UWaterloo Alumni Podcasts
UWaterloo Alumni Podcasts
Uncharted: Reshaping travel to Africa feat. Eyitemi Popo (MDEI ’16)
Eyitemi Popo (MDEI ’16) is changing the way we explore Africa through Girls Trip Tours, a luxury travel company connecting women travelers with authentic African experiences while empowering local women and girls.
Read more about Eyitemi in Waterloo Magazine.
Welcome to Uncharted, a University of Waterloo alumni podcast. I'm your host, jennifer Ferguson. On Uncharted, we feature awesome alumni who open up about their career journeys, the highs and lows, the twists and turns and anything they've learned along the way. On today's episode, we're welcoming Temi Popo
Eyitemi Popo (she/her):One of the girls in Ghana I'll never forget.
Eyitemi Popo (she/her):we asked her like you know, what do you dream about? And she was like I've never been asked that question. I don't think I've even had time to really dream. I've just been like trying to do well in school and get home on time and with our trip, with those days that we have with them. They don't have chores, you know, they don't have anything to do but just relax and be and exist and really think about their futures in a meaningful way.
Jennifer Ferguson (she/her):Temi is on a mission to change the way we explore Africa. She's the founder of Girls Trip Tours. It's a travel experience designed to empower women and girls. She's also passionate about mentorship and she's helping girls see their big dreams are possible. Temi, welcome to the podcast.
Eyitemi Popo (she/her):Thank you for having me
Jennifer Ferguson (she/her):. Okay. So first off, we need to know where exactly are you joining us from, today in the world.
Eyitemi Popo (she/her):So today, I'm joining from Nairobi, kenya, where I've been spending about half of my year. So I've been expanding my company here in Nairobi and, yeah, that's where I'm calling from today.
Jennifer Ferguson (she/her):That's awesome. I'm so glad that you were able to join us for the podcast, because you have a pretty cool story and you are the founder of Girls Trip Tours. Let's start out with you telling us a little bit about that.
Eyitemi Popo (she/her):Sure. So Girls Trip Tours is a luxury travel company that I founded in 2018. And the idea was to connect women from all over the world with the African continent, and eventually I was able to build an alternative tourism economy that's driven by women in Africa. So our goal really is to shift power in the tourism industry so that African women and girls benefit more from tourism dollars spent here. And yeah, that's what I've been building for the last couple of years.
Jennifer Ferguson (she/her):Wow. How did you get started with Girls Trip Tours?
Eyitemi Popo (she/her):So I started Girls Trip two years after I finished my master's degree at Waterloo. At the time I had a magazine which actually created my first print issue of the magazine. While I was at the Stratford campus and in my time in Toronto I was just really trying to figure out okay, what's the next step, what's the next evolution? And I wanted to make the magazine more tangible. So at the time I was writing about Africa and I was connecting the community through written content, but I wanted to actually bring people into the story. So, instead of just writing about this fashion designer, have them attend a fashion show, meet the designer, talk with them. And that's where the idea for Girls Trip came to life. I had about 90% of my readership being women and so I just kind of leaned all the way into that and I started curating trips bringing women from the US and Canada mostly to visit the continent and explore and experience all the things I wrote about in my magazine.
Jennifer Ferguson (she/her):It's a really concept that makes a lot of sense to me, but I'm wondering what is it for you that makes this so important, this work, so important to do so?
Eyitemi Popo (she/her):for me. I am someone that grew up kind of between both worlds. I was born in Lagos, nigeria, but I moved to New York City at a very young age I believe I was three and so I've kind of gone back and forth between the US, canada, west Africa all my life and I really wanted to connect those two communities. I felt like there are a lot of stereotypes about Africa and at the same time there are a lot of stereotypes about living in North America, and so I've always kind of been on a mission to connect both worlds and travel just seemed like a really great way of doing that connect both worlds and travel just seemed like a really great way of doing that to help people see opportunity in both places and just really connect people to each other.
Jennifer Ferguson (she/her):Can you tell me a bit more about the passion that you have for really helping women thrive?
Eyitemi Popo (she/her):Yeah, so that passion really came from my grandmother. My grandmother studied at St Andrews University in Scotland. She got a scholarship when she was about 16 years old and she ended up pursuing her master's degree. She became the first Nigerian woman to get to the highest level of the Ministry of Education and essentially designed Nigeria's education system that they still follow today. And she also was a diplomat, and she was the first woman to get to the highest level at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, and so she represented her country on the global stage. And she's just such a force country on the global stage, and she's just such a force.
Eyitemi Popo (she/her):When Nigeria celebrated 100 years of existence, she was one of the 100 women that they honored, and so she has always kind of been a driving force for me in terms of showing me what's possible, what women can do.
Eyitemi Popo (she/her):And even though I grew up with the privilege of having a grandmother who speaks Latin and Greek and has advanced degrees, there were still times where people will tell you girls can't do this, or there are these stereotypes you lean into, and so I imagine that for other girls who didn't even have those examples, how hard it must be. And so when I started my mentoring program I found that to be very true where I would travel in Ghana, kenya, south Africa, and I would talk to girls who were the first generation to learn to code, the first generation to want to study computer science in university and they didn't have that support system because the women they looked up to just didn't have the tools to help them on that journey. And so that kind of became my mission to give them more examples of women who are living the lives that they aspire to, and so that's how I started working with girls and developing my mentoring program.
Jennifer Ferguson (she/her):Wow, your grandmother sounds like such an inspiring role model. Thanks for sharing that. Let's expand a little bit more on the mentoring program that you have and kind of the social impact of Girls Trip Tours.
Eyitemi Popo (she/her):Yeah. So the mentoring program I started with the very first trip. It was kind of what I wanted to use to differentiate our travel experiences from others. I wanted to make sure that when we went to a community and we tapped into the talent of that community and we connected with the people, we didn't just kind of take, take, take on the trip and we actually left something behind.
Eyitemi Popo (she/her):And so the very first girls trip to Ghana, we worked with a coding academy in Accra that was run by one of my friends. It was the first human-centered design academy in West Africa and she was mostly focused on girls at the time and the issue was that their parents didn't understand why they wanted to go to university and study computer science instead of getting married, because they felt like an advanced degree would make them unmarriable. And so I came in with a group of women from the US and Canada and it was just what kind of the stars aligned that year where everyone that signed up for the trip was working at a tech company. So we had people from LinkedIn and eBay join us and they were able to talk to the girls and talk to their parents and really help inspire them to stay the course and show them the opportunities that could come from a computer science degree, which were kind of more important than marriage, especially at their age. And so that's how the mentoring piece started. It was just my friend seeing what I was doing and us connecting the dots and creating that moment.
Eyitemi Popo (she/her):And then from that moment, on every girls trip I tried to find a local organization that was supporting girls and then connect my travelers to them, and so now we have a scholarship program where we fund a girl's education with every trip that you book on girls trip tours and then we also get to meet the girls during the travel experience, so we do something fun with them. African tourism can be very elitist, so the pricing of a lot of you know the access to tourist attractions is very high and it's kind of meant for foreigners from the Giraffe Center in Kenya or Victoria Falls in Zambia and have never seen it just because they don't have access to it. And so during the mentoring days we take the girls to live in their country, kind of as a tourist, and that is also really fun for the women, not just to sponsor a girl's education but to also connect with them, enjoy a first together. So it's our first time seeing Victoria Falls, but it's also our first time watching someone else experience that kind of joy.
Jennifer Ferguson (she/her):Oh my gosh, that sounds like such a rewarding experience to be part of. I'm wondering what's like the most common thing that you hear from the girls and the women when they're on these trips and experiencing that together.
Eyitemi Popo (she/her):Yeah, I think the similarities really come out, because I often find sometimes the women will be like I'm not sure, like I'm, you know, mentor material or I'm not really sure what I'm going to be able to give. And then they get on the experience and they meet the girls and they realize like they're not necessarily there to give anything, they're just there to literally be like a living example of what's possible. And the way the girls react to the women, the way, um, they lean in and really connect and open up. Um, so how do I say this?
Eyitemi Popo (she/her):Like the girl child in africa sometimes especially, you know, if you're in a household and you're kind of taking care of the household, you don't always get asked like what do you want to be when you grow up? Or like what do you dream of? It's kind of just very realistic, like we need your help doing this, we need your help doing that. So those days are really special for the girls because it's kind of the first time that they're catered to in a way and they're asked like one of the girls in Ghana I'll never forget we asked her like you know, what do you dream about? And she was like I've never been asked that question, like no one's asked me, like, what are my dreams? I don't think I've even had time to really dream. I've just been like trying to do well, in, step by step, and then with our trip, with those days that we have with them, they don't have chores, they don't have anything to do, but just relax and be and exist and really think about their futures in a meaningful way.
Jennifer Ferguson (she/her):Oh, my goodness, that is so powerful. I am so inspired by the work that you're doing. That's really cool, thank you. I'm wondering because not everyone thinks about traveling to Africa, which is something that you mentioned, and I'm wondering if there's something that you wish people knew about tourism in Africa.
Eyitemi Popo (she/her):Yeah, so I wish more people knew how luxurious travel in Africa can be. It's actually one of the most expensive destinations to visit. The flight tickets can be quite pricey. If you're doing a luxury safari, it can be tens of thousands of dollars a night. And often when people think about African tourism, they don't really think about luxury. And so what I try to do with my trips is allow people to experience the luxury but also connect with everyday people and kind of see the high and low. I don't want them to have a single perspective or a single story of Africa. I want them to kind of see it all. And I also want them to know that you can enjoy your vacation in africa and still give back. You don't have to, you know, go to some remote village to build a structure like that's great if that's what you want to do, but I'm just giving you options. You can still have a fabulous luxury vacation and give back and connect in a really meaningful way.
Jennifer Ferguson (she/her):I mean, you've already accomplished so much, but I'm wondering what's next for you.
Eyitemi Popo (she/her):So now that I'm based kind of half and half on the continent, I really want to build something, something tangible. So right now, girlstrip is like a service-based business. We have tech behind us, but I really want to build like hotels, places where the women that come on our trips can stay, and kind of just build a hospitality empire here.
Jennifer Ferguson (she/her):Wow, that sounds really cool and I know not everyone knows what the economy is like in Africa. Can you tell us a little bit about that and the opportunity for tourism.
Eyitemi Popo (she/her):Yeah, so it really varies from region to region. I've been focused mostly on Southern Africa and East Africa, and that's simply because the tourism economy is a little more developed. But in saying that it's more developed, it's also more foreign owned, so you'll find a lot of European owned, even Chinese owned, Middle Eastern owned. You know tourism brands here and I really want there to be more African owned, more women led brands, and that's part of what I'm doing with the ecosystem that I'm building. The idea is really to empower African women who already work in the tourism space and are often like the backbone of the space, doing the hard work but not really getting the tourism dollars and not really being a beneficiary. So I'm helping. I'm working with a lot of different partners. Right now we're operational in six countries and the idea is to really help them tap into that luxury market and grow their brands even bigger.
Jennifer Ferguson (she/her):Now let's kind of switch gears here for a moment and talk about you being a student at Waterloo. Why did you choose Waterloo and specifically the Master of Digital Experience, Innovation?
Eyitemi Popo (she/her):of those kind of random, but I'm so glad I found it. So at the time I did undergrad in the States. So I did undergrad in Western Massachusetts and I designed my own major, which you could do. So I put together computer science about three years of computer science and then a year of film production to create a digital media major. And that's what I was using when I graduated.
Eyitemi Popo (she/her):And it was just kind of this moment where social media was kind of all the buzz, people were really leaning into digital media and I wanted an advanced degree that would kind of move me more into tech. And so I looked around, I applied to a bunch of schools in the US and then I found this one program at Waterloo and I applied. So when I got in I just decided to go because it aligned the most out of all the programs. It was kind of the most cutting edge. It was very in line with how I designed my own self-made major when I was in college. So I ended up at Waterloo and, yeah, I didn't realize was Stratford campus, which was a shock when I arrived at how small the town was. But yeah, everything worked out.
Jennifer Ferguson (she/her):And I was wondering if we could finish off here with a piece of advice that you have for either current Waterloo students, future Waterloo students or our Waterloo alumni community.
Eyitemi Popo (she/her):Yeah. So I would just say lean into the alumni network, lean into the community that is Waterloo, lean into the reputation. I remember in 2020, when I was raising venture capital for another company, I remember walking into the room and someone was looking at my resume and they said, oh, you went to Waterloo. That means you must be very smart, and I just love that, because that's literally why you choose certain schools, for that reputation. So lean into that. And even when I got my first job out of Waterloo, I got a job offer before I graduated in Toronto and they came to the Waterloo campus to recruit. So I would just say, really lean into the events, the communities and the network around Waterloo, because it's a really great one and there's so many opportunities.
Jennifer Ferguson (she/her):Temi, thank you so much for being on the podcast today and sharing your story and all the best, because I know there's lots more to come from you. Thank you so much for having me.
Eyitemi Popo (she/her):Thank you so much for having me.
Jennifer Ferguson (she/her):UWaterloo alumni podcasts are produced and hosted by me, Jennifer Ferguson. Don't forget to follow, like and subscribe wherever you listen, and for more alumni content go to uwaterloo. ca/alumni .