Asilia Africa is one of East Africa’s defining conservation-led safari companies. Founded in 2004 from two family-run safari businesses with deeper roots in Kenya and Tanzania, it has grown into 18 bespoke camps and lodges across Kenya, Tanzania and, most recently, Uganda, employing more than 1,000 people.
The Meaning of Asilia
Asilia explains its name through the Swahili ideas of authenticity and genuineness. The brand is built around closeness to landscape, wildlife, guides, camp teams and communities rather than a standard luxury-hotel aesthetic.
Roots Before 2004
The lineage predates the company: Asilia identifies Rekero Camp, established in 1986, and Oliver’s Camp, established in 1992, as important roots of the present organisation.
2004 - The Merger
Two family-run safari companies with long experience in Kenya and Tanzania joined forces in 2004, creating a platform capable of combining local camp character with stronger operating, distribution and conservation systems.
From Family Camps to Regional Platform
Asilia built enough scale to invest in conservation, training, sales, itinerary design and sustainability while retaining the intimacy expected from safari camps.
Eighteen Camps and Lodges
Current company material describes 18 bespoke camps and lodges. The portfolio is small enough for individual character but large enough to create complete East African circuits.
Kenya
Kenya gives Asilia access to the Maasai Mara ecosystem, Naboisho and Ol Pejeta, combining classic predator viewing with important community-conservation models.
Tanzania
Tanzania is the deepest geography, spanning Serengeti, Tarangire, the Ngorongoro region, Ruaha / Usangu, Nyerere and Rubondo Island.
Uganda
Uganda expands Asilia beyond classic savannah safari. Erebero Hills beside Bwindi Impenetrable Forest introduces mountain gorillas, rainforest biodiversity and a different guest rhythm.
Erebero Hills
Erebero Hills is positioned as a secluded haven beside Bwindi, home to more than half the world’s mountain gorillas. It is a significant extension from plains and wetlands into montane forest.
Safari as a Circuit
Asilia is strongest when camps are connected: guests can follow migration, combine conservancies and national parks, or link northern Tanzania with remote southern ecosystems.
The Circuit as the Product
The camp is only one layer. Light-aircraft logistics, guiding, transfers, seasonality and route design turn the portfolio into a coherent safari journey.
The Serengeti
Permanent and seasonal camps allow Asilia to respond to wildlife rhythms rather than forcing every guest into one fixed location.
Migration Camps
Seasonally positioned camps are particularly suited to the Great Migration because hospitality can move closer to the ecological event.
Dunia Camp
Dunia is one of Asilia’s best-known Serengeti camps and is notable for its all-female operating team, giving the property a social as well as wildlife identity.
Sayari Camp
Sayari provides a substantial northern Serengeti base, particularly relevant to migration season and Mara River crossings.
Namiri Plains
Namiri Plains operates in an eastern Serengeti landscape historically important for cheetah conservation and offers a predator-rich safari away from the most conventional circuits.
Rekero
Rekero is one of the historical roots of the company and places guests close to migration and predator dynamics in the Maasai Mara.
Naboisho
The Mara Naboisho Conservancy demonstrates the conservation-economy model clearly: tourism leases and community land partnerships protect habitat while generating local value.
Ol Pejeta Bush Camp
Ol Pejeta adds rhino conservation, community projects and hands-on conservation experiences, broadening safari beyond conventional game drives.
Tarangire and Oliver's Camp
Tarangire provides elephant-rich woodland and seasonal movement; Oliver’s Camp, founded in 1992, represents the intimate bush-camp tradition from which Asilia developed.
The Highlands
The Highlands uses distinctive dome-like architecture near the Ngorongoro landscape, showing Asilia’s willingness to use stronger design gestures when they respond to climate and place.
Ruaha
Ruaha offers scale, predators, elephants and lower visitor density and shows Asilia’s commitment to southern Tanzania rather than only the famous northern circuit.
Usangu Expedition Camp
Usangu is one of the clearest expressions of Asilia’s conservation-tourism philosophy, placing guests inside an active research and conservation landscape in the Usangu Wetlands.
Tourism as a Mechanism for Change
At Usangu, tourism is explicitly framed as a mechanism to combat poaching, protect biodiversity, create employment and support scientific understanding.
Nyerere
Nyerere National Park adds boating, river systems and a vast southern wilderness to the portfolio.
Rubondo Island
Rubondo Island Camp introduces Lake Victoria rainforest, chimpanzee habituation and island ecology — an experience that cannot be reduced to a standard Big Five safari.
Chimpanzee Habituation
Guest participation in chimpanzee habituation helps support research and conservation while creating an unusually intimate primate experience.
Bwindi and Gorillas
Uganda extends the primate logic further. Gorilla trekking gives Asilia a new category of flagship wildlife experience.
Feel Closer
Current brand language is organised around feeling closer — to wildlife, landscapes, people and the emotional meaning of travel.
People as the Heartbeat
Asilia describes storytellers, guides and chefs as the heartbeat of the company. Safari hospitality depends unusually heavily on the people interpreting the destination.
Guiding as Luxury
Tracking, animal behaviour, ecology, culture and ethical sighting management turn wildlife from spectacle into understanding.
Ethical Guiding
Current Asilia material explicitly addresses wildlife-first ethical guiding, important in busy East African ecosystems where poor vehicle conduct can damage wildlife welfare and guest experience.
Conservation Economies
Asilia aims to turn ecologically and economically vulnerable areas into viable conservation economies so that landscapes and wildlife generate enduring local value.
People and Nature Together
The company rejects the idea that conservation can succeed without communities. Employment, livelihoods, education and health are treated as part of wildlife protection.
Positive Impact Levy
Current 2026 Asilia material states a US$20 levy for every guest night. Older public material cited lower amounts, so the Master records the current figure and dates it rather than treating the levy as static.
Conservation Partnerships
Asilia works with communities, authorities, NGOs and industry partners rather than claiming it can solve every ecological problem internally.
Southern Tanzania Elephant Program
STEP works with communities and farmers on elephant conservation, migration corridors and human-elephant coexistence.
Honeyguide
Honeyguide supports community-led conservation and natural-resource protection initiatives in Tanzania.
The Maa Trust
The Maa Trust supports livelihoods, education and community empowerment in the Maasai Mara ecosystem.
MMWCA
The Maasai Mara Wildlife Conservancies Association illustrates how tourism revenue can support community landowners and wildlife habitat simultaneously.
Twende Porini
Twende Porini brings children from communities neighbouring wildlife areas into Asilia camps to experience safari and conservation firsthand.
Education as Conservation
The logic is long term: young people living beside protected areas are more likely to value wildlife if conservation also creates visible opportunity and careers.
Asilia Scholarship Programme
Asilia supports hospitality and tourism education for young Tanzanians, connecting the safari economy with professional pathways.
Local Employment
The wider NawiriGroup social strategy targets an average of 85% local-community staffing across camps and lodges by 2030.
B Corp
Asilia is B Corp certified, subjecting governance, employee practices, environmental performance and community engagement to an external impact framework.
Why B Corp Matters
Certification does not prove perfection, but it makes social and environmental claims more measurable than generic responsible-tourism language.
Solar Power
Asilia reported in 2025 that 76% of energy used across safari operations came from solar power, with a target of 95% solar energy across all properties by 2030.
Solar Camps
Remote camps are naturally suited to solar generation because grid infrastructure is often unavailable and reduced generator hours improve both emissions and wilderness acoustics.
Electric Vehicles
Asilia and NawiriGroup are moving toward electric safari vehicles, reducing diesel use, noise and local emissions while creating new technical challenges in remote environments.
Climate Strategy
The NawiriGroup climate strategy cited by Asilia aims to reduce emissions from 1,300 tons in 2024 to 126 tons by 2037 and to cut diesel emissions by 78%.
Water and Waste
Wastewater treatment, waste systems and careful water use are less visible than wildlife projects but essential to credible low-impact hospitality.
Food and Local Supply
Farm-to-table and locally sourced food at many properties reduce food miles, support producers and help camps feel connected to their region.
Architecture
Asilia does not impose one design prototype. Canvas camps, permanent lodges, domes and rainforest properties differ because landscape is expected to lead architecture.
Luxury Through Place
The primary luxury is access to exceptional ecosystems at low guest density. Accommodation supports that access rather than becoming the only reason to travel.
Luxury Through Knowledge
Guides, conservationists and local hosts give interpretive access that cannot be replicated by a beautiful room alone.
Luxury Through Participation
Lion tracking, anti-poaching dog experiences, chimpanzee habituation and research encounters can allow guests to understand conservation work directly, depending on camp and season.
Luxury Through Purpose
The knowledge that the trip contributes financially to conservation and community projects adds another layer of value.
Small Camps
Small camp scale supports personal recognition, flexible meals, intimate guiding and lower guest pressure at sightings.
Food and Campfire
Meals, sundowners and campfire conversations create safari’s social architecture without requiring grand hotel public spaces.
Service Philosophy
Service is warm, informal and highly personal. The ideal is to make the guest feel part of a camp rather than processed through a resort.
No Points Programme
There is no conventional points-led loyalty system. Repeat behaviour is driven by trust in Asilia, guides, itinerary planning and the desire to explore another ecosystem.
Travel Trade
Specialist safari advisors and tour operators remain essential because East African itinerary design requires seasonal, logistical and wildlife knowledge.
Direct Planning
Asilia’s own planning platform can connect multiple camps and conservation stories, strengthening direct guest relationships.
Comparison with &Beyond
&Beyond is broader geographically and operates a highly developed global luxury-conservation platform. Asilia is more tightly East African and particularly strong in Tanzania.
Comparison with Wilderness
Wilderness is deeply associated with southern Africa and large conservation landscapes. Asilia performs a comparable role in East Africa, with greater emphasis on migration circuits and community conservancies.
Comparison with Natural Selection
Natural Selection is younger and more eclectic across southern Africa. Asilia is older, larger in staffing, more concentrated in East Africa and more institutionalised in sustainability systems.
Comparison with Great Plains
Great Plains is smaller and generally more ultra-luxury and cinematic. Asilia spans a wider range of camp styles and has a more extensive East African operating network.
Comparison with Singita
Singita operates at a higher and more uniform luxury level with major conservation holdings. Asilia is more varied in product and more directly structured around a broad East African circuit.
Comparison with SUJÁN
SUJÁN is a tiny Rajasthan collection rooted in one family’s conservation history. Asilia has greater institutional scale and works across multiple East African ecosystems and community partnerships.
The Advantage of Scale
With 18 camps and more than 1,000 employees, Asilia can fund specialist sustainability roles, training, sales and impact programmes that would be difficult for a single independent camp.
The Risk of Scale
Growth can weaken the intimacy that made owner-run safari camps distinctive. The master brand must support properties without making them feel standardised.
The Risk of Popular Ecosystems
The Serengeti and Maasai Mara face seasonal vehicle pressure. Ethical guiding, camp location and itinerary design are necessary to prevent famous wildlife events from becoming mass tourism.
The Risk of Conservation Claims
Purpose-led brands face a higher burden of proof. Asilia must continue publishing measurable outcomes, targets and project detail because conservation language without evidence quickly becomes marketing.
The Aviation Paradox
East African safari depends heavily on international flights and light aircraft. Destination-level conservation benefits do not erase the carbon footprint of reaching remote camps.
What the Model Does Not Solve
Asilia cannot solve habitat loss, climate change, poverty or human-wildlife conflict alone. Tourism can create conservation economies, but those economies remain exposed to aviation, geopolitical shocks and global travel demand. The model is strongest when impact claims remain measurable and communities share meaningful economic benefit.
What Distinguishes Asilia Africa
FOUNDED IN 2004 FROM TWO FAMILY-RUN SAFARI BUSINESSES, WITH ROOTS IN REKERO 1986 AND OLIVER'S CAMP 1992. 18 CAMPS AND LODGES ACROSS KENYA, TANZANIA AND UGANDA. 1,000+ EMPLOYEES. SERENGETI, MARA, NABOISHO, RUAHA / USANGU, RUBONDO, OL PEJETA AND BWINDI IN ONE EAST AFRICAN PLATFORM. B CORP CERTIFIED. CURRENT POSITIVE IMPACT LEVY OF US$20 PER GUEST NIGHT. 76% SOLAR ENERGY REPORTED IN 2025, WITH 95% TARGETED BY 2030.
The Strategic Achievement
Asilia’s achievement is to turn a collection of intimate safari camps into an institutional East African platform without making conservation an afterthought. It has enough scale to influence livelihoods, energy systems and conservation projects while still selling the emotional intimacy of camp life.
The Hospitality Lesson
The Asilia lesson is that safari hospitality becomes more valuable when the guest understands the system behind the sighting: the guide, community, land agreement, research project, energy system and conservation financing that allow wildlife to remain there.
Editorial Note
LHL classifies Asilia Africa as a conservation-led East African safari collection and conservation-economy platform rather than a conventional hotel chain. Current portfolio and impact figures should be dated because camp counts, levies and sustainability metrics evolve.