I Am Tourism Stories

The pangolin is the world's most trafficked mammal. It is covered in scales, armed with a tongue half the length of its body, and capable of forming a ball so impenetrable that lions give up. It makes no sound. It asks for nothing. And it is vanishing.In this episode of I Am Tourism Stories, Toby Jermyn — co-founder of Pangolin Africa and founder of Pangolin Photo Safaris — tells us everything the tourism industry needs to know about this extraordinary animal, why it sits at the centre of a thriving safari business, and what operators and guides are still getting dangerously wrong at pangolin sightings.

In this episode of I Am Tourism we sit down with one of the sharpest minds in digital storytelling — and while no one officially crowned her, this conversation proves why Nidha Narrandes might just be the Queen of TikTok when it comes to tourism.

In this episode of I Am Tourism, we sit down with Vincent “Vince” Shacks — environmental scientist turned Group Head of Impact at Wilderness.Vince didn’t begin in hospitality. He began in the bush, studying Nile crocodiles in Botswana. Today, he’s helping steer one of Africa’s most iconic safari brands toward something bigger than sustainability: measurable impact.

In this episode of I Am Tourism, host Big Ambitions sits down with Tinolla Rodgers, Owner and Managing Director of African Monarch Journeys, for a conversation that moves far beyond safari logistics and occupancy rates.

In this episode of I Am Tourism Stories, we sit down with Ross Kennedy, the man behind one of Victoria Falls’ most enduring and in demand cultural experiences, The Boma Dinner and Drum Show.  With over 80,000 guests hosted in 2025 alone, The Boma is more than a dinner show. It is a case study in how to evolve, listen and lead over three decades in one of Africa’s most competitive destinations.

With WTM Africa around the corner, there's no better time to hear from the woman who's been at the centre of it all.In this episode of I Am Tourism Stories, Carol Weaving, Managing Director of RX Africa and the driving force behind WTM Africa, shares her journey from arriving in South Africa on a one-way ticket in 1987 to building some of the continent's most important tourism trade platforms.

In this episode of I Am Tourism Stories, Khotso Micha shares how a rugby-playing journalism student became one of South Africa’s most thoughtful voices in youth tourism. Starting out at Coffee Shack on the Wild Coast, his path took him from national guiding to founding Southern Xplorer Tours, and most recently, opening Kamma Kai Beach Villa in Sedgefield.

In this feel-good episode of I Am Tourism Stories, host Natalia Rosa chats with Noli Mini, wellness entrepreneur and Chairperson of Women in Tourism Western Cape, about building a business in one of the most competitive corners of tourism: the spa and wellness space.

In this episode of I Am Tourism Stories, host Natalia Rosa sits down with James Fernie, the founder of Uthando (Love)South Africa, to explore what it really means for tourism to have purpose.

In this episode of I Am Tourism, Angelica Muñoz Cordoba — a Colombian lawyer turned South African tour operator — shares what it's taken to build a life and business from scratch in a country that wasn’t her own.