PROFILE
THE CONSERVATIONIST
The luxury of
UBUNTU
VOLCANOES SAFARIS ' PRAVEEN
MOMAN NURTURES
ECO-TOURISM
IN LUSH CENTRAL AFRICAN
MOUNTAINS .
Contributed by DEBBIE CARLSON
Travel means kinship with humanity , according to 14th century Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta , and Praveen Moman , founder of Volcanoes Safari , roots his philosophy about ecotourism , hospitality and luxury in this thought .
Battuta ' s tenet and the southern African concept of " ubuntu ," or sharing to connect with others , are at the heart of the experience at Volcanos Safari , Moman says , which has luxury lodges intimately nestled in pristine wilderness in Rwanda and Uganda . " It ' s not just about the material and comfort . It ' s what touches your humanity ," the 63-year-old hotelier says .
Rwanda may be a hot spot for tourism now , but the country was ripped apart by a bloody civil war that ended in 1995 . In the 23 years since , the country has rebuilt and now has a thriving economy , in large part due to tourism . Moman witnessed Rwanda ' s transformation , opening Virunga Lodge in 2004 , near Volcanoes National Park in the Virunga mountains , home of the mountain gorilla . It was the first international company to enter Rwanda after the war .
Born and raised in Uganda , Moman ' s family fled to the United Kingdom amid the expulsion of South Asians by Idi Amin in 1972 . Eventually , he worked in foreign affairs and development for the European Parliament , coincidently returning to Africa . Uganda had suffered its own civil war but began to rebuild and stabilize in the late 1990s .
Moman , looking for a career change , returned to Uganda . He was drawn to the " very special and very beautiful " Virunga mountains , covering parts of Uganda , Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo . In the 1960s it was a major niche tourism destination , drawing visitors like Ernest Hemingway and Bob Hope . Dian Fossey studied primates in Rwanda ' s Volcanoes National Park .
Moman says he thought if he could help preserve the area ' s biodiversity it could rekindle tourism decimated by the war . In 1997 in Uganda , Volcanoes Safari was born . It wasn ' t easy : Day trips to view gorillas in Rwanda required military escorts . Seeing the war ' s devastation deeply affected him .
" That was quite a tough and difficult time personally to watch all these people suffer , and it was quite contradictory to think about tourism . But I kept
38 hotelsmag . com April 2018