Jim Holden, President

ext 122 | e-mail: jimh@africantravelinc.com

When you call award-winning African Travel, Inc., President Jim Holden answers the phone with his friendly African-accented, “Jambo!,” and you know that Jim is the real deal. Born in Lusaka, Zambia, he spent his childhood roaming the remote African terrain. A sequel to Out of Africa could easily be made about his pioneer family and his own personal childhood experiences.

Jim’s Grandfather first set foot in Africa in what is today Kenya. He arrived by ship from England in the early 1900s to prospect for diamonds on behalf of George Pauling, the millionaire British builder of the railways in Africa. Jim’s Grandfather didn’t find diamonds, but he took a long safari, traversing the length and breadth of Kenya, often in the company of other well-known personalities such as Blayney Percival, one of the first Game Wardens in Kenya, and Frederick Courtney Selous, the famous big game hunter who became a good friend of Theodore Roosevelt and took Teddy on safari.

After Kenya, Jim’s Grandfather went to Zambia in 1904 with the company established by Cecil Rhodes, the British South Africa Company, to administer Central and Southern Africa for the British Government. One of the first tasks for Jim’s grandfather was to stamp out the last remnants of the slave trade where Zambian villagers were being taken to the island of Sao Tome and Principe, off the coast of Gabon, for onward shipment to the New World.

Other family accomplishments included the establishment of some of the most magnificent Wildlife areas of Zambia. One such area is the Luangwa National Park, in the north east of the country, famed for being the first park in Africa to offer walking safaris. Another park development was the Kafue National Park in the center of Zambia where some of the largest prides of lions in Africa are to be found, together with being one of the best places in Africa to see a wide variety of water birds.

While in Zambia Jim’s family bought a farm in Natal, South Africa, where Jim subsequently went to college. But the pull of the wide open spaces and undeveloped nature of Zambia, kept the family in Zambia. Jim did his high school in Zimbabwe and after college, and a trek up Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, left for England to see the world.

And so his career in travel began when he joined a UK company operating overland worldwide expeditions in the early 1970s. In the summer, the company took clients behind what was then the Iron Curtain into Eastern Europe using minibuses and camping wherever possible. In winter the company operated overland trips from London to Sydney, with Jim escorting young adventurers through Iran, Afghanistan and India. He even ventured overland from London to Cape Town across the Sahara Desert and South America from Rio de Janiero to Bogota. Jim’s job was Tour Leader, and his job responsibilities included driving and leading each trip. The Magic Bus, a book written about these types of adventures, includes some photos of Jim’s trips and fascinating stories.

After five years back in Africa as Regional Managing Director of an East African tour operator based in Nairobi Jim returned to the USA in the early 2000s’ to join Grand Expeditions, a venture capital company formed to consolidate tour operators in the USA. Jim’s role was in operations working with the 8 acquired tour operators to realize the synergy amongst them. While at Grand Expeditions, Jim was sent to California to take over the Presidency of Travcoa, a long and well established tour operator. After Grand Expeditions, he spent time working in the online travel industry helping to set up online tour operations for start-up tour operators. However Jim’s first love is Africa and with the opportunity to take the helm at African Travel Jim feels he’s now come home!

With his vast experience of Africa, Jim was a natural choice to bring on board as President of African Travel, Inc., based in Glendale, in July 2010. Jim’s mission now is to build on the leading position African Travel has established in the USA for travel to Africa. Jim wants African Travel to be the Travel Agent’s trusted advisor for Africa. He strongly believes that, “the most superb travel experience in Africa is all about staying out of harm’s way while at the same time having the full-on African experience. This is what travelers get with African Travel. When booking a safari to Africa it’s important to work with a tour operator who really knows Africa and who can talk about all the different experiences to be had in Africa. Through its association with Thompsons Safaris and Wilderness Safaris, African Travel has a unique perspective of Africa and is able to give the client the best possible custom-designed tour.”