Tanzania-born Franck Leya, the co-founder and Managing Director of Honest Travel Experience in South Africa, has had an fascinating journey and is now working in the direction of getting individuals to expertise the continent on solar-powered scooters.
BY NAFISA AKABOR
I used to be not a fan of how tourism was being achieved within the inside metropolis as a result of numerous what individuals have been consuming was poverty porn, which is exhibiting individuals a nasty aspect of one thing when you capitalize…
FRANCK LEYA’S FIRST TRAVEL EXPERIENCE BEGAN within the late Nineties as a refugee who needed to flee the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) out of concern that his father, a political journalist, could be executed.
“My passion for travel pretty much started as an immigrant. After my dad was charged with treason, we began migrating to African countries depending on the diplomatic relationships the countries had,” says Leya to FORBES AFRICA.
A Congolese born in Tanzania, Leya needed to journey by bus and foot through the years, having lived in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Angola, earlier than reaching his last cease: Johannesburg.
“When we arrived in South Africa, it was different because my dad had gotten asylum. The laws here were different when compared to other African countries,” says Leya. “My love for storytelling began because I migrated so much that everywhere I went, I had all these cool stories I wanted to share.”
Growing up in Johannesburg, his mom warned him to pay attention to sure locations and buildings, says Leya.
“As much as the inner city was considered ‘dangerous’, it was the only place I could call home due to its diversity and acceptance of all people.”
Walking distance from his house was the enduring Ponte Tower, which he refers to as ‘The United States of Africa’.
“I was constantly reminded that if I don’t do well, I’ll end up in that building. At the time, the building was a symbol of failure,” says Leya.
“Curiosity led me to move into this building later on, which gave me the opportunity to challenge people’s perception about my neighborhood and to expose them to the beauty of the inner city,” he says.
Leya finally gained a scholarship to attend St. John’s College in Johannesburg, the place he used to sneak his buddies out of rugby festivals to offer them excursions of Yeoville and when the demand grew, he started charging for it. “The first tour I ran was in 2013, I took a group of college boys for a Yeoville nightlife experience.”
While finding out Economics and Ecometrics by way of Unisa, Leya met his mentor at Ernst & Young, who had began a tourism firm known as Dlala Nje. He was employed as a tour information, whereas residing at Ponte City.
“I was not a fan of how tourism was being done in the inner city because a lot of what people were consuming was poverty porn, which is showing people a bad side of something while you capitalize and make money from it,” he says. “Essentially what was being sold was my reality. I felt like it could be done better. This is what inspired my brand.”
Leya labored at Dlala Nje for 5 years however after graduating, began his tour firm, Honest Travel Experience. It has been working since January 2019, with experiences supplied in Cape Town, Durban, and Johannesburg. It contains strolling, bike and electrical scooter excursions that cowl meals, historical past, graffiti, nightlife, arts, and markets.
He credit Airbnb Experiences with serving to him develop, which finally introduced in bookings every day for this Johannesburg nightlife tour.
As a fan of expertise, he started providing digital excursions earlier than Covid hit, which subsequently was Zoom excursions, silent discos and internet hosting worldwide visitors by way of on-line boards throughout lockdown.
“The pandemic took our 10-year plan to two years, we were already equipped for these instances, like reaching international schools to give them an African experience without actually being here.”
“When we read the Covid protocols, they fit in with our checklists like social distancing, smaller groups, and being outdoors. We’ve always been considerate of two things: the planet and the people. A lot of people who buy our products are conscious travelers.”
The proper circumstances led Honest Travel Experience to supply e-scooter excursions by way of a companion.
“It allowed us to make an impact quicker on a traveler that had very little time in Johannesburg. It has now evolved into something beyond us.”
Leya and his enterprise companions determined to chop out the intermediary and use their final little bit of funds to spend money on their very own fleet of e-scooters to maintain excursions inexpensive and accessible. The firm owns 58 scooters.
“We are in the second stage of launching and getting more investors to come on board so that we can launch the e-scooters as a short distance travel model in Johannesburg.
“We are also looking at ways to make the scooters solar powered. E-scooters could revolutionize how people view short distance travel within Africa, which is ideally where we’d like to branch out to.
“It was a strategic decision we made to pursue this idea of moving into transportation. That money could have done wonders for our business in the travel space, but I genuinely believe this is the new way. E-scooters on the African continent will get people thinking differently.”
Leya is assured that the corporate will obtain their first pattern of a solar-powered scooter by June 2022. “The goal after that is to mass-produce it and get it to the rest of Africa.”
Honest Travel facilitates excursions utilizing hosts however companions with locals in every metropolis for genuine experiences. “It’s always been a partnership for us, we don’t compete with each other. We create jobs within the local communities that we operate in.
“I believe I can use tourism as a catalyst for building communities and changing the narrative of this beautiful continent through a fair trade between visitors and communities.”