Black-Owned Travel Agency

To offer Black travellers and those of other races the opportunity to explore, discover, and connect with the beauty of South Africa and its people through the eyes and minds of local indigenous people. As a proud Black-owned travel agency, our aim is to create journeys that are both meaningful and inclusive, placing historically excluded communities at the center of the travel narrative.

camissa.travel

Our Story

We started Camissa.travel in 2023 off the back of our Cape Town-based touring company Go Camissa. We realised that there was a growing desire from local and international visitors to experience South Africa through the eyes of indigenous people, who make up the vast majority of the population, but also to divert the costs of a visit here to Black-owned businesses as far as possible.

We set about building journeys around this stunning country that visit famous and less-famous sites, all the while focusing on supporting local people, celebrating local cultures, and supporting smaller, Black-owned businesses and initiatives. As a Black-owned travel agency, we understand the importance of representation, equity, and authentic storytelling — not just for travelers, but for the communities we partner with.

Heart Behind Our Black-Owned Travel Agency

Meet the Founder

Khonaye Tuswa, the founder of Camissa.travel, is a consummate travel professional with many decades of experience, working as a tour guide for commercial tour companies across South Africa. During this time, he got to see the entire country many times over but grew tired of the partial truths and tourist-friendly narratives he was expected to espouse.

Khonaye decided to set up a new breed of travel company — one driven by a deep desire to properly represent his own people, the proud isiXhosa, and other marginalized communities across the country through engaging, alternative, and moving experiences unavailable through commercialised tour companies. He believes in the motto: If you tell me, I will forget. If you show me, I will remember. But if you involve me, I will understand.

This is exactly what we seek to achieve through the personalized travel journeys we create for our guests. As a Black-owned travel agency, our ethos is rooted in participation, education, and transformation — allowing every traveler the opportunity to connect meaningfully with South Africa’s diverse cultural landscape.

south Africa

The Rainbow Nation

Did you know that South Africa is known as the Rainbow Nation? It’s a reference to the multiple indigenous and immigrant cultures who call this magical melting-pot of a country home.

At Camissa.travel, we’re as diverse as the country we live in: we span multiple cultures, languages, and identities. We use our diversity as a tool, creating very different journeys from the ‘standard’ routes and experiences you’ll get with other travel agents. That’s what makes the journeys memorable and exceptional. Our journeys are unique because we have unique ways to gain access to communities and cultures that you wouldn’t be able to experience on your own.

Coined by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and later embraced by Nelson Mandela, the term Rainbow Nation symbolizes the hope, diversity, and unity of post-apartheid South Africa. It reflects the vision of a country where people of all races, cultures, and backgrounds can live together in harmony, acknowledging the painful past while embracing a shared future.

The Rainbow Nation is not just an ideal — it is a continuous journey. At our Black-owned travel agency, we see it as our responsibility to continue that journey with purpose. Here are some of the greats who laid the foundation, but it is up to each generation — and every traveler — to keep building toward a more inclusive and connected future.