PENNY HOOPER founded Samphire Travel Consulting in 2012, following six years of representing African properties with Travel Advance (formerly Travel e-Sense), to promote and market a more diverse range of tourism products.
Penny’s experience of the industry is varied, having worked as a consultant for Expert Africa (selling Tanzania and Mozambique) and Discover the World (selling Iceland and New Zealand) before moving to Representation, where she has promoted properties in Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
From 2001- 2003 she led adventure tours for Explore Worldwide, working in France, Djibouti, Morocco, South Africa and Swaziland. As well as living in Germany and China, and earning an honours degree in English and European Literature at the University of Warwick, Penny has travelled widely in south-east Asia, South America and sub-Saharan Africa. Recent adventures include Madagascar, Malaysia and Myanmar. Penny has sailed all her life and has always been around boats, recently racing RS 800 and Laser 4000 dinghies, J-92s and is a rescue scuba diver.
FERN MONTGOMERY was born in Harare, Zimbabwe. She spent her childhood on a farm in Africa, enjoying all that the bush, space and wilderness had to offer. Fern finished her education in England, and then went on to live in Cyprus for a few years, before returning to England.
Her passion for travel and adventure has taken her from walking in the African bush to diving shipwrecks off the coasts of Australia, Cyprus and Egypt, skydiving in the USA and Australia and snowboarding in Canada. One of the most recent destinations that Fern has visited is Morocco. Fern’s experience in the travel industry is varied, as she has been part of a team producing brochures for tour operators globally, showcasing properties all over Africa and the Indian Ocean, and more recently she was an independent Travel Agent for a small luxury travel firm.
Fern enjoys being active, playing tennis, wake boarding and snowboarding. She is a qualified sports diver and skydiver.
www.samphiretravelconsulting.com
