Firm woos clients with extreme sports and game drives

Rose Jebet’s love for nature and a dissatisfaction with tour guides motivated her to set up her own tour company two years ago.

The 30 year-old is the founder of Yolo Adventure and Safaris, a relatively new company that organises sporting activities and tours in the region. Yolo is an acronym derived from a popular urban phrase meaning “you only live once”.

During the first year of operation, Ms Jebet used to work from home to identify potential customers and set up meetings over coffee to plan their itineraries.

“This was quite a challenge because we were hiring vans for our clients,” she says.

“During my several personal trips, I had made some contacts in the industry and this helped the company take off.”

The company last year raised Sh4 million through internal savings and a bank loan to buy two vans, open an office in Parklands and hire three employees – two drivers and an office assistant.

She organises tours to national parks with the most popular destination being the Maasai Mara Game Reserve.

Some of the events that Yolo offers include the high ropes challenge, mountain hikes, paintballing, water rafting, and bungee jump, zip-lining among other extreme sports.

“We are all about adventure, stepping out and appreciating nature by pushing the limits,” Ms Jebet told the Enterprise.

On average, Yolo handles 50 clients every month from whom she takes home over Sh90,000 in profits.

The tour company is currently organising a 13-day road trip in December that will see clients traverse five countries - Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Botswana.

Ms Jebet says she spends most of her time designing logistics for such events and researching to ensure that her calendar attracts participants and also keep up with established rivals.

Researching also ensures the company remains ahead of the competition in an industry dominated by bigger and more established tour firms.

Kenya’s tourism industry has taken a beating over the past several years with the latest statistics showing that the number of visitors to Kenya fell by a quarter in the first five months of this year.

Visitor numbers fell to 284,313 from 381,278 in January to May 2014, a drop of 25.4 per cent, according to Kenya Tourism Board.

Tourism stakeholders including tour guides such as Ms Jebet have urged the government to support local tourism to cushion the country from the depressed international arrivals.

“Our clients get a chance to tour various parts of the country since we actively change the destinations from time to time,” said Ms Jebet.

“The plan is to offer clients something that will fascinate them enough to take them away from social media.”

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