Mariza and Marc Pampe, the founders of The Mushara Collection, have decided to hand over the management and operations of their lodges to Jennifer and Johan Fourie. Johan and Jennifer will oversee the lodge operations and management, working in collaboration with the dedicated General Manager, Mika Shapwanale, who has been an integral part of the Mushara family for many years. The Reservations team led by Sabine Hoppe will maintain the excellent reservation services that are well-known to our clients, tour operators, and travel agents.
This wonderful African story all began 25 years ago when Marc started building the Mushara Lodge. The dream took a year to become a reality. When the lodge opened, the couple and their staff had their hands full with the arrival of guests streaming in from all over the world, so much so that when they were to marry later that year, Mariza famously served guests in her wedding gown!
“We want to communicate a reassuring message to our valued partners in the travel industry and to emphasize that The Mushara Collection will remain true to the exceptional quality and service that has earned us praise over the years. The essence of Mushara, the quality of our offerings, and the customer experience will remain unchanged. Mika’s long-standing commitment to The Mushara Collection, along with Johan and Jennifer’s extensive experience in the Namibian tourism and lodge industry, will guarantee the successful continuity of Mushara.” said Marc, “Mika plays a vital role as a constant amid this change, having been an essential pillar of Mushara for many years.”
Mika joined the tourism industry in 1998, and has been in lodge management since 2006, joining the Mushara Collection team in April 2016, as General Manager.
“As we all know, Marc and Mariza worked very hard over the past 25 years, and were able to set a high standard. During the past 8 years I was fortunate and privileged to work directly under them where I was able to learn their unique and professional way of doing things. I know what to do to keep the unique standard of the Mushara Collection, and I know what the guests and tour operators expect from us. Thanks to Marc and Mariza, for being role models to so many.” explains Mika, “In the same vein, my colleagues and I have great pleasure welcoming our new Managing Directors, Johan and Jennifer. I know you have big shoes to fill, but rest assured that you have a strong and capable team supporting you.”
Jennifer and Johan Fourie, joined the Mushara Collection on the 1st of September 2023.
The opportunity that arose at Mushara for Jenn and Johan is very exciting and they look forward to maintaining and building on the excellent reputation, product and brand created by Marc and Mariza.
“We both love nature, conservation, and are passionate about hospitality and developing people. The opportunity to live in the fantastic environment at Mushara helped us make the choice to move from Windhoek to this beautiful part of Namibia.” says Johan.
Johan was appointed as the Managing Director and Jennifer as the Service and Standards Manager.
They have both worked in tourism for over 20 years and have a vast array of experiences and skills to add to the Mushara Collection.
Their roles varied during the last two decades from managing camps and then managing concessions, running training sections for guest services departments to environmental management.
Jennifer managed the branding and standards for Wilderness for a number of years looking after appearance and style aspects, camps standards, curio shops and managed major refurbishment projects.
Jennifer and Johan took a small break from Wilderness in 2009 to work for Elewana Africa managing the Serengeti Migration camp in Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park.
“Looking into the future, we are very excited about working with the fantastic team at the Mushara Collection. Marc and Mariza are guiding and introducing us to Mushara ‘way’ and we are quickly getting to know our strategic partners, service providers and the whole team on the ground and reservations offices.” explains Johan, “We are currently brainstorming various ideas with Marc and Mariza, since they have a wealth of experience and in-depth knowledge after building up the amazing Mushara Collection and know what has worked here in the past, and what could work going forward. We see a bright and vibrant future for the Mushara Collection, at the core of it is the fantastic existing products and services that Mushara offers.”
Additionally, Johan and Jennifer´s successful collaboration with Marc, Mariza and Mika, with whom they have been working side by side over the past several months, will continue under the umbrella of Naturally Namibia, and, in Namibia, we are always just a phone call away.
We wish the new management at Mushara only the best. With dedication and hard work, we can only see positives for Mushara.