Custom Tours of Europe: Our History

Although its headquarters are in Germany, Umfulana only began offering tours to France and other European destinations in 2003. The target market was initially German citizens interested in travelling to South Africa or New Zealand. The success of Umfulana’s customized tour concept resulted in to the creation of an English-language website to enable non-German clients to enjoy tailor-made itineraries for destinations on three continents. Owing to the popularity of such destinations as Paris, Brittany, Burgundy and the Côte d’Azur, France was one of the first destinations offered by Umfulana to English-speaking clients. Today we market tailor-made tours in English and German for numerous European countries, including France, Italy, Germany, Great Britain and Spain, as well as for South Africa and New Zealand. Our specific products for France include a tour of Paris, Loire and Brittany, a tour from the Atlantic Ocean to the Côte d’Azur, and extended tour of southwest France, and cross-border tours connecting France with Italy and Germany.
 

In 1997 Martin and Gabriele Bach moved from Germany to South Africa with their four children. Both of the Bachs had been serving as ministers in a village near Cologne when Gabi was offered a position as minister of a Lutheran church in a town called Hermannsburg in KwaZulu-Natal.
 

While touring South Africa a year later with some friends from Germany, Tobias Garstka and Martin Bach came up with the idea of setting up a small travel agency for Germans interested in travelling to South Africa. Tobias had gone through confirmation at the church where Martin was minister in Germany and had provided valuable assistance with youth work.
 

Six months later a company named Umfulana – individuelles Reisen CC (Umfulana Personalised Tours) was founded. The name Umfulana is a diminutive of the Zulu word for river and thus means “little river” or “stream”, a literal translation of Martin Bach’s last name (“Bach” is the German word for stream).
 

Based on a simple concept, brief descriptions of accommodations and landscapes that were produced in a garage in South Africa were joined together to form tours. Itineraries were created by Tobias in a spare room in Kürten, Germany, a small town near Cologne, with the help of his brother Dennis, who also created the company’s first website.
 

Umfulana’s first customers were friends of the owners. The client base slowly expanded as the young company’s workflows and marketing methods improved. Initially, every booking, even a rental car reservation, was celebrated as a huge success.
 

By 2000 Umfulana had grown to the point where additional help was needed. Two secretaries were hired, one who put together itineraries in Germany and one who carried out the bookings in South Africa. At the same time the German office was moved from the spare room in Kürten to a rented building. In South Africa a second garage was acquired.
 

In view of Umfulana’s annual growth in turnover of 100% (with the exception of the crisis year, 2003, when only 70% growth was achieved), new destinations were soon added.
 

In 2002 Martin Bach and Brinka Hellack, who had previously worked for the consolidator that booked Umfulana’s flights, went on an expedition to New Zealand. It was a stroke of luck that a German student named Susanne Bonnemann had just completed her degree in geography with a thesis on New Zealand and wanted to emigrate. Susanne has managed the Umfulana office in Christchurch since 2003.
 

Australia was added in 2003 after an expedition lasting several months was undertaken by Umfulana staff members.
 

In that same year, 2003, Martin Bach returned to Germany. Despite the stunning beauty of the South African landscapes, Martin had become homesick for “Old Europe” with its historical cities, its gothic cathedrals, its cultural heritage and even its forests. The next obvious step was to add such European destinations to the programme as France, Italy and England.

The core business of Umfulana, which is now a public limited company with offices on three continents, has shifted. No longer focusing exclusively on South Africa, the company now produces custom itineraries for travellers to a wide variety of destinations. Today Umfulana regards “personalised tours” as its core business and not travel to a particular region.