This week's Time Traveller, sponsored by Harp Wallen, is Dragoman managing director Charlie Hopkinson
What was your first job in travel?
It was in 1983 as a trainee overland tour leader, training under George Durie (current Dragoman operations director), on a trip from Johannesburg back to the UK via Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Sudan, Egypt and Europe.
What was the high point of your career?
There are two. The romantic answer is meeting in Nairobi Youth Hostel a passenger called Karen Snowdon who was travelling with Dragoman on a five-week overland trip to Johannesburg, subsequently falling in love (on a beach in Malawi) and marrying her two years later. The more prosaic answer is securing the deal to acquire the Imaginative Traveller brand this week. It's a brand that Dragoman has had a long association with and fits perfectly with our own overland brand.
What was the low point?
After September 11, when all our routes through North Africa, Sudan, Middle East, Iran, Pakistan and elsewhere started to close. This was a nightmare and we saw a third of the business beginning to drop away.
What's your biggest regret?
Not buying 10% of Imaginative Traveller back in the 1990’s. I would be rich and retired!
What would you be doing now if you weren't in travel?
I would be a farmer with wanderlust. Farmers love to diversify
