Careers in specialist Africa travel
Expert Africa is a market-leading, award-winning specialist tour operator with team members, and travellers, from around the globe. We have an office in Richmond, south-west London and in Cape Town – but the majority of our team work from home. We have team members in the UK, in South Africa, Namibia and New Zealand.
We have long grown steadily over the last 25 years, establishing a proven track record for high levels of African expertise and customer service. We’re in a strong position coming out of the Covid pandemic with the vast majority of our experienced team intact, backed by industry-leading systems and this new website.
We have several positions available for the right candidates.
Africa Specialist / Senior Africa Specialist
We’re looking for a successful Africa specialist to join our team. An enthusiastic and intelligent applicant with a genuine passion for Africa. You’ll be friendly, conscientious and enjoy working cooperatively to deliver genuinely great service to our travellers.You’ll probably be a graduate with 2+ years’ experience in African travel and have some good destination knowledge including first-hand experience of at least some of Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania and Kenya – including their attractions, safari camps, lodges and hotels.
We want you to become a real Africa specialist: someone who can advise travellers in real depth from first-hand experience and with empathy on voice and video calls, by email and in person. Although we sell holidays, the heart of our work is about giving our travellers great advice and very efficient service; we aren’t looking for those with ‘hard-sell’ sales techniques.
All of our specialists work with our travellers from start to finish: from initial conversation and advice, through to creating quotes, refining trip plans, booking them, and acting on feedback when our travellers return. We’ll train you on our systems, some of the most advanced in the industry, and they’ll automate much of your work – but highly efficient admin skills and great attention to detail are still vital.
Proficiency with the Amadeus GDS system would be an advantage, a good understanding of Excel is a big asset and competence with MS Word is essential. You’ll need excellent communication skills and a high level of literacy and numeracy, which will be tested during your application.
Those with real talent for writing will find scope to develop that with professional input, ultimately contributing to content, articles and guidebooks. Those with an aptitude for numbers / systems will find plenty of scope working more closely with our technical side.
Our specialists get involved in all aspects of our business, from our core work with travellers, to PR and marketing, to content management for our website and media channels. If you are keen, and have the ability and aptitude, then you will excel and we will give you the opportunity to grow.
Working responsibly is very important to us. We promote responsible tourism and aim not to sell anything which is not in the best interests of the traveller.
Our senior specialists are proficient and very experience. They are experts in several countries, able to work well under pressure and adept at helping to work through complex and challenging issues. They not only work with our travellers, but also manage our country programmes, including the crucial liaison work with our many close partners in Africa.
Location: Some initial training for the position is in our London or Cape Town office – with the length of this depending on your level of experience – some can be delivered remotely. Thereafter there’s flexibility for the position to be home-based, office-based or hybrid.
Starting salary: Depending on experience, typically £30-38k p.a. plus performance-related bonus. OTE £35-50k.
Graduate job: Trainee Africa Specialist
We’re looking for highly motivated individual with a demonstrable passion for African travel who is keen to embark on a career in our specialist travel business.You’re likely to be a bright, keen graduate with a good eye for detail and efficient ways of working. You are enthusiastic and curious, conscientious and co-operative. You communicate clearly and have excellent numeracy. You will have travelled in Africa already and a strong desire to travel further there, sharing our fascination with the continent’s wildlife, environment and cultures. Some track record in a sales or customer-facing environment will be an advantage. You like the look of the role above (Africa Specialist), but you don’t have the industry experience.
We can offer you a great opportunity for truly rounded, in-depth training which will enable you to become a real African expert – complete with great practical experience of many of the key facets of the African travel business.
Location: Your initial training, in our London or Cape Town office, will be 6–18 months. Thereafter there’s flexibility for the position to be home-based, office-based or hybrid.
Starting salary: £25,000 p.a.
Both these positions offer opportunities for progression within Expert Africa, limited only by ability, experience and motivation.
We pay at the top of the scale for our sector of the industry. All packages include 20 days of holiday per year. After you’ve been with us for two years, they also include free annual travel insurance, optional group private health insurance, and a contribution-matching pension scheme.
Within your first year with us, you can typically anticipate up to four weeks of research travel in Africa annually. These work trips usually consist of two 2-week trips per year, travelling on your own but organised and paid for by Expert Africa, to greatly broaden your knowledge and help you become a real Africa expert.
Expert Africa wholly funds this travel, usually on individual trips rather than the industry’s standard ‘group familiarisation’ trips. Our commitment to frequent, in-depth and independent travel in Africa ensures our specialists are always amongst the most knowledgeable Africa experts in the industry.
Applications procedure
If you think that either position is right for you, then please apply in writing to: careers@expertafrica.comPlease include:
- A full CV, and
- A scan of a concise, handwritten letter. This should explain which position interests you, why you would like to join Expert Africa, and the skills and experience you feel would specifically make you an asset to our team.
Internships for students
We often have the capacity to accept one intern in the Expert Africa team at any one time. We focus on students who are undertaking this as part of a university course, typically a sandwich course in marketing or travel and tourism.These temporary posts for volunteers usually last 3-6 months, and the intern normally focuses on projects under the direction of the managing director. The posts are not salaried, but we offer a basic travel and subsistence allowance.
Internships are designed to help university students understand more about a busy travel business, and specifically marketing and the travel industry; they are not designed as a precursor to employment with Expert Africa.