Thomas Armitt

1. What are you currently doing with your life?

West Africa Discovery is a web portal which aims to raise awareness towards the geographical region of West Africa and promote Responsible/Sustainable Tourism development by listing small to medium accommodations, tours and volunteer projects that work towards benefiting the local communities in the destination as well as minimising the negative effects of tourism on the local natural, cultural and historical heritage.

2. What does this involve on a day-to-day basis?

On a day-to-day basis... well there is a lot that I can mention.

From keeping up with news and events in West Africa relating to tourism, sustainability, conservation, community development, to keeping in touch and building relationships with clients, updating the website, social marketing, writing articles for the blog and press releases for potential news stories, answering potential travellers queries, helping to organise events in West Africa (right now, we are helping to organise an educational field trip for Secondary school students in Nigeria to learn about the sustainable tourism concept), an much more, there is plenty to keep us busy.

This is a team effort, and Harry, our PR & Marketing manager is always on hand to make this project work.

3. What did you do before this and how long did you do it for?

I worked as a marketing assistant for a multi-national american based IT hardware supplier for a year after graduating. However I did not get satisfaction out of it and always had the idea of starting my own company in the field of Sustainable Tourism and West Africa.

4. How long have you dreamt of doing what you are doing now?

For about 4 years now, ever since I came back from a year living in Senegal and doing research on the potential for developing community-based ecotourism in developing countries and how to market it efficiently to the UK.

5. What was your moment of truth?

When I met small scale tourism suppliers in Senegal who were struggling to get tourists interested in their projects, and having witnessed first hand how already established sustainable tourism projects can create benefits and opportunities for local communities in destinations whilst, at the same time, minimise the negative effects of tourism on the local heritage by using the sustainability concept.

6. From a practical perspective, how did you plan for it?

Well, I didn't really plan this...

Over the past few years, I have been networking, attending conferences, handing out my research project I did at university, but really just because I was interested in the Sustainable Tourism field as a hobby. Then I decided, after working in an office environment for a year, to turn this idea, this hobby, into a real organisation.

7. How did you fund it?

Funding is a hard issue to talk about, for the moment there is none, or very little.

We have grown, in the past 5 months, by using all the cheap or free resources available on-line to send out ideas, sales & marketing, networking, etc. The little spending we do, I fund myself from my other two jobs.

8. What was the hardest thing about making this happen?

Building the website myself was very time consuming. Having to work in another job to fund this project is also very frustrating as I would like to dedicate all my time to West Africa Discovery.

9. What is the best thing about making this happen?

Meeting like-minded people, connecting them together, building relationships with clients and helping potential travellers organise a trip which they will never forget.

10. What is the best advice you have ever received?

To keep plugging at it! No matter what is thrown at you, how slow the project is growing, how many obstacles are thrown at you, keep going! Never give up a dream.

11. What advice would you give to other people who want to do something similar?

Network! Make as many contacts as possible in and outside your field of interest. Meeting like-minded people and bouncing ideas off each other is the best way to create efficient strategies and schemes. Also, building relationships with your clients and potential and already acquired customers is very very important. Add the human element to it.

12. What resources have you found really useful?

All the free or cheap business resources you can find online. CRM tools, Mailing tools, social networking sites, blogging sites, and even website building sites. There are also alot of great advice sites out there for startups.

13. What else do you want to share?

Even though it seems impossible, keep a positive attitude at all times, life is too short to worry about small things. Don't be afraid to ask advice, or share ideas with others, good things may come out of it. Never give up on a dream (cheesy huh?)