Bheki Dube. Photograph: Fortune Flank, hen story company
Located within the inventive hub of Maboneng and capturing Johannesburg’s vibrant city tradition with its bike-friendly outside areas, a pool, a bar, a rooftop and a spacious frequent space for inventive and fascinating experiences, it might appear solely becoming that Curiocity Joburg, the flagship resort for Curiocity Africa and considered one of a series of metropolis motels, would offer a hybrid providing to enchantment to digital nomads, the native startup scene and native and worldwide vacationers, alike.
But, when founder Bheki Dube created Curiocity Africa, hybrid motels have been just about unprecedented on the continent. Lodges that mix the standard resort mannequin with co-living and co-working areas in addition to cultural immersion, the place company can stay, work, eat, drink and socialise multi function house have been an anomaly. Due to his early work as a information, telling the story of the realm, Dube knew there was a gap.
His experience-led motels mix these beginnings as a strolling tour information, impressed by his grandmother’s love of storytelling, with an intent to focus on vital areas and folks inside the cities the place the motels are positioned.
“So far as I can bear in mind, my grandma would inform all these tales of Africa. And it’s about persevering with with that legacy and saying, ‘how do I take advantage of Curiocity as a car to share the innate tales of Africa?’” Dube mentioned.
This imaginative and prescient is mirrored within the experiences supplied at Curiocity places. Whether or not in Johannesburg or Cape City, company can count on curated actions resembling dawn energy hikes, journey outings, and sound journeys. These experiences are designed to make sure that every keep is exclusive and immersive.
After launching the primary Curiocity in 2013, in Johannesburg, at solely 21, Dube confronted vital challenges attributable to his restricted enterprise data and foundational assist.
He defined: “We’re not sometimes born right into a wealth of mental property the place our dad and mom are discussing enterprise and offers. I wasn’t born into that. Some folks have been. Rising above the established order and creating this mental property to interact at a excessive degree is a problem in itself. It requires finding out and making use of data programs that inform you on that. Negotiating your phrases and existence in such areas is intellectually difficult. Finally, if you achieve these conversations with builders, funders, and others you pitch your idea to, you ask, ‘How can we then fund these concepts and ideas?’”
Bheki Dube. Fortune Flank, hen story company
For the reason that Curiocity enterprise mannequin was distinctive in South Africa on the time, Dube struggled to persuade risk-averse funders that it was a worthwhile funding.
“Funding devices are very narrow-minded. They solely wish to fund mature merchandise, manufacturers, or markets which have already reached maturity. Elevating capital for brand spanking new markets in hospitality and journey was fairly a problem,” he elaborated.
Finally, the standout high quality that attracted buyers to Dube was his ardour. The teachings he gained in his foundational years from his grandmother, resembling exhausting work and exhibiting up, in addition to attracting the suitable buyers along with his ardour, having the suitable mentors to information him, and establishing a powerful company governance construction inside his crew helped him overcome the preliminary hindrances to establishing a rising enterprise.
A decade later, Curiocity has grown to incorporate seven hybrid motels underneath its umbrella, together with Curiocity Joburg and Inexperienced Level, together with 5 managed properties.
In Johannesburg, these properties embrace Fox Avenue Studios and The City Fox, whereas in Cape City they characteristic Salts and Salty Cracks. All these areas are centrally positioned and emphasise the Curiocity model ethos of experiential stays.
Moreover, Dube and his crew are set to open one other branded resort in Cape City’s fashionable hub Kloof Avenue in July 2024, together with their new head workplace, which can be positioned in Cape City.
Central to Curiocity’s strategy is a storytelling factor that comes via guided excursions, dynamic in-person and digital experiences, in addition to collaborations with creatives which might be fused into the experiences and the areas. Reflecting on that inventive synergy, Dube talked about a mural within the Inexperienced Level house, titled Removed from Dwelling.
Bheki Dube. Photograph: Fortune Flank, hen story company
“If you happen to take a look at the mural on the primary aspect [of the property], we labored with a outstanding South African artist, Atang Chikare. At face worth, you’ll see lovely paintings, however if you begin to learn between the traces, the components you see on the facade signify the roads that lead us residence since Curiocity is residence to many international residents that stick with us. It was becoming for such a outstanding artist to create significant murals with us.”
“Whenever you take a look at the work, you’ll see that it appears like a map of the London underground or the subway within the US. Totally different locations which have various kinds of transport programs that join them collectively from one neighbourhood to the opposite. It additionally appears like a neighbourhood itself. So it’s meant for folks to really feel like they’re in their very own neighbourhood indirectly or the opposite. And Curiocity being a spot that’s in each Joburg and Cape City, it was a strategy to join them as buildings the place folks come to really feel at residence when they’re removed from residence,” Chikare, additional commented on his work.
Believing that we’re all descendants of African griot storytellers, writers, and poets, Dube’s calling is to attach South Africa and the African continent via experiences, utilizing Curiocity as his car. Thus, the storytelling in Curiocity’s areas, mirrored within the artwork, literature, and decor, represents the African expertise.
“In a few of our frequent areas and rooms, we supply literature from Chimurenga in Woodstock. We might have gone to any bookstore, however we selected to focus on vital areas and folks inside Cape City, particularly from the Black perspective. When company decide up a ebook, they could marvel the place it’s from, and we inform them about Chimurenga, encouraging them to go to, purchase souvenirs, or participate of their applications. Even our furnishings is sourced from native makers to make every Curiocity expertise distinctive.”
Moreover, the model just lately collaborated with the 2024 Worldwide Public Artwork Pageant hosted by BAZ-ART to host 20 artists in Cape City. Dube’s crew additionally participated in activating road artwork excursions for the week-long occasion.
Bheki Dube. Photograph: Fortune Flank, hen story company
“These collaborations are key to Curiocity’s success. Any resort could be a resort, however our partnerships with native creatives and storytellers make us stand out. Curiocity could be very experience-led, that means company don’t simply keep in a resort room; they immerse themselves within the neighbourhood, guided by native storytellers who share the narrative of the realm and the nation.”
The upcoming Curiocity Kloof Avenue will inform the story of its space via murals and paintings, with plans to collaborate with South African graffiti artist, Dekor One. It is going to characteristic a wide range of room varieties, together with deluxe suites, household models, female-only dorms, blended dormitories, gender-neutral dorms, and single models, catering to a variety of company, from younger travellers to executives.
The brand new house may even have communal areas, persevering with Curiocity’s custom of providing distinctive, experience-led stays.
Having skilled his challenges related to restricted data of the trade, he believes that tourism in South Africa has usually been undervalued as a topic within the training system and goals to alter that narrative by highlighting its potential for social change and entrepreneurship.
Wanting forward, Curiocity plans to develop inside South Africa over the subsequent 5 years, with the long-term objective of building areas throughout the continent. Dube envisions Curiocity connecting key African cities, providing hospitality from Cape to Cairo, Morocco to Madagascar and partnering with like-minded entrepreneurs to unlock regional potential. Focus and strategic progress are essential for Dube, aiming to place Curiocity as a sturdy and main journey model in Africa.
By emphasising storytelling and significant experiences, Curiocity has carved out a singular area of interest within the hospitality trade, pushed by a imaginative and prescient of connecting folks and locations via the ability of curiosity.
As Curiocity’s philosophy states, “each nice journey begins with curiosity.”
Story Credit score: Phendu Kuta for Chicken Story Company
