Photo credit: wavebreakmedia_micro
Though it’s not for everyone, traveling is fun. It takes planning but you know that every year you have to plan a travel weekend where you go and see places you admire and dream of. On the other side of the aisle, there are people who have made it a lifestyle to travel. They dedicate their lives to traveling and they make it their main hustle.
The following people have shown and proven that traveling can be a full-time career. It may sound preposterous, but the following people have eked a decent living out of traveling. Their passion and burning love for travel only accelerated travel as a full-time, well-paying fulfilling career.
Avid travelers gain endorsements and sponsorships from tour companies. Others partner with car companies to advertise their automobiles as vehicles of choice to traverse rough terrains and long distances. There are other successful travel enthusiasts who partner with NGOs to highlight the different projects that they have embarked on in different parts of Africa.
These partnerships are often worth millions and out of a passion for traveling, tour companies are born and others in the following list started successful film companies. Be inspired by the following travel enthusiasts.
Afrikan Traveller
Afrikan Traveller is a digital content creator and an avid YouTuber who posts travel videos across Africa on his YouTube channel. His videos are centered on showcasing development projects in different African cities and towns. He also highlights scenic parts of those places by having eye-pulling drone footage.
On the business front, he also interviews unique African entrepreneurs by revealing what they do and what their business is all about. As a result, he goes to where the business is; for example, if it’s a factory or industry he takes a video of the industry from different angles and explains what they manufacture and so on.
He has also featured nice hotels and real estate projects in the posh neighborhoods of big cities such as Nairobi and Accra.
Njugush
Timothy Kimani aka Njugush is a known travel enthusiast courtesy of his brand ambassador role with the tour company called Bountiful Safaris. Through Bountiful Safaris, Njugush has documented his travels to different parts of Kenya and also outside.
He travels with his wife Celestine (Wakavinye), son Tugi and Abel Mutua’s family. Together they have traversed the country showing scenic destinations such as Masai Mara, Amboseli National Park, Panari Resort Nyahururu.
They show the different activities that tourists can do when they visit these places. Though their travel work mainly promotes the company they influence, they’ve also gained major endorsements and sponsorships from reputable hotels and restaurants.
Just Rioba
Winnie Rioba refers to herself as the mother of Passports on Twitter. She has a website where she regularly updates her travel experiences. Rioba is famous on social media for the different places, particularly in Africa, which she has visited.
When you visit her website you will be furnished with photos of scenic landscapes and exotic beaches. She gracefully accompanies these pictures with very detailed, lively, and humorous articles where she gives detailed accounts of her trips.
One of the best things about Ms. Rioba’s chronicles is that she tries to cover the whole spectrum of traveling. If you follow any of her articles you can know the costs, safety, the best activities to do in a certain tourist destination, and the best places to put up on a budget.
Rioba has also climbed Mt. Kenya and Mt. Kilimanjaro (which is the highest point in Africa) and has documented the journey of preparation towards taking on such a huge undertaking. Though she says that she has a job where she works, the kind of endorsements and companies that she works with proves that you can make traveling a full-time career.
Bonnita on Safari
Bonita Aluoch is a scientist who loves traveling and has established her reputable brand around traveling. She has an award-winning blog where she regularly documents her travels. Not only does she write about her travels, but she also allows guest writers from foreign countries such as South Africa to talk about their experiences as a tourist in Kenya.
Her posts are accompanied by eyefuls of professional, high-definition photographs of the scenic beaches in Mombasa, the rustic streets of Lamu, the bustling city of Kisumu, and many others.
Aluoch also partners with Kenyan local flight company Jambojet. She advertises the deals on offer at specific seasons of the year. With her travels, she also raises awareness and inspires women to partner with various organizations giving talks to girls on matters such as Menstrual health, travel, photography, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), and others.
Bonnita is a reputable travel columnist with Kenya’s Standard Newspaper.
The Routes Group
A group of four friends who love travel came together and decided to turn their passion into a business. They called it Routes. Routes started a YouTube channel where they updated and documented the various Kenyan destinations that they visited.
Through their videos, they showed the terrain, the time it took to travel, and the best means and cars to use for the different places they visited. However, their YouTube channel has not been active for four years now.
However, they also have a website that is well-curated and visually enticing where they write about everything they’ve done. They established a company called Routes Adventure and through that, they have worked with different establishments and organizations. Inchcape Kenya, UNEP, Rhino Ark, BBC Earth, Tropic Air, Africa Agriculture, and Trade Investment Fund (AATIF) among others are some of those organizations.
With their company, they’ve traveled all over Kenya raising awareness about the environment. They also share stories about different communities, farmers, places. Their edge is the panoramic films and images they collect. It makes it very hard to resist watching while listening to their creatively written narrations.
Working with such huge brands and organizations you certainly can make a full-time career out of travel.
Bucketlist Adventures
According to the Bucketlist website, a team of five passionate travelers came together and the company was born out of that. From that passion for traveling, Bucketlist Adventures has helped so many people enjoy different exotic places in Kenya and beyond.
Bucketlist specializes in hiking as much as they do normal travels. They organize many hiking expeditions to places like Elephant Hill, Tigoni, Rurimueria, and others. People pay roughly Ksh 3500 ($35.04) to go for these hikes which happen every weekend routinely.
Apart from hikes they also organize trips to climb Mt. Kenya and Mt. Kilimanjaro every year. Over time they diversified their offerings to extreme sports including Skydiving, Bungee jumping, water sports such as kayaking, rafting, and also rock climbing.
Mutuku (Let's Discover Travel)
Think about this, turning your passion into a sturdy, disruptive business. That's Mutuku's story. Mutuku is the Co-founder and CEO of Let's Discover Travel Kenya. The company is among other things a tours and travel organization that facilitates tourists getting to their dream destination with ease. When you log onto letsdiscovertravel.com you will see many pristine Kenyan destinations that you probably have never heard of.
They advertise locations all over Kenya and have different detailed packages for both Kenyan and non-Kenyan tourists. Mutuku is an avid traveler and lover of showcasing different Kenyan destinations. He actively updates them on his Twitter handle with attractive images and hilarious captions.
You can book a trip with them by choosing the package that best suits you including your preferred transport mode.
In conclusion, a travel lifestyle can become a career
Travelling is expensive and needs a lot of planning. That’s why you can only do it once in a while. However, if you were made for it and you’re passionate enough about travel, you can make it your lifestyle. It can be a gold mine for you. But you need to go about it the right way and be consistent.
Fortunately, the internet gives you a platform to express and showcase your travels. This will give you the notoriety that you need. That notoriety is built by consistency and making quality content with good equipment. Then corporate players will be rushing for your signature to endorse their products and services while paying you handsome amounts.