Wilderness Safaris has promoted Simon Stobbs to become chief sales officer at the Africa ecotourism operator.

Keith Vincent, chief executive, said: “While we sadly bid a fond farewell to Tracy Bamber, and thank her for many years of dedicated service, passion and commitment to Wilderness Safaris, we are also grateful that she leaves us with a world-class team in place.

“Simon has played an integral role in our sales team over the past five years as business unit manager: USA, and we are thrilled to promote him to this exciting role.

“Simon has an unparalleled passion for conservation tourism, with over 18 years’ experience in the industry.

“With the last five years spent successfully driving our North American sales as a business unit manager, coupled with his early days as a private guide and his experience running his own tour operating business, we are confident that he is well placed to lead our already strong sales team to even greater heights.”

Stobbs has experience in Botswana, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

He worked closely with Wilderness for many years while running his own tour operating business and has 10 years of experience at Wilderness Safaris.

Stobbs said: “This is certainly an interesting time to be taking on this role, but I am really excited about building relationships with our trade partners and working closely together to ensure that we come out of this crisis stronger, with a bright future ahead.”

The company has also established a Covid relief project.

It has two main aims: to protect wildlife from increased poaching threats and to meet the basic food needs of those who have lost their tourism-related livelihoods.