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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.
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While touring South Africa a year later with some friends from Germany, Tobias Garstka and Martin Bach came up with the idea of establishing 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.
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| The Founding of the Company |
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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).
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Based on a simple concept, brief descriptions of lodges and landscapes that were composed in a garage in South Africa were linked together to form tours. Itineraries were produced 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.
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Umfulana’s first customers were friends of the owners. The client base slowly expanded as the young company’s work processes and marketing methods improved. In the beginning every booking, even the reservation of a rental car, was celebrated as a huge success.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Australia was added in 2003 after an expedition lasting several months was undertaken by Brinka, Susanne and Dennis.
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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.
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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 original 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.
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Umfulana’s staff has grown to 12 employees distributed among four locations in Germany, South Africa and New Zealand. Our custom software enables us to work faster and more efficiently than ever before and integrate select packages offered by local tour operators (short safaris, guided excursions, etc.). A flat hierarchy and effective workflows have developed that capitalize on the skills of each individual employee.
A key principle: Every client has his/her own consultant who oversees the planning of the trip from beginning to end.
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Umfulana has strongly expanded its English-language website and is increasingly offering tours to non-German clients from every part of the globe.
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The steady growth in bookings has encouraged us to continue adding new destinations: we plan to expand our tours in the South Pacific, thus enabling them to be offered as stand-alone destinations separate from New Zealand. Rarotonga will be combined with other tropical islands in the Indian Ocean under the category “Island Tours”.
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In five years we want to be Europe’s leading provider of personalised tours. |
