It is inevitable to talk about travel, local or otherwise, without acknowledging the elephant in the room: ‘Travelling costs money’.

 A lot of it. Invasive as it is, the question I am most frequently asked where travel is concerned is “How do you afford to travel so much?”

It used to offend me in the beginning, I can’t lie. But I guess a part of me kind of gets it.  Domestic travel specifically, which has been my area of expertise, is often only accessible to higher earning individuals (We have, and will continue to address the exclusion of Namibians from Namibian tourist attractions, but not today, yeah? Bear with me.)

How have I managed to save up enough for my travels? That is what we are divulging today. The first doesn’t really apply to too many of us, but for the sake of transparency, it’s worth mentioning.

1. Travel endorsements.

The beauty of being a digital creator is that you can leverage your audience and skill set to enter into brand partnerships through influencer marketing (I am just going to assume we all know what influencer marketing is, and how it works – but we will also talk about it later). This means I not only travel for free sometimes, but also get paid while doing so. Cool, huh?

2. Treat travel as one of your ordinary expenses.

One of the ways that have allowed me to really see parts of Namibia I never thought I would see, is by treating travel as any one of my ordinary expenses. What I mean by this is, just as I have an emergency account for unforeseen expenses, I also have a travel account. I use this account solely for travel-related expenses. I have a debit order that goes off my salary, and I honour it. This lifts the weight off of my income when I finally decide to go somewhere because there are funds which are dedicated to this one hobby.

3. Discounts and Loyalty cards.

Invest in a loyalty card; they allow you a 50% discount on accommodation, and 25% on meals and activities. This is a major steal! Discounts are also very common during long weekends. Watch out for Easter weekend specials, Independence weekend specials and so forth. You will be able to save quite a bit.

For more tips like this, do not hesitate to contact me for a consultation.

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