WAGTAIL TRAVEL

If you are thinking of booking through us you probably want to know a bit about us.

Who are we?

Wagtail Travel Ltd is a limited company incorporated in the UK on 1st July 2020 with company number 12710900. Our registered address is 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, and our trading address is Ash Barn, Chudleigh, Newton Abbot, TQ13 0DJ, Devon.

The sole shareholder and director is Mike Maughan-Brown, a British Citizen, born in what is now Tanzania, in 1957.

Mike's Background

Mike grew up in South Africa and became a professional Town Planner, with a Master's degree from the University of Cape Town. He worked in the field of social, economic and environmental development in universities, private consultancies, and a local authority  until 2016. His last position was as Director of Planning and Development in the Knysna Municipality, in the heart of South Africa's Garden Route. In that position he was responsible for local economic development and tourism and served on the board  of Knysna Tourism.

After moving to the UK for personal and family reasons in 2016, Mike started a small local company which he sold after three years to become involved in the travel industry.

Mike is married to Joan and they have two adult children and two grandchildren.

Travel Background

Mike lived in Cape Town for about 15 years, in Durban for about 10 years and in and around Knysna for 20 years. He ran a company with an office in Johannesburg and worked throughout South Africa and in Lesotho, Eswatini,  Zimbabwe, Uganda, Mozambique and the Seychelles. He has close family living in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Namibia. He traveled extensively on holiday with his family, specially to game reserves in South Africa but also to other destinations in Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean, as well as Europe and America.

Our Core Beliefs

The future existence of the planet and the future happiness of human beings depends on:

• Stopping the destruction of the natural environment, the loss of species diversity and the disappearance of wild places. It is essential to conserve wild, wonderful and beautiful places and creatures.
• Redressing the poverty and powerlessness of vast numbers of the world's people and the critical imbalance in resources.
• Stopping global climate change.

While charity can play a role in this, the only certain way of doing it is to ensure that everyone's interests are served as well as possible by conservation rather than destruction. Tourism is absolutely critical to the transfer of resources from rich countries and communities to poorer ones, to empowering communities that have the capacity to protect wild creatures and wild places, and therefore to protecting species diversity and the natural environment.

So it is really important for people with resources to travel, and to have such a great time each time they travel that they do it again and again.

The implications of this for us are:

Service

Making sure that our customers have fantastic holidays is absolutely top priority because it is what makes the work fun, it is what makes the business profitable, and it is what causes customers to make a fundamentally important contribution to the things we believe in.

Responsible Travel

The holidays we book should be responsibly planned and managed to make sure that local communities benefit through jobs and economic opportunities and that local eco-systems are protected and never harmed.

Sustainable Travel

We should avoid, minimise and mitigate any negative environmental impacts, specifically related to carbon emissions. Wherever possible, provided that they give excellent service to our customers, we choose to work with suppliers who offset carbon emissions, and we work towards trying to achieve carbon neutrality ourselves.

Why 'Wagtail'?

We are enthusiastic amateur birders and are delighted to send customers on fantastic birding holidays, but we chose the Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla flava flava) as our brand because this tiny, fragile creature is an incredible traveler. It breeds in the UK but travels every year to Africa, sometimes going as far as Cape Town. It's pretty and fun, delicate but strong, resilient and at home in so many of the places we want our customers to enjoy and feel comfortable in.

Our Undertaking To You

• We are committed to really hearing and understanding what you hope for from your holiday.
• We will put together an individual, bespoke, tailor-made holiday plan for you.
• We will make sure that we work with people who we know will make your holiday fantastic, at the same time as working responsibly and sustainably.
• We will make sure that you have all the information that you need.
• We will be available to help you throughout the process.
• If anything unforeseen arises, we will do whatever it takes to address any issues and solve any problems.

What's Next?

Take a look at our 'Experiences' tab if you want ideas or information about what to do. Take a look at our 'Destinations' tab if you want information or ideas about where to go.

Or just contact us for a no-obligation chat to start the planning process!