Special Places
Our Trade Partners In Travel And Media

Special Places Is Offering Your Property Consistent Exposure To Your Target Market Over An Extended Period, At A Very Affordable Price.

Africa Geographic’s tour-operating arm, Africa Geographic Expeditions, was launched some five years ago to offer readers a reservations service and advice on travel in Africa. When developing this service, we decided to focus on a small number of high-quality, conservation-minded establishments well placed in Africa to offer authentic wilderness experiences in the bush and on the islands off our continent. We have drawn on trade friends and lodge and hotel operators whom we feel echo our commitment to providing the best quality and service excellence, and share our passionate conservation ideals – and we have called them SPECIAL PLACES. These properties are visited regularly by our travel staff, journalists and researchers and bear our highly recommended seal of approval. For your convenience, we have divided these select establishments into a number of categories:

Special Places – Safari lodges and city hotels
Special Places – Villas and exclusive-use lodges
Special Places – Wellness retreats
Special Places – Kids on safari

ARE YOU A SPECIAL PLACE?
When choosing our trade partners, we select a limited number in each wildlife area to ensure that we bring meaningful business to each one. We base our selection on our personal knowledge of the individual operation, the area in which it is located and its high quality of service and accommodation. The facilities may not always be the most luxurious in their area, but what they offer is, we feel, valuable and unique, with services such as superb guiding, an authentic interaction with the community or merely a fine location and proximity to a wildlife spectacle. We turn away many applicants to ensure this resource has credibility. View all our members on (http://www.africageographic.com/expeditions/special-places/)

WHAT DOES SPECIAL PLACES OFFER YOU?
Magazine exposure Your property will be featured on the Special Places pages in every issue of Africa Geographic magazine and will be listed alongside all relevant editorial material for your area. We will handle all design of the advertisements, which will be submitted to you for approval before being sent to print.
Exposure via our tour-operating business We will actively promote your property, ensuring that we include it in all the suggested itineraries and expeditions that we run to your area.
Web presence Each property receives a full page on our website – offering up to nine images and unlimited text as well as opportunities to post up specials and low-season offers. We will update your web page and will include your property on our map pages, and in all suggested itineraries on the FIT pages as well as in expeditions.
Brand alignment By being included in Africa Geographic’s list of Special Places, you are seen to carry the endorsement of our brand and are offered increased profile amongst competitors.
Free magazines in your rooms With your membership you will receive five copies of every issue of both magazines for the year of your membership.

WHAT IS EXPECTED OF OUR SPECIAL PLACES?
We request that you give our staff complimentary accommodation for site inspections. This equates to six bed-nights per year for lodges, wellness retreats and hotels – and two bed nights for villas and exclusive-use properties. We will also invite you to partake in competitions and may use your bed-nights to expose your property in this way.
We expect competitive STO rates for our travel division, and for you to work closely with our reservations staff in doing product training and keeping them updated on relevant news, changes and special offers.

WHO DO OUR SPECIAL PLACES REACH?
160 000 lovers of Africa in over 70 countries around the world – every month. Visit our advertising page to view the profile of our readers: http://www.africageographic.com/advertise/
More than half of our readers are from out of Africa.

HOW DO I BECOME A SPECIAL PLACE?
Once you have contacted us and we have viewed your property (unless, of course, we already know it), we will send you a membership contract for one year. You will then work with our art department to design your magazine and web adverts. Our FIT manager will contact you to initiate product training and get fact sheets and brochures from you.