It all began on the 3rd of May 1999!

My son Trent was 3 years of age, and my daughter Lauren was 1 year old. In fact, her 1st Birthday was on 4th May 1999 being the day after we opened the doors of eTravel which also by default means that eTravel is My Baby ,and she will always remain “My Baby” until the day I die if I all goes accordingly to plan!

To be honest the last 25 years now seem to be a “blur of happiness” which has flashed past so fast that looking back all I see can be summed up in the following few words:

For me “My Dream” is based on a simple philosophy of “Listening to the whole world but only hearing yourself”. What I mean by this is that if you have a dream you need to take advice from those that have been there before you BUT when you make a decision know that it is YOUR decision that no one else can be held accountable for! This way you cannot blame anyone else for a bad decision but also know that living your dream also means you will make many mistakes. It’s from these mistakes we learn and become wiser. Ultimately my dream has been to be an entrepreneur and to run my own business as I don’t like taking instructions from anyone! I like to build businesses to create a culture of empowering individuals so that they can run and manage their own area within these entities. The eTravel ITC model has been the perfect breeding ground to do this as we have empowered ITC’s to run and manage their own businesses but it goes beyond the ITC as I believe we create a culture within eTravel whereby our staff are recognized to use their creativity and empowered to manage their own work via a simple process of Budgets to Key Drivers to Key Performance Areas which are managed furiously and consistently which in turn ultimately paves the way to allow each staff member & ITC to “live their own dream” of managing their own areas that all converge to a common purpose.

If I look back at the highs and lows of the last 25 years one could break this down into the following:

Years 0 to 5

Years 6 to 10

Years 11 to 15

Years 16 to 20

Years 21 to 25

What does the future hold?

So, people often ask me and / or almost tell me to sell eTravel as the years tick on!  As a side note I was 32 in 1999 when I stared eTravel which makes me 57 now so the common question I get asked: “Is it not time to sell eTravel and cash in after all these years of hard work?” I smile internally and say to myself that “hulle weet nie wat ons weet nie” and by this, I mean that eTravel is truly my baby especially as my other babies have grown up and left home. It’s now, more than ever, that I thrive on making things work and empowering others. I feel proud when I look around and see how many families have become financially (and emotionally) “reliant on the eTravel family”.  I like to give back and reward people for their hard work and commitment but don’t get me wrong, I’m not into giving without seeing the desired results. I believe teaching people how to fish and rewarding them is far more important than merely giving them fish!

We have so many projects on the go which can be summarised into the following entities that fall under the Ingwe Family Trust (founded way back in 1990):

eTravel Pty Ltd: Retail outbound ITC Travel group where we continue to remain “100% dedicated to the ITC”.

eHolidays Pty Ltd: Wholesale division with a hand full of IWC’s and other consultants who service our eTravel ITC’s.

eGroup Pty Ltd: A company that owns property including the eTravel HO.

GDW Lodges Pty Ltd: A company that owns 2268 Hectares of pristine African Bushveld on the border of Great Kruger close to Hoedspruit.

Bokmakirrie Pty Ltd: A company that own 732 Hectares of pristine African Bushveld on the border of Great Kruger close to Hoedspruit within the same Private Game Reserve as GDW Lodges as well as the Leopard’s Bend Bush Lodge.

These 5 entities all complement each other and fall into the following 3 broader segments being:

1. Outbound Travel

2. Property

3. Inbound African Bush Tourism

These 5 entities all complement each other and fall into the following 3 broader segments being So right now, there is absolutely no reason for me to have any desire to sell any one of the above entities! Especially with the exciting future I list below:

We have recently put a 60kVA photovoltaic solar system in at our Cape Town travel HO coupled with our already existing 200kVA generator making us totally capable of operating independently of Eskom.

Revamped Cpt HO: We have recently revamped and reorganized our Cpt HO, so all staff sit in very comfortable offices which feel new, clean, safe, and conducive to great work outputs.

Within Bokmakirrie Pty Ltd we have recently (Aug 2023) opened our very own Leopards Bend Bush Lodge within a Big 5 Private Game Reserve named the Blue Canyon Private Game Reserve at the foot of the Drakensberg mountains where the Blyde River Canyon reflects its beauty

This Lodge is also off the grid with a 24kVA Solar system and 22 generator that makes it self-sufficient not to mention a borehole and purification plant supplying us fresh clean water daily.

This exclusive lodge has all the 5-star comforts and can be found on www.leopardsbend.com

With the onset of Artificial Intelligence, we know that the future is bright as nothing can ever replace the human element, but we are excited to embrace and use AI to better service and manage our travelers’ experiences.

Then something that is any Dad’s dream is to create a business that becomes self-sufficient and sustainable enough to entice your son to come work with you which is what is happening right now.

Trent Wolff (28 years) has joined eTravel in the capacity of “Projects Manager” on Monday 6th May 2024 (almost 25 years to the day of opening eTravel on 3rd May 1999) where we hope he will settle in and make a difference noting his ability to embrace AI has been a key excitement for me and the rest of the team so that in years to come WE can take the eTravel Group to infinity and beyond!

Trent went to Stellies University where he studied a BCom in Management Accounting and did his honours in Man Acc’s plus did his CIMA (UK degree) before he started working with Iridium and found himself working at Sporting Bet as the Financial Manager for the last few years so has been very exposed to all the financial requirements of running a business. He personally embraced AI via ChatGPT to assist him in making his daily tasks more efficient and accurate so once he has settled in at eTravel we plan to use his skills and knowledge to push eTravel into the next generation without losing the personal touch.

Goodies from our suppliers

I would once again like to make my commitment to my staff and ITC’s that while I remain the 100% shareholder, we will always try our very best to:

“Remain 100% dedicated to the ITC” and to be “Big enough to matter BUT small enough to care”.

At the tender age of 57 I feel blessed and excited firstly for what I have and secondly for where we are going!

Bring on the next 25 years!

Exclusive Bush Lodge

Within Bokmakirrie Pty Ltd we have recently (Aug 2023) opened our very own Leopards Bend Bush Lodge within a Big 5 Private Game Reserve named the Blue Canyon Private Game Reserve at the foot of the Drakensberg mountains.