a way to go, and we’ll start walking soon but first, let me explain how this works.”
As the lyrical voice suggests, who I later learn is a timid fairy named Pepper Windshimmer, I’m standing in Cecilia Forest’s car park right next to the little wooden guard hut with about 30 others. Smartphones in our hands and earphones plugged in, we attentively listen – in our own time – to the private audio track playing in our ears.
“That magical device in your hand”, our storyteller continues, referring to our cell phones, “will trigger narrative automatically at the right spots, so you can put it away now”.
Tentatively I put my phone in my pocket, quickly glancing around to see if others are doing the same. For the majority of us, this is our first time, so we’re still getting the hang of things, but as Iain Manley, co-founder and CEO of VoiceMap – I’ll come back to this in a bit – had explained, prior to us hitting the large bright green start button on our screens and hearing our guide’s instructions, the app uses GPS to automatically play the audio. Therefore, once it’s running you really can put your device away and relax, the track will play right on cue without you having to do a thing.
“If you do feel you’ve lost your way or don’t know where to go, you can check the map on your screen”, Pepper reassures. “But the idea is that you focus on the glorious enchantments we’re set to discover. I’ll explain more as we go. It’s not unusual for people to make this journey alone, but please keep your wits about you at all times. Our walk will take about an hour and a half at a normal pace. Are you ready to begin?”
Africa needs to establish intra-Africa travel packages to attract tourists within the continent, said tourism industry executives attending the Fourth Annual Africa Hotel Expansion Summit and Hospitality Round Table in Dar es Salaam.
“Africa needs to encourage intra-Africa travel programs that would attract more people to travel from one country to another country within the continent,” said Amaechi Ndili, President and Chief Executive Officer, Lionstone Group and Golden Tulip West Africa Hospitality Group in Nigeria.
“We need to stimulate intra-Africa tourism and business travel while governments across the continent take serious steps and policies to create more open skies for Africans,” Ndili noted.
Most countries in Africa still lack competitive tools to support growth and competition in tourism at global market levels, despite the continent’s rich and untapped natural resources.
More than 80 percent of Africans don’t know tourist attractive sites available in their own countries compared to Europe, America, and other continents, hotel executives said.
Nigeria is the leading African country generating outbound tourists to other countries within the continent, mostly to other West African states, as well as East and Southern Africa.
African companies with boards of directors that are at least 25 percent female experience about 20 percent more earnings than the industry average.
Management consulting firm McKinsey & Company recently released its “Women Matter Africa” report. It draws on surveys conducted with 55 leading companies across the continent; interviews with 35 African women leaders; and analysis of the financial performance of 210 publicly-traded African businesses.
Some of the reasons why companies with more women in leadership positions perform better include: enhanced risk management; openness to new ideas and ways of doing things; improved collaboration and cooperation between stakeholders; and stronger ethics and consistency in making fair decisions.
Companies with greater gender diversity are also better equipped to understand the needs of female customers who directly influence 70-to-80 percent of global spending.
What companies can do to improve gender diversification
Africa has more women in executive committee, CEO and board roles than the global average, according to the report. However, there is still room for improvement. Just 5 percent of CEOs and 29 percent of senior managers are women in Africa. Only 36 percent of all promotions go to women.