Wild Guanabana, an alternative travel company that specialises in creating highly-personalised, life-changing travel experiences, has opened its new headquarters in Dubai and is on a mission to transform the GCC tourism market.
Launched in 2009 by Egyptian mountaineer and adventure traveller, Omar Samra, Wild Guanabana is founded on the belief that travel can transform people’s lives. Inspired by his personal travel experiences, Samra created a travel concept that delivers sustainable, ethical adventures and non-traditional travel experiences for people who want to learn more about themselves and the world.
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Committed to delivering sustainable practices in all aspects of its business, Wild Guanabana has been certified as the Middle East and North Africa’s first CarbonZero travel company and ensures all of its journeys are carbon neutral. The company understands and appreciates that the natural environment and the host communities in which it operates are equally vital to the long-term success of its business.
“Wild Guanabana is not an ordinary travel company. We are daring, different and green," explained Wild Guanabana founder, Omar Samra.
"Our fun and ethical journeys offer travellers meaningful emotional connections with the destinations and cultures they encounter. We are highly motivated to deliver our fresh concept of travel throughout the GCC region and are confident our new markets will respond favourably."
Wild Guanabana journeys are designed with first-hand knowledge of the destination and personalised attention to travellers needs. In addition to individual journeys, the company offers a fresh and inspiring take on the typical corporate experience with unique, fully-tailored corporate offsite, training and incentive journeys. Wild Guanabana also creates educational journeys for students and ‘voluntourism’ (volunteer tourism) journeys under its “Wild Learning” moniker. To date, the company has organised 21 trips to more than seven countries, including Peru, Argentina, Costa Rica, Tanzania, Morocco, Nepal and Turkey.
“Wild Guanabana’s journeys offer people an opportunity to disconnect from routine and everyday life and share an experience of self-discovery and personal empowerment. Inspiring our customers is a measure of Wild Guanabana’s success and therefore every journey we design- whether for an individual, a corporate team or a student group - has the potential to be a life-transforming experience,” added Samra.
Wild Guanabana’s next journey, scheduled to coincide with Eid Al Fitr at the end of August (31st August - 5th September), is Zanzibar: Yoga & Adventure Blissful Retreat – a journey that combines Zanzibar’s best-kept secrets with an amazing yoga experience.
The company is also scheduled to run its second “Right to Climb 2011” journey, a charity expedition to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania to raise funds for The Right to Live Association, a mental disability charity in Egypt. Taking place from 31st August to 7th September, the journey is currently open for bookings and will be personally guided by Omar Samra himself, who is also the first Egyptian and youngest Arab to climb Mount Everest.
Wild Guanabana’s first Right To Climb expedition, held last year, raised over USD $150,000 for The Right to Live Association and successfully guided all 26 participants – and first-time climbers - to the summit.