Katchie Nzama

Youth in Tourism

Nominee's Province:
Gauteng

Age:
33

Project Name/Description:
The Solo Wanderer

More info:
https://www.instagram.com/thesolowandera/?hl=en

Would you dump your salaried day job to travel and blog about your travels across the African continent for six months with no other “financial” plan beyond this? Well, that’s what Nzama did. Early in 2014, while working as a full-time tourism events co-ordinator, she discovered blogging and started a travel blog called travelmzantsi.com in May of that year. She then spent six months learning digital marketing on YouTube and quit her job in October and hit the road. Nzama, 33, known as The Solo Wanderer, is a proudly South African travel blogger, digital marketer, tourism marketing consultant and award-winning TV presenter who has backpacked 35 African countries alone via public transport, showcasing dozens of beautiful destinations and festivals in Africa. This includes her Cape to Cairo sojourn where during which she travelled 10 countries, including Zanzibar. “I love travel. I collaborate and work with businesses to tell African travel stories through my travel writing, TV research and development and presenting,” says Nzama. Nzama has been listed as one of 100 women playing a big role in African tourism at the Akwabaa Travel Market in Nigeria. Moreover, she won the Best Lifestyle Show at the 2021 South African Film and Television Awards (Saftas) for Come Again, a SABC1 travelogue show that encourages community tourism in South Africa, covering adventure travel, art, cuisine, culture and the country’s diversity. Nzama was also nominated in the Best TV Presenter category for the show. One of her proudest blog covers a seven-day itinerary in Kenya in which she collaborated with Kenya Tourism to market the country to South Africa. “So successful was the campaign that Lamu Island, off Kenya’s north-eastern coast, continues to have visitors from South Africa,” says Nzama. Nzama, who was born in Thohoyandou, Limpopo, but grew up in Johannesburg, dreams of a day when tourism celebrates Africans by telling their authentic stories, cultures and heritage, “where we are not just the help” but active participants in the industry.