Congratulations to Greg Bows, Co-Founder and Managing Director of WYSE Travel Confederation member African Impact, who has been awarded the Young Leader Award 2015 by the International Hotel Investment Forum (IHIF).
The award, which was established in 2009 by the IHIF and the International Society of Hospitality Consultants (ISHC), was presented to Greg on in Berlin, Germany earlier this month in recognition of his long term commitment to the volunteer tourism industry and local non-governmental organisations. The award also provides recognition for the youth travel industry.
Having co-founded African Impact aged just 18, Greg’s role now ranges from setting the company vision to running daily operations whilst continuously ensuring that African Impact attracts people from across the world to experience volunteer travel.
Commenting on Greg’s achievement, Co-founder of African Impact, Andrew Connolly, said: “Using Greg’s passion for providing amazing experiences to tourists in the hospitality world and making tourism a real force for social change, African Impact has been a true success. Greg’s commitment and effort should be rewarded, which is why I nominated him for this award”.
Tess Pearson, Event Director, Questex Media Group, hosts of IHIF, added: “Greg was an exceptional candidate, responsible for raising the profile of volunteer tourism – an emerging area of the sector, and we are thrilled to have been able to name him as the winner of the IHIF Young Leader Award 2015”.
African Impact is the largest volunteering organisation in Africa employing over 170 across between Cape Town and Nairobi. To date the group has placed over 12,500 volunteers across 94 projects in Africa.
Commenting on his achievement, Greg said: Winning this award has left me both humbled and thrilled. Aside from the personal honour, this award is an important recognition of the volunteer travel industry.
“In building African Impact over the last decade and helping shape responsible tourism through this, I am confident in the power that volunteer travel can have in generating positive change globally. To be acknowledged by an industry forum as influential as the IHIF is hugely gratifying and very exciting”.