Ilha Blue Island Safaris is the creation of Pete Allsop and Gail Woods, two avid travellers, Pete from Manchester England and Gail from Melbourne Australia.

They’ve travelled independently to all corners of Africa but it wasn’t until 2010 that they came to Africa together, this time on a trip to the south of Mozambique. Predictably they fell in love with the country’s vibrant people and dazzling coastline and decided that this is where they wanted to be.

“However, we were concerned by just how little local people were benefiting from the expanding tourism economy. Foreign visitors were pouring into the south yet this was doing little to alleviate poverty. So there and then we decided to explore the north of the country in search of a spot with obvious tourism potential and then use our skills to prepare local people to make the most of future tourism opportunities. Ilha de Mozambique is the place that we chose, a surprisingly little known jewel just waiting to be re-discovered.”

It’s worth pointing out that Pete and Gail have far more than just enthusiasm and good intentions to contribute to the development of responsible tourism on Ilha. Both have plenty of tourism business experience along with skills acquired working for 15 years in community development alongside Central Australian Aboriginal Traditional Land Owners, assisting them to keep their language and culture strong while identifying and pursuing new economic opportunities.

Thanks to Pete and Gail's passion and professionalism visitors to Ilha can enjoy a carefully crafted experience designed to provoke rich and varied emotions in visitors while empowering local people to grasp this tourism opportunity.