Nine Women Reshaping Travel & Creative Hospitality

VIMBAI MASIYIWA, co-founder & CEO of Batoka Hospitality

At age 28, Vimbai Masiyiwa is the co-founder and CEO of Batoka Hospitality, a purpose-driven hospitality company and the first black female-owned safari lodge group in Africa. While her hotels reach the highest levels of hospitality excellence, her vision for what it truly means to be hospitable goes beyond their walls. Her work encompasses initiatives to improve the livelihoods of local people, build schools and libraries, preserve wildlife and the environment, develop the African tourism industry as a whole, and ultimately change the narrative around Africa. 10% of revenue from guest stays is directed to the Tesse Fund, which invests in projects created by Batoka Hospitality staff members that benefit their communities. A mental health activist, Vimbai serves as an advisor for several Africa-based organizations that aim to destigmatize mental health amongst young people, particularly in rural areas.

HARSHA L’ACQUA, founder and CEO of Saira Hospitality

Growing up in a family of Indian philanthropists, Harsha L’Acqua early on harnessed her passion for projects that can make the world a better place. A keen traveler, it was inevitable that she’d find her path in the industry. “Hotels are an escape from reality, a utopia for adults, where if service, design, and quality are what they should be, you feel as if you’re finally in the home you’ve always wished you owned,” she said to A Hotel Life when Saira Hospitality launched its first permanent school in London in 2022. Started as a series of pop-up hospitality schools for less privileged locals in thriving hotel markets, Saira is a non-profit designed to educate workers and equip them with the life skills needed to create a career and build a thriving future. It is a win-win: the employers she works with experience lower-than-average turnover rates and get to nurture enduring relationships with their team, and, as a consequence, hotel guests benefit from a service that is grounded in stability and longevity.

BERNADETTE BLANC, architect and creative director 

Sydney-native architect and creative director Bernadette Blanc moved to New York to, as one does, work with the best of the best in the world. In her five years with Ian Schrager’s team and later as a consultant, she worked alongside heavy hitters such as John Pawson, Herzog & de Meuron (for the PUBLIC Hotel in Manhattan’s Lower East Side), Pierre Yevanovic, Es Devlin, Gilles & Boissier, and Brian O’Sullivan. Carving a niche for herself in the highly competitive and male-dominated luxury development world, she allies her refined eye for detail with a meticulous search for long-lasting design so her projects can be as future-forward as possible while not compromising form and beauty. ‘We have to look into all the basic aspects, like energy efficiency, resources management, and carbon footprint, but also to be specifically diligent about the vendors we work with and the pieces, products, and materials they can provide, the ability to work with local manufacturers and artisans and support the skill and craft whilst also keeping sourcing locally. This is not only fundamental to the final product quality but also the overall story of sustainability,’ said Bernadette in an article for Architonic.

FLEUR HUIJSKENS & NICOLE BOEKHOORN, hoteliers and owners of Sterrekopje Farm

Guided by ancestral wisdom and a conscious way of living, Nicole Boekhoorn and Fleur Huijskens wanted to create a biodiverse and soulful sanctuary of healing, rest, creativity, and play to regenerate earth, body, and soul. And so the dreamy and luxurious Sterrokpjke Farm was born, a 50-hectare regenerative oasis surrounded by nature in Franschhoek in South Africa’s Western Cape. From the gardens filled with indigenous varieties to the swimming pools built with the most advanced sustainability principles, everything was made to offer a transformative experience to guests. Going further in their efforts to build a sustainable future for the place and community Sterrokpjke is embedded in — and lead by example — they are actively developing projects to empower local women and children.

JUDE VARGAS, travel designer and founder of Art of Voyage

“Travel keeps us young, moving, learning, pushing our boundaries, expanding our minds, and raising awareness of the world,” says Jude Vargas, whose love for adventure and a quest to experience the extraordinary in every place took her to found Art of Voyage, a bespoke travel design service “making the impossible happen.” Curating exclusive experiences, from hidden gems only the locals know to private islands, Jude unlocks the best a destination has to offer. Aware that luxury travelers have the power to effect change by how they vote with their wallets in every choice they make, Jude has built a network of the best and most sustainable hotels in the world and uses her skills and network to educate and empower her clients to be savvy, mindful, future-forward travelers.

ACHALIKA KIJKANAKORN, hotelier and activist, founder of AKARYN Hospitality Group and Pure Blue Foundation

A visionary pioneer of future-forward barefoot luxury hospitality in Thailand, Achalika Kijkanakorn launched AKARYN, Asia’s most sustainable hotel group and, in 2006, founded Pure Blue Foundation, aimed at protecting and preserving the marine environment and the local communities in which AKARYN operates, with a focus on children and schools in Thailand. Alinka is also the first female chairperson at Small Luxury Hotels of the World.