Today, A&K runs 52 full-time offices worldwide, staffed by more than 2,500 people; it also operates its own safari camps and lodges throughout Africa and cruise ships on the Nile, Yangzi and Ayeyarwady Rivers, and maintains a fleet of customised safari vehicles.
A&K chairman, Geoffrey Kent and his parents, Valerie and Colonel John Kent, founded Abercrombie & Kent in 1962. The company's beginnings were modest. Kent remembers their first safaris were conducted with little more than "a Bedford truck and my mother's sterling silver ice bucket”.
In 1967, Kent (by now managing director, following his parents' retirement) decided to expand A&K's signature style of travel. In 1969, he began opening additional companies in Africa; in 1971, he met Jorie Ford Butler, of Oak Brook, Illinois. She became a partner in the business and together they expanded A&K into a worldwide group of companies, with offices in London, Downers Grove, Illinois, and Melbourne, Australia.
Today, A&K runs 52 full-time offices worldwide, staffed by more than 2,500 people; it also operates its own safari camps and lodges throughout Africa and cruise ships on the Nile, Yangzi and Ayeyarwady Rivers, and maintains a fleet of customised safari vehicles.
The company's more recent innovations include Extreme Adventures that bring travellers face to face with nature at its most uncompromising, journeys by Private Jet and Connections - group journeys that offer a chance to discover the world in the company of unmatched local experts.
Geoffrey Kent talks to Ian Jarrett.
Responding to a review of your new book in the New York Times, “Lola” wrote: “Do people really need more inspiration to travel? They should start staying home more, learn more about their neighbours and give the planet a chance to heal.” How do you respond to this?
The most important effect of travel is that it changes a person’s perspective on the world. I believe if more world leaders and decision makers travelled, there would be less conflict in the world. Sustainable, nature-based tourism is critical to conservation because it gives local people a compelling economic incentive to protect wildlife and preserve habitat.
How do you align extreme luxury and ferrying the uber-wealthy around the world with your ideals of environmentalism and sustainability?
High value, low impact tourism has proven to be the best way to protect endangered wildlife and habitat by limiting the number of visitors and minimizing the environmental impact.
We are committed to eco-friendly architecture, building and design. At Sanctuary Baines’ Camp we purchased more than 150,000 aluminium cans to incorporate into the walls for thermal and sound insulation.
We employ local materials, skills and crafts in design and construction. Many of our camps use post and beam construction so at the end of the concession period the camp can be completely dismantled, leaving no lasting footprint.
And we incorporate traditional arts and crafts that reflect the local culture, providing employment to master craftsmen and local artisans.
In your book you reveal the horror you felt when killing an elephant at the age of 15. What were the circumstances of that incident and did that in any way shape your subsequent relationship with African wildlife?
Like many young men who grew up in Kenya, I went through the rite of passage at 15 when a young man must demonstrate his ability to protect and ensure the safety of his loved ones.
It was 1958, and my parents sent me on an elephant-hunting safari with Major Lynn Temple-Boreham, game warden of the Masai Mara, once the greatest game-hunting district in Kenya.
After hours of stalking in the scorching July sun, we spotted an elephant. Lynn crouched down and moved in, and I edged in front of him to do the same. “Remember what I’ve told you, Geoff,” he said.
A breeze rose up and swayed against us. I took the lead and watched the trunk rise like a snorkel. Our scent had carried across the wind. “Closer,” Lynn said.
We inched forward. “That’s my shot,” I whispered, subtly pointing toward the elephant’s left shoulder. I bit down and steadied the gun against the crook of my armpit, aiming not for the center of the forehead but for the gutsier shot: a heart shot, from the side. I fired.
Yes!” Lynn hissed. No, I thought. No … no. I pulled the trigger too fast. I’d hit him before I wanted to.
I watched, my fingers still choked around the trigger. The elephant absorbed the bullet above his shoulder and stumbled. He gained a second of footing and took off toward us, so close that he nearly knocked me down. He lost all of his tracks — and then, suddenly, crashed down like a boulder.
I was in horror — not because a few yards more and I’d have been trampled, but because I’d just killed the most beauteous and magnificent beast I’d ever seen.
I lowered the gun, heartsick. Right then, I made a vow to myself and to Africa: If I ever shot an elephant again, it would be with a camera — not a gun.
You’re credited with helping to protect Africa’s wildlife while at the same time looking after the challenges that face ordinary Africans in carving out a living for themselves and their families. Where’s the balance, say, between the Maasai looking after their cattle and safari companies wanting to protect the animals that kill the cattle?
We work in partnership with local communities so they benefit economically from tourism. At the same time, we also address their concerns. For example in Kenya, my sister Anne has been working with the Maasai to protect their livestock by encircling their bomas with chain link fencing, which protects the cattle at night when they are most vulnerable.
You say that rhinos, cheetah, elephants and lions will disappear if there are not measures to protect them? Are the people who can influence this not getting the message about the economic value of the safari business?
We started A&K with the idea of “shoot with a camera, not with a gun” and recent events have made it clear that trophy hunting must be phased out if we are to protect Africa’s endangered wildlife.
This unfortunate episode (Cecil the Lion) has focused public attention on the unprecedented decline in wildlife numbers. At the turn of the century, there were 3-5 million elephants; today there are less than 500,000. The rhino population has declined from 500,000 to 25,000. And there are less than 30,000 lions in the world today.
We must anticipate the future by protecting wildlife, while at the same time improving the livelihood and well being of local communities.
The death of Cecil the Lion brought the big game hunting business onto the front pages. Good or bad? Did the death of one much-loved lion create awareness – and a backlash – against the trophy business operators?
I hope to transform the public outrage over the killing of Cecil the Lion into an industry-wide effort to transition hunting concessions into community-based eco-tourism projects.
I am proud to say that Kenya outlawed trophy hunting in 1977 and Botswana joined us last year. This is an issue that needs to be addressed by the Travel & Tourism industry as a whole with the goal of transitioning hunting areas to eco-tourism over the next 5-10 years.
When your family acreage in Kenya was taken away, what effect did that have on you and how much of an influence was it on your subsequent journey through life?
When you lose what’s most important to you, it changes your perspective on the world. I’ve learned how crucial it is to anticipate the future because yesterday’s cheers have a short echo.
You became the first person to bike the three thousand miles from Nairobi to Cape Town. Is that where your inspiration to create a tour company was first seeded?
Any passionate traveller knows the conflict of wanderlust: the more destinations you see, the more you desire to see. And that motorcycle trip was my first experience at a hotel, the Ambassador in Salisbury, after weeks of camping out.
The place was adorned with velvet and brass, a giant bed in the middle and a bathroom with floor-to-ceiling marble. It was pure opulence, the kind of place my mother would have loved. As soon as the bellman and porter left the room, I had a bath and ordered an excellent meal. Then, joyously, I crawled into my bed and basked between the smooth sheets.
This was the first time I ever stayed in a hotel, and I started at the top. This is really the life, I mused. Riding my bike across Africa by day, sleeping in the Ambassador Hotel by night. Unpaved roads by day, fresh sheets and a spring mattress at night. Adventure by day, security and luxury at night. I knew I could live this way forever.
In Uganda, you led efforts to save gorillas and preserve their natural habitat. Do you count this as your greatest achievement?
It is a successful model for how sustainable tourism can save wildlife and at the same time benefit the local population. Today it is home to more than half of the world’s surviving mountain gorillas.
At the same time, with support from A&K Philanthropy and our guests, Bwindi Community Hospital, which started as a clinic under a tree, has become a full-fledged regional hospital. The availability of health care has reduced infant mortality by more than 50%.
I am a member of the Leadership Council of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network. My focus is on the Great Apes Survival Partnership, an initiative committed to ensuring the long-term survival of chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos, and orangutans.
With support from Ted Turner, we are starting a conservation effort to protect the bonobos in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) following the Bwindi model.
For Geoffrey Kent, where is the next frontier to explore?
I am working on planning Intrepid Expeditions to the furthest corners on earth. Living with the Emperor Penguins in Antarctica and going to the South Pole.
Chasing the Northern Lights in Iceland, Greenland and Lapland where we will learn how to drive a racecar on ice from a famous driver, and have a banquet catered by Noma. Recreating Jacques Cousteau’s historic expedition to Palau where you can dive surrounded by millions of jellyfish that do not sting.