On May of 1996 the business was purchased by Nita & daughter Helen Ross, in 2000, son William Ross joined the family business. All family members are still the current owners, and have built the agency into a major force in tourism in the Eastern Cape.
Wild Coast Holiday Reservations began as a booking agent for the Wild Coast Resorts, communication was very poor and infrastructure non existent so it was important for the Wild Coast to have a booking office that could be in constant touch with the market. The Wild Coast was a difficult product to sell, we felt it vitally important that we become intimate with each and every resort so that our advise and assistance would be based on our personal experiences. This allowed us to grow as a business and accumulate valuable knowledge on the area & its people.
Wild Coast Holiday Reservations expanded their coverage to include most of the Eastern Cape, Game Reserves, Mountain Retreats, permanent accommodation, conferences and the all popular getaway at a Wild Coast Resort.
We progressed to a tour operator when Nita Ross developed and marketed the Wild Coast Meander Hiking trail in 1998. In her youth she had always been a keen hiker and with the knowledge of the area saw the potential for South Africa’s first catered hiking trail. The Meander has become an extremely popular product ,rated as the best hotel hiking trail in SA and we average 1600 hikers annually. Nita has subsequently developed and marketed three further hotel hiking trails along different sections of the Wild Coast. In order to offer a comprehensive package Wild Coast Holiday Reservations opened a Guest House called Meander Inn and also invested in a range of vehicles which transfer clients to and from the trails. This has enabled us to offer more than just trails as we are now in a position to package various tours to the greater Eastern Cape.
Wild Coast Holiday Reservations have always promoted the importance of developing our products with as much community involvement as possible. This has resulted in a pool of newly accredited community tour guides who accompany all the trail groups from each hotel to the next. Wild Coast Holiday Reservations then created the opportunity for the greater community to also play an active role with the introduction of porters. These porters are hired by the hikers to transfer their packs from one hotel to the next and this venture has enabled the local communities the chance of benefiting from tourism directly. Wild Coast Holiday Reservations continue to explore new avenues whereby ourselves, the hotels and the communities along the Wild Coast will be able to develop and maintain sustainable products along this naturally unspoilt coast line.