Current Vacancies at Wilderness

Responsibilities

• Develop compelling and engaging copy for various Impact marketing materials, including but not limited to websites, social media, email campaigns, print material, press releases, info graphics, and presentations for Wilderness, Wilderness Trust and Children in the Wilderness.
• Collaborate with the Impact team, Marketing team, and other stakeholders to conceptualise and execute innovative and impactful campaigns that align with Wilderness' Impact strategy and three core pillars: Empower, Educate, Protect.
• Work closely with the design team to bring copy and imagery to life across all Impact-related campaign projects.
• Collaborate with PR team to identify newsworthy impact-related angles and story ideas to write compelling, interesting and industry-leading content for press releases, newsletters, media pitches, and advertorials.
• Draft Impact-specific awards applications to ensure Wilderness is internationally recognised as pioneering the way in conservation tourism.
• Assist with the promotion and distribution of Impact Reports and ensure both internal and external stakeholders are abreast of Wilderness’ latest Impact news.
• Assist with donor communications and database management.
• Travel to Wilderness camps, when required, to gather stories from the field.
• Stay updated with industry trends, emerging technologies, and best practices in copy writing and content marketing to continuously enhance Wilderness' Impact content strategy.
• Support impact image selection processes to ensure appropriate brand imagery is used.

Candidate profile

• Bachelor's degree in English, Journalism, Communications, or related field.
• Proven experience as a Copywriter or similar role, preferably in the conservation, NGO or related marketing industry.
• Exceptional writing, editing, and proofreading skills with a keen eye for detail.
• Strong understanding of branding, storytelling, and content strategy.
• Understanding and ability to use SEO keywords in website copy writing.
• Flexibility in writing for diverse audiences across different marketing platforms.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced environment and manage multiple projects simultaneously.
• A team player who is confident in speaking publicly and conducting interviews.
• Proficiency in digital marketing tools and platforms is a plus.

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Detailed Responsibilities

• Develop relationships with the UK Operations Specialists
• Liaise with the Reservations Manager on booking issues, managing all the changes and adding any developments from the ops specialist to the booking to ensure that the client’s trip is booked and planned perfectly.
• Continuous communication and excellent service delivery to the Ops specialist at all times.
• Build relationships with Ops specialist based on trust and support, knowing their business trends and guests needs, ad hoc attending relevant familarisation trips with Ops specialist (if and when required).
• The Booking Ownership & confirmed bookings in accordance with company procedures
• Once sales confirms a booking in writing, a deposit invoice is to be sent and booking handed over to the Operations Specialist to action - Once payment is receipted, confirm all services required and to cancel those services not needed in the system and relevant AP provider.
• Working with UK Ops to ensure that the clients trip is booked and planned perfectly use this skill to build strong connections with all supplier reservations teams, nurture these relationships in order to help get more benefits when engaging regularly with them.
• Ensure the applicable specials are loaded correctly and confirmed by the supplier
• Ensure that the deposit requirements in the WW match what the AP advises on the quote to mitigate exposure risk in each booking.
• Process any additional changes/updates after confirmation to the itinerary.
• Confirm that all services not required have been cancelled prior to invoicing final invoice.

Qualification:              

• Matric certificate – with maths (minimum standard grade or above) 
• Tertiary certificate in Travel & Tourism/hospitality is advantageous. 

Experience:                

• 4-5 years’ with Senior experience in handling customer relationships and developing & promoting product and building journeys in the inbound travel industry.
• In depth knowledge of Southern Africa & East Africa
• Personal or educational travel experience in the above areas advantageous.
• Computer Literate (Microsoft Office: Outlook, Teams, Excel and Word)
• Proven English literacy.
• Working knowledge of TourPlan and WETU or similar booking/operating system.  
• Excellent attention to detail.

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Key responsibilities

Content Management and Performance

• Oversee and manage content creation for our consumer channels – including print materials.
• Create content briefs – for campaign, blog, newsletter and related marketing.
• Develop strategic content plans that align with our key business objectives (within consumer marketing).
• Track, analyse and report on consumer marketing performance (measured against ROI and KRIs.)
• Support image selection processes to ensure appropriate brand imagery is used.
• Work with the creative team to develop powerful in-camp marketing assets that tie into our brand strategy.
• Conduct market and audience research – keeping abreast with emerging trends and creative campaign initiatives.

Team Management and Collaboration

• Provide supportive leadership that drives innovative thinking, passion and brand excellence.
• Collaborate with the Head of Creative on campaign generation and creative project development.
• Manage our consumer marketing budget and supplier invoice approvals.
• Work closely with our Direct Sales team to support content and key messaging requirements.
• Keep open and frequent communications with Trade, Digital, Creative and PR/Media streams.
• Support partnership marketing campaigns working closely with our Partnership, and Trade & Retail teams.

Customer Life cycle Management and Loyalty

• Work on a segmentation strategy with the Customer Life cycle Manager that allows our team to communicate effectively based on consumer interests, preferences and location.
• Oversee guest journey communications – across all touch points – working closely with our Consumer Life cycle Manager.
• Support our loyalty programme through communications, specialised itineraries, consumer events and loyalty initiatives.
• Work in collaboration with our Creative team on collateral creation for consumer events.
• Help grow and oversee the maintenance of our consumer database (managed by our Customer Life cycle Manager).
• Work closely on gifting strategies for consumers with our Trade & Retail and Creative teams.

Consumer Influencer Marketing

• Own our influencer strategy, approval of influencer trips, and spearhead content exchange partnerships.
• Track and report on influencer trips (measured against ROI/KRIs).
• Brief influencers on our brand requirements, objectives and deliverables.

Digital Consumer Marketing

• Oversee the execution of copy for our website, including PPC and SEO.
• Stay on top of digital reporting tools that influence our consumer content strategy.
• Oversee all social media marketing – working with the Social Media Manager to deliver outstanding social media content.
• Oversee content production for itrvl (our proprietary booking system) itineraries and other related consumer channels.

Skill Set – Qualifications – Experience

Skill set:

• Ability to successfully lead teams and partner effectively across complex business organisations. Demonstrable experience in developing efficient strategies and go-to-market plans for B2C, with an eye on branding and the customer journey. Excellent written and verbal communication with strong analytical and problem-solving skills.

Qualifications/Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing or related degree.
• Proven experience as a senior marketing leader for a minimum of 8 years, preferably in the luxury travel sector.
• Proven experience in marketing, brand management, and consumer marketing.
• Experience in the travel or hospitality industry, particularly targeting affluent travelers.
• Prior experience in developing consumer marketing assets and promotions.
• Previous experience managing a team.

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Detailed Responsibilities:

Develop relationships with Agents:

• Liaise with the Reservations Manager on sales potential and any development on the agent relationship for all bookings.
• Continuous communication and excellent service delivery to agents at all times.
• Build relationships with agents based on trust and support, knowing their business trends and guests needs.

General:

• Keep Agents’ booking information updated in the ARM (likes/dislikes – booking habits etc.) 
• Keep updated with all Wilderness and 3rd party product (AP), as well as technology updates.
• Streamline operational negotiations by also reducing dead beds, waitlist chasing and maximising camp operations role to create those life-changing journeys for guests.

Quoting bookings – Design, develop and plan guests’ journeys:

• Quote accurately and timeously keeping in mind our strategic and preferred AP and upsell where possible to benefit both WS and the agent ensuring relevant information is obtained from the ARM prior to quoting.
• Stipulate and utilize applicable specials in the WW and make appropriate notes as required as per AP’s systems and procedures.
• Understand the agents/guests needs in each booking. Design itineraries around company guidelines and product knowledge e.g. area, variety, product status and service consistency in accommodation standard, distances travelled and time saving aspects.
• Follow up on all outstanding provisional bookings with the agents, consistently understanding the yield implication of provisional space held.
• Measure sales and GP% per agent in conjunction with Sales, identifying variations and maintaining good GP’s per booking.

Confirmed Bookings in accordance with company procedures:

• Create the automated deposit invoice including all services that are confirmed and need to be delivered in accordance to the agents agreed T&Cs, ensure bookings are not exposed on the TFS reports.
• Ensure that the deposit requirements in the WW match what the AP advises on the quote to mitigate exposure risk in each booking.
• Process any additional changes/updates after confirmation to the itinerary.
• All required travel information to be obtained from the Agent and sent to the Operations Specialist e.g. bed configuration, dietaries, ages of children, group dynamics and any other additional information from the agent.
• Review guest travel docs completed in conjunction with the operations team support and ensure details are correct prior to sending out to the agent.

CANDIDATE PROFILE

Qualification:

• Matric certificate – with math's (minimum standard grade or above) 
• Tertiary certificate in Travel & Tourism/hospitality. 

Experience:                     

• 4 - 10 years’ experience in the travel & tourism industry at an intermediate level.
• Experience in handling customer relationships and developing & promoting product and services in the inbound travel industry.
• Computer Literate (Microsoft Office, email, Internet).
• Proven English literacy.
• Working knowledge of TourPlan and WISH or similar booking/operating system. 

Skills:               

• Excellent communication skills both written and oral, in English.
• Foreign European language skills advantageous.

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Detailed Responsibilities

Develop relationships with the Sales Agents

• Generate and grow sales by securing, costing, and presenting journeys to Sales agents in a timely manner
• Foster and build strong relationships with Sales agents to strengthen the bond and partnership, attending relevant familiarization trips with agents (if and when required).
• Deliver a speedy service to Sales agents, ensuring efficient communication and meeting tight deadlines.
• Demonstrate a strong focus on sales and be equally invested in the success of each booking.
• Liaise with the Reservations Manager on sales potential and any development on the agent relationship for all bookings.
• Continuous communication and excellent service delivery to agents at all times.

The Sale

• Manage the new request from the Sales agent, from quote to prov on the WW align the booking to client ready to confirm in the fastest possible time whilst maintaining the booking integrity on itrvl.
• Quote accurately and timorously keeping in mind our strategic and preferred AP and up sell where possible to benefit both teams.
• Build strong connections with all supplier reservations teams, nurture these relationships in order to help get more benefits when engaging regularly with them.
• Maximize the mutually beneficial relationship with AP partners, their lodges/camps, and areas they are located.
• Stipulate and utilize applicable specials in the WW and make appropriate notes as required as per AP’s systems and procedures.
• For special needs/high risk guests, Flag concerns with the WS24 incident management teams and follow protocol to ensure the guests are safe to travel in the planned journey.
• Streamline the sales negotiations by also reducing dead beds, wait list chasing and maximising camp yield during the provisional stage of the booking process, where possible up sell to Wilderness camps thus increasing GP per booking.
• Liaise with RARA if rates, accommodation, transit points and activities are not loaded or correctly linked on the WW.
• Where issues are with itrvl, raise concerns with the Wilderness itrvl integration specialist.
• Understand the sales agents needs in each booking – including urgency of replies, if email does not help clarify first before calling the sales agent.
• Have an excellent understanding of the sales agencies preferred supplier list and great product knowledge to apply speedy turnaround for alternatives at play to help secure the deal effectively.
• Follow up on all outstanding provisional bookings with the sales agents, consistently understanding the yield implication of provisional space held.
• Follow up on daily WISH/WW expiry reports on the WW dashboard with the sales agents ensuring no bookings are auto released and bookings are managed effectively.
• Maintain the booking prov in the WW with all relevant documents uploaded in the booking file together with all information passed on about the guest at this stage of the booking process.
• For all provisional, correspond with relevant suppliers to effectively hold space, room types, flights and where possible use online facilities to maximize the response times.
• Escalate all suppliers with Res managers or product managers should there be any issue in the supplier service delivery.
• Handle all prov changes efficiently and constantly communicating with the sales agents on the status of all the open bookings.
• Once clients have paid the deposit in itrvl for the trip held, ensure the prov booking matches the excel with all the specials offers applied, correct room types, correct flights held to connect a seamless journey before handing over to the Journey Specialist for confirmation.  

Product Knowledge

• Possess excellent knowledge and intimate geographical understanding of all Southern and East African destinations.
• Stay up-to-date with day-to-day regional logistics and industry trends.
• Maintain in-depth supplier knowledge to provide accurate and valuable information to Sales agents and clients.
• Keep updated with all Wilderness and 3rd party product (AP), as well as technology updates on how it’s booked on the WW.
• Have a detailed understanding of the strategic and preferred suppliers, have intimate knowledge of their deals, specials and packages – know how to negotiate and incorporate these benefits into rate reductions for the client but not compromising the elevated guest experience.
• Continuously update and enhance product knowledge through training and research.

General

• Participate in industry events, trade shows, and familiarization trips as required.
• Keep apprised of company policies, procedures and system updates.
• Embrace a culture of continuous learning and improvement, actively seeking feedback and implementing suggestions for personal and professional growth.

Qualification:              

• Matric certificate – with maths (minimum standard grade or above). 
• Tertiary certificate in Travel & Tourism/hospitality is advantageous.

Experience:                

• 4-5 years’ with Senior experience in handling customer relationships and developing. & promoting product and building journeys in the inbound travel industry.
• In depth knowledge of Southern and East Africa.  
• Personal or educational travel experience is advantageous.
• Knowledge of Mozambique, Mauritius and Seychelles, an added advantage.
• Computer Literate (Microsoft Office: Outlook, Teams, Excel and Word).
• Working knowledge of TourPlan and WETU or similar booking/operating system.  
• Excellent attention to detail.