Soon enough, the warm sun breaks through the mysterious shroud and the wilderness wakes. That is how we see 2021. And we’re incredibly excited for it.

Sustainability, eco-friendly, green. These buzzwords have been streaming through the collective global travel dialogue for many years now. We have seen a worldwide turn toward being more environmentally friendly when it comes to daily living and travel. In Namibia especially, due to the nature of our surroundings, the tourism industry has had to conform to these norms since its very inception. In recent years a new age of travellers has emerged. Those who want to be assured of the fact that their visit, their dollar spent, will in some way affect their destination positively. They are aware of their carbon footprint, aware of the impact that their air miles and long-haul travels have made, and they want to off-set that in some way. 

And thus we have entered an age of Conscious Travel. 

It is no longer acceptable for accommodation establishments, tour and activity operators to think of themselves as “green” or “eco-friendly” just because their lodge or operations use solar energy. To see so many wield this as a marketing tool often leaves a sour taste in the mouth. If you’re making this shift only now, it is not something to be proud of; it’s a little embarrassing to be quite honest. No, consciousness goes beyond the obvious (like having solar power in a country with 90% sunny days). It goes beyond the cookie-cutter version of “eco”. It delves into the heart of being aware of what is happening around you. Being “woke”, as millennials would say, goes beyond just knowing you should do something. It means stepping into the realm of taking responsibility and willfully designing your existence in a way that will bring about positive change.

We recently came across a post by Toby Jermyn of Pangolin Safaris where he said: “In recent years we have witnessed a luxury arms race between safari lodges to provide guests with ever more elaborate and frivolous embellishments to what should be a very simple offering at its core – a chance to reconnect with nature.”

We’ve had a thorough and conscious look at Namibia’s most responsible lodges and compiled a list of those who meet more than just the standard expectations. These establishments not only conform to the norms and tick the boxes of being eco-friendly, but have also gone beyond. They have taken responsibility with relish. Among other things they are all recipients of awards that celebrate their ecological standards, they have joint-venture agreements with the local communities in the regions or in the conservancies in which their lodges operate, or where they are on private land they have established it as private nature reserves. All of them are involved in conservation projects in some way, they have a good track record among their peers in the industry and each one has very deliberately structured their story, their purpose, to advocate for this next level of tourism existence… consciousness.