Victoria Falls Videos: “On the Edge of a World Wonder”
Luke & Suzanne Brown, founders of Vayeni Safaris, a boutique-luxury safari operator based in Victoria Falls have recently started compiling a series of engaging, factual and inspiring videos to showcase Victoria Falls and the region. They have created an independent channel called ‘On the Edge of A World Wonder’ to centralise the videos. Luke shares the videos on his personal YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram pages @LukeBrownZim.
“We have only been doing this for a few weeks and the response from our friends and colleagues around the world has been tremendous!” says Suzanne who works the camera whilst Luke presents and edits. The videos are typically 5-10 minutes long and often showcase fascinating stories about the people directly behind or involved with the tourism industry in Victoria Falls and the surrounding region.
“Our aim is twofold” says Luke. “Firstly, we want to show off the depth and scale of talent that our community has to offer and secondly we want to shine a giant spotlight on the conservation of wild habitat and upliftment of communities. There are so many inspirational personalities, innovative businesses, passion projects and conservation efforts happening. The rich and positive stories that make up these efforts deserve to be heard as far and wide as possible. You can absorb the stories behind unique establishments and their founders, home grown musicians, painters, photographers, bread, wine, coffee and craft beer makers, guiding and conservation legends plus many more.”
‘On the Edge of a World Wonder’ videos are part of another project that Luke & Suzanne are piloting called Victoria Falls TV, which aims to produce high quality video content that is ready for air on conventional satellite television. Victoria Falls TV is an exclusive partner to the Travel Africa Network.
Luke & Suzanne started making videos early on during the pandemic as a way to help promote their home community and destination. “It was also a way for us to keep busy and stay sane because we don’t like sitting around feeling dejected about the situation” says Suzanne jokingly. “On a more serious note, we hope that this will contribute to the conservation efforts we helped begin last year” she says, referring here to the Zambesia Conservation Alliance, an effort Luke & Suzanne co-founded in March 2020 with Luke’s brother Robin Brown.
“We would love to synergise and partner with all the new and exciting collaborative efforts being spearheaded to promote tourism in our region” say Luke & Suzanne. We feel that the only way forwards for our industry, in this ‘new world’ environment brought on by the pandemic, is to break down barriers, recognise and promote each other’s talents and share in joint successes.”