The best way to experience Africa is to experience it with the people who call it home.
When we travel, it is easy to think about where we are going to stay, what we are going to see and which experiences we want to tick off the list.
But there is another question I think we should ask:
Who is benefiting from our visit?
Because every time we spend money while travelling, we are making a choice.
We choose where to sleep.
We choose who takes us into the bush.
We choose where we eat.
We choose what we buy.
We choose which experiences we book.
And those choices can make a difference.
Responsible travel isn’t about making every decision perfectly. It is about becoming more conscious of the decisions we are already making and understanding that tourism can have a real economic impact on the communities we visit.
Across Africa, tourism supports employment, businesses and livelihoods. When more of that spending stays within the local community, the benefits of our visit can reach far beyond the traveller. Responsible tourism guidance specifically encourages the use of local guides and businesses and creating genuine economic opportunities for people living in the destination. (UNESCO World Heritage Centre)
For me, though, there is something much more important behind that idea.
It is about people.
CHOOSE THE LOCAL GUIDE
One of the best decisions you can make when travelling in Africa is to choose a good local guide.
And I don’t mean simply someone who knows how to get you from one place to another.
A great guide can completely change the way you experience Africa.
They know the landscape.
They know the wildlife.
They understand the weather, the seasons, the tracks and the sounds.
They know when to stop.
They know when to move on.
They know the difference between seeing an animal and actually understanding what you are looking at.
And sometimes, they know the place because it is home.
One of the people I had the privilege of interviewing for I HEART AFRICA was Andrew Danckwerts, a guide whose relationship with the African wilderness began when he was a child growing up in Zambia.
Andrew grew up in Choma, surrounded by wild places, and his childhood was spent exploring the natural world around him. His love of nature eventually led him into guide training and then into a career that took him across much of the continent. He worked in places including the Kafue in Zambia, the Masai Mara in Kenya, Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, Uganda, Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
That is not simply a job.
That is a lifetime of knowledge.
And when you sit in a safari vehicle or walk through the bush with someone who has spent years learning that environment, you are not just paying for transportation.
You are paying for knowledge.
You are being given access to a way of seeing the landscape that you could never develop from a guidebook alone.
Andrew particularly spoke to me about walking safaris.
A vehicle can take you through a landscape.
But walking through it with a skilled guide can make you experience it completely differently.
He described walking safari guiding as an art, and talked about the importance of the connection between people and the wild. He also spoke passionately about the responsibility guides have towards wildlife and the importance of ethical behaviour from everyone entering an animal’s natural environment.
That is why choosing the right guide matters.
Not simply because they can find the animals.
Because they can teach you how to be in their world without behaving as though it belongs to us.
YOUR GUIDE IS PART OF THE EXPERIENCE
I think sometimes we forget just how much we rely on the people who make our travels possible.
The person driving the vehicle.
The guide walking beside you.
The person preparing your food.
The receptionist welcoming you.
The boat operator taking you across the river.
The ranger protecting the reserve.
The person who knows which road to take when the rain comes.
The person who knows the history of the village you are passing through.
These people are not background characters in your holiday.
They are part of the experience.
UNESCO’s sustainable tourism guidance makes this point particularly well: local people are not simply extras within a destination. Their knowledge, stories and involvement can be central to the visitor experience, while tourism can create meaningful opportunities for local businesses and entrepreneurs. (UNESCO World Heritage Centre)
So when you are choosing a tour, safari or experience, look beyond the photographs.
Ask who will actually be taking you.
Is the guide from the area?
Do they have proper training?
Do they know the environment?
Does the operator invest in its guides?
Does the community benefit from the experience?
These questions don’t make a trip less enjoyable.
They can make it far more meaningful.
STAY LOCAL WHEN YOU CAN
Where you stay matters too.
Africa has some extraordinary accommodation, from small family-run guesthouses to community-owned lodges, camps and larger safari properties.
There is nothing wrong with wanting comfort.
There is nothing wrong with wanting luxury.
Responsible travel doesn’t mean you have to give up the things you enjoy.
But when you have a choice, consider looking for accommodation that genuinely employs local people, sources locally and contributes to the community around it.
A locally owned guesthouse can mean your money goes directly to a family.
A lodge employing people from nearby communities can create jobs.
A camp sourcing food from local producers can support farmers.
A business purchasing services locally can keep money moving within the local economy.
It is the cumulative effect of these decisions that matters.
Tourism does not automatically benefit the communities where it takes place. The benefits have to be deliberately created and supported. UNESCO specifically recommends creating opportunities for local people and businesses across accommodation, food, transport, retail, guiding and other tourism services. (UNESCO World Heritage Centre)
So don’t just ask:
Where can I stay?
Ask:
Who does my stay support?
EAT LOCAL
Food is one of the easiest ways to connect with a place.
And one of my favourite things about travelling is that food can tell you something about the people who live there.
Try the local restaurant.
Eat what local people eat.
Visit a market.
Talk to the person preparing your food.
Try something you’ve never heard of before.
You don’t have to understand every ingredient or know the history behind every dish.
Sometimes you just have to be willing to try.
And when you eat at a locally owned restaurant rather than automatically choosing an international chain, your money is going directly into another local business.
That might support the owner.
It might support their staff.
It might support the person supplying the vegetables.
It might support the farmer producing the ingredients.
It might support a whole chain of people you will never meet.
That is the beautiful thing about local economies.
One choice can travel much further than you realise.
BUY FROM THE PEOPLE WHO MADE IT
I have always believed that souvenirs are better when they mean something.
Instead of buying something mass-produced simply because it has “Africa” written across it, look for something that has a story.
Buy from the person who made it.
Visit the artisan.
Ask about their work.
Learn where it came from.
And if you love it, buy it.
Traditional crafts and locally made products can provide important income for artisans and small businesses. Responsible tourism guidance encourages travellers to purchase locally made products as one practical way of supporting local livelihoods. (UNESCO)
But there is another side to this too.
Pay a fair price.
Responsible travel doesn’t mean trying to get everything as cheaply as possible.
There is a difference between being aware of prices and deliberately driving down the price someone is asking for their work.
If someone has spent hours making something by hand, their skill has value.
Let it have value.
DON’T JUST VISIT A COMMUNITY — CONNECT WITH IT
There is a difference between visiting somewhere and actually connecting with the people who live there.
A community should never be treated as a tourist attraction.
If you are invited into someone’s community, approach it with respect.
Learn before you go.
Listen.
Ask questions.
Follow local guidance about photography.
Understand that not every part of someone’s life is there for you to photograph or share online.
And perhaps most importantly, don’t arrive believing that you already understand the people you are meeting.
You don’t.
That’s the point of travelling.
To learn.
Community involvement is one of the foundations of responsible tourism. Successful tourism initiatives are not simply imposed on communities for the benefit of visitors; they involve local people in shaping how tourism works and how its benefits are shared. (UNESCO World Heritage Centre)
That is the difference between seeing people and meeting people.
SUPPORTING LOCAL PEOPLE ALSO SUPPORTS CONSERVATION
This is something Andrew Danckwerts spoke about strongly when I interviewed him.
For Andrew, conservation was never simply about animals.
It was about the relationship between wildlife, wild places and the people living alongside them.
He described local communities as a major part of conservation and argued that without community involvement and support, conservation approaches would struggle in the long term. He also saw sustainable tourism as having an important role in connecting people with the wild, educating visitors and helping them understand how they can contribute to its protection.
And this is where responsible tourism becomes so much bigger than simply choosing an environmentally friendly hotel.
When communities have meaningful opportunities to benefit from tourism, tourism can become part of a much bigger relationship between people, land and wildlife.
Community-based tourism initiatives across Africa are built around this principle: connecting visitors with local businesses, guides, accommodation and experiences while creating income and employment within communities. (Open Africa)
That doesn’t mean every tourism project is automatically responsible.
It means we should look more closely at the ones we choose.
ASK QUESTIONS BEFORE YOU BOOK
You don’t have to become an expert in responsible tourism.
You just have to ask a few questions.
Who owns the business?
Who employs the people?
Where does the money go?
Are local people involved in the experience?
Are guides properly trained and fairly compensated?
Does the accommodation employ local people?
Are local products and services being used?
Does the community have a genuine voice in the tourism experience?
If an operator cannot answer basic questions about how its tourism benefits local people, that is worth thinking about.
Transparency matters.
A responsible business should be able to explain its relationship with the community rather than simply using words like “authentic” or “community-based” as marketing language. (Responsible Travel)
YOUR MONEY HAS A STORY
I think this is the simplest way to look at it.
Every dollar, pound, euro or rand you spend while travelling has a story.
Where does it go?
Who receives it?
What does it pay for?
Does it stay in the community?
Does it help someone employ another person?
Does it help a family?
Does it support an artisan?
Does it help a guide continue doing the work they love?
Does it contribute to protecting the place you came to experience?
We often think of our holiday spending as one large expense.
But it isn’t.
It is hundreds of little decisions.
And those decisions add up.
YOU DON’T HAVE TO CHANGE YOUR WHOLE TRIP
This isn’t about telling you that you need to throw away your itinerary and start again.
You can make small changes.
Choose the local guide.
Stay at the locally owned guesthouse.
Eat at the family-run restaurant.
Buy directly from the artisan.
Book the community experience.
Tip fairly.
Ask questions.
Listen.
Learn.
And when you find someone whose work makes your experience extraordinary, tell people about them.
Recommend them.
Share their business.
Give them the recognition they deserve.
Because sometimes supporting a local business doesn’t cost you anything extra.
It simply means choosing to spend your money differently.
THE PEOPLE ARE THE HEART OF THE JOURNEY
When I look back at the people whose stories became part of I HEART AFRICA, I don’t remember them simply as guides, rangers, tourism workers or people I interviewed for a book.
I remember them as people with their own relationships with Africa.
Their own reasons for being there.
Their own stories.
Andrew’s story is one example.
His life became intertwined with the wild from childhood, eventually leading him into guiding across some of Africa’s most extraordinary wilderness areas. His story reminded me that when we travel into these places, we are often stepping into landscapes that other people have spent their entire lives learning, protecting and understanding.
And that changes the way I think about travel.
Because perhaps the greatest thing we can give back when we visit Africa isn’t money alone.
It is respect for the people who make our experience possible.
It is recognising their knowledge.
It is valuing their work.
It is listening to their stories.
It is choosing their businesses when we can.
And it is understanding that the Africa we fall in love with is not just the landscape outside the window.
It is the people who call that landscape home.
TRAVEL WITH THEM, NOT JUST THROUGH THEM
Africa doesn’t need travellers to arrive believing they are going to save it.
It needs travellers who are willing to listen.
To learn.
To spend consciously.
To support local businesses.
To value local knowledge.
To respect local communities.
And to understand that tourism works best when it isn’t a one-way transaction.
You arrive.
You take.
You leave.
Instead, let it be something more.
You arrive.
You meet.
You learn.
You contribute.
You leave something behind — and take a little of Africa with you.
That is what supporting local communities means to me.
Not charity.
Not guilt.
Not travelling perfectly.
Simply recognising that when we travel through someone’s home, our choices matter.
And sometimes, the most responsible choice is also the most rewarding one:
Choose local.
Meet the people.
Hear their stories.
And let them be part of your journey.
MORE FROM RESPONSIBLE TRAVEL
TRAVEL WITH RESPECT
Understanding cultures, traditions and communities before you arrive.
WILDLIFE & CONSERVATION
How to experience Africa’s wildlife while helping protect the places and animals you came to see.
ETHICAL SAFARIS
What to look for when choosing a safari operator and wildlife experience.
PEOPLE & PHOTOGRAPHY
How to photograph and share the stories of the people you meet with dignity and respect.
GIVE BACK
Meaningful ways to contribute to the communities and conservation projects you encounter along the way.