But in the recent past we have experienced a very different kind of tourist visitors, they bring with them lap tops, i – phones then halfway ‘dress up’ and look semi official in their casual safari gear. This has come to the surprise of the many natives most of whom are hotel staff used to back packers and the real safari gear. Safari camps and lodges are suddenly flooding with flip charts and overhead projectors, internet hot spots and very many branded pens and pads in their storage rooms.
It’s no surprise that each resort in the wild and the beach resorts are either developing or have heavily invested in world class business meeting venues. Some of which have the capacity to accommodate over 200 guests. City colleges and institutions are stating to avail courses on handling this kind of clientele to ensure continuity.
This trend if encouraged would turn around the countries economy and challenge the old tourism guards to invest in this viable direction. A big ‘thank you’ to the tourism ministry for embracing this venture.
The IT technology that came with mobile phones, video conferencing and wireless internet has by far mostly assisted in developing this sector and here is a country that its people shall forever be grateful for the Wildlife, rolling landscapes and diverse culture, a life time cocktail.
After a seven months undercover investigation to really find out whom among the safari resorts and camps have captured and is sufficiently ready to accommodate this new enterprise dubbed ‘business function venues of the 20th century’ on top of my list just to name a few of my favorites concluded as follows.
The Masai mara bush tops camp takes the trophy for originality. They have set up a 24 persons conference tent overlooking a water hole where animals take water from, if the LCD projector is too much to look at, or you just don’t like the maker pen ink color they decided to use on the flip chart, just look down your left and enjoy a family of giraffes as they take their mid morning bath, or if you are lucky a cheater will make lunch out of some other animal as you watch! Just don’t say a word as you might just get expelled off the executive class room.
Bethany Wilson owns a blog on video conferencing. She writes blogs on the evolution video chat and teleconferencing in today’s age.