About Us

About Inspiring African Travel

And the Inspiring Africa Travel Hosts

James & Stuart have been great friends since their high school days and after many long evenings and adventures in the bush exchanging ideas, they decided they would love to do a podcast. Julia (who married James) got them to finally do it. And so after many years (yes years), it’s finally here. We’ll make up for it we promise!

The podcast brings together our love of Africa and our passion for responsible travel. All three of us are involved in marketing. This means we know a little bit about a lot of things so we hope that the end product will develop into something that our friends in the travel community out there will find enjoyable and inspiring.

We have the best jobs because we are in the business of inspiring people about travelling to Africa – something all three of us love. But what we enjoy most of all is talking about the positive impact tourism has on the lives of people in Africa.

There are so many stories out there to share that you just don’t hear about. Some are huge success stories of entire companies doing incredible things for community development. Others are passionate individuals who’ve climbed the tourism ladder from a guide to a director by following their dreams.

While having fun and sharing entertaining interviews, our aim is to bring you their story through this podcast. Seeing firsthand how tourism empowers people we want to share their story to inspire you about tourism in Africa.

Meet The Hosts

James Wilson

James was born in Australia and finished his schooling in South Africa, where his passion for Africa would start and only grow stronger. Despite living and working in some amazing places including the Amazon, South of France, UK and Germany…remote Africa was to be his calling! In 2011 he headed for Botswana to join his best mate Stuart and shortly after settled in the Chobe National Park in the far north-east of the country where he lived for seven-years. After he married Julia they moved together to the Okavango Delta town of Maun where they live today. Since university James has always had a great passion for Responsible Tourism and it remains a key part of his work with Desert & Delta Safaris and the driving passion behind Inspiring African Travel.

Julia Spry

Born in Kenya and raised in the safari town of Arusha, Tanzania, Julia has been part of the tourism industry since 2004. Her initial debut in the tourism industry was with coastal travels, a flying safari company. It was the starting point in her journey. Once she completed her MBA in London she moved to the paradise island of Zanzibar, the birthplace of her father. She always wanted to be able to share her experience and impart knowledge with the locals for their development. After several years of running and marketing a stunning 5-star boutique resort, her future husband finally persuaded her to move to Botswana. Today Julia works for the locally based tourism company Safari Destinations. While Julia has come to love her new home she is extremely passionate about her home country. Her network in East Africa runs far and wide and she promises to bring Inspiring African Travel some amazing contacts with some wonderful people.

Stuart Parker

Stuart was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. From a young age he enjoyed frequent family vacations to the Kruger National Park, Garden Route and other remote locations across South Africa. It is on these journeys where Stuart discovered his passion for Africa travel. After finishing school he headed for Cape Town where he studied tourism management before joining a reputable online Africa travel company as a journey specialist. His desire to experience more of Africa drove him to Botswana where he managed luxury safari lodges. Now back in his home town Stuart continues to work within the Southern Africa tourism sector as a Business Development Manager. Stuart has a deep passion for ecotourism and minimalistic travel which he shares with the Inspiring African Travel network.

Inspiring African Travel

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Talking Africa travel and sharing the stories of those who continue to make a positive impact in travel. Follow our podcasts on your favourite podcast channel.