June 2016 – Shamwari Private Game Reserve, based in the Eastern Cape, has won two awards in the Safari Index Tusker Ultimate Safari Experience Awards 2016! Shamwari Private Game Reserve, as a whole, came out on top in the Ultimate Safari Destination category. Additionally, Eagles Crag Lodge won first place in the category for Ultimate Luxury Safari Camps.
The Tusker Awards are not your average tourism award. It focuses on the holistic safari experience instead of just the accommodation or lodging. Tuskers offer a unique set of awards that showcase a variety of safari experiences in various categories.
The term “Tusker” is generally used to identify or characterise a male elephant with impressively large tusks. In other words, the Big Tusker represents the largest of the tuskers. There are only a hand full of Big Tuskers left in the wild, this means that only a select few individuals get the privilege of seeing them in person.
As such, we felt that this term best embodied an award given to safari experiences that are extremely unique and give the guests a once in a lifetime experience.
The candidates in each category were nominated by the Safari Index team. The criteria was based on the all-round safari experiences that they have on offer. Guests who had visited the candidate game reserves were asked to vote for the ‘Big Tusker’ in each category.
Joe Cloete, Group General Manager for Shamwari said:
“Not only is the Shamwari team proud to have been given these two awards but it’s always encouraging to get such great feedback from our guests. It lets us know that we are fulfilling their safari experiences at Shamwari Game Reserve.”
