Daunara joins Dulini

We Are Africa and Indaba takes place in May, and it’s like the industry’s version of ComicCon, CinemaCon and Anthrocon all combined into one.  Everyone who is anyone in the African luxury business wants to have something big to announce.  The announcements are coming thick and fast.  They are, also, rather selfishly, creating a sizeable backlog of articles for me to write.  Rude.

Anyway, I’ve written about Daunara before.  I was rather excited when they launched, as they were the first luxury, exclusive-use property in Botswana.  Seeing how expensive Botswana can get, an exclusive-use camp is actually a bit of a bargain.  But they had a very schizophrenic route to marketing: sometimes exclusive, sometimes not, sometimes they may respond to your enquiries, often not.

I never had the chance to go, even though I was actually meant to be there in a few weeks and just couldn’t make it work.  But I always liked the look of the property; seeing that it’s on a private concession, you can do night drives (rare in Botswana), and it is conveniently near Maun, so a very short helicopter ride away.  Convenient for guests, although I’ve also heard perhaps slightly too convenient for pilots, given it’s near a key flight path.

Anyway, to the point: they have now joined Dulini.  Does this mean anything?  No idea.  Maybe?  Maybe there are exciting plans.  Maybe it means better sales responsiveness.  Maybe someone has simply updated a logo.  Time will tell.  They do, at least, seem to have abandoned the idea of being an exclusive-use property, so you can book it without needing to get on your knees and self-flagellate.

I’ll be back in Botswana next year, at least the once, for the opening of Singita Elela.  I may just have another camp to add on.