I grew up in Tanzania, worked software jobs in Canada, and came back to build a safari company. Here's what surprised me about this industry.
Grew up in Arusha. Eighteen years there before university pulled me to Canada.
Studied Economics, worked at two software companies. One did heavy equipment rentals, one did sales analytics. Nothing to do with wildlife, everything to do with understanding where margins hide in a business.
Came back in 2023. Parents are here, city is home. I kept thinking someone should build the safari company I'd actually want to book as a traveler. The transparent one. The one that tells you what a Land Cruiser costs per day and what a Serengeti park fee actually is, instead of sending a lump-sum quote and hoping you don't ask questions.
What surprised me most: the pricing in this industry is almost designed to be confusing. Park fees are government-set, published, anyone can look them up. Vehicle rates are a known figure. Accommodation has rack rates. Every operator, from the guy in Arusha charging $2,400 to the London agency charging $7,800 for the same 8-day trip, is working from roughly the same cost inputs. The difference is margin, and the question is just whose pocket it ends up in.
Running it as a one-man operation using AI at a scale I haven't seen from other operators here. That's how a single person produces the output.
Happy to answer questions about how pricing actually works, which parks are worth it at different budgets, or what to ask any operator before you send a deposit.