Susan Roth, Upstream Travel x eTravel South Africa

When Word of Mouth Beats Everything

Twenty years in the travel industry. No advertising budget, no flashy marketing campaign. Just a phone that keeps ringing.

Susan Roth built Upstream Travel on something most agencies have forgotten: the power of word of mouth. Every new client arrives through a recommendation from someone who already trusts her. She joined the eTravel South Africa network, one of the country's leading travel consortiums, giving independent agents like Susan the tools, the partnerships and the buying power to compete while keeping the personal touch that makes them irreplaceable.

She is recognised as one of the best sellers for The Holiday Factory within the eTravel network, a distinction that speaks as much about consistency as it does about expertise.

Mauritius has been a constant in her portfolio. She knows which properties suit which travellers. She knows when to push a client toward something unexpected and when to stay with what she knows works.

"Twenty years in, and I have no regrets. The relationships I have built with my clients, that is what keeps me going. I will always make sure they get the best."

A visit to Heritage Resorts with her husband gave her something valuable: the guest's perspective. And what she found confirmed what she had been telling her clients for years. Everything is there. The food, the wine, the pools, a kids' club that actually keeps children happy, and staff who smile like they mean it.

Lunch at C Beach Club added another chapter. The vibrant atmosphere, the setting, the energy of a place that buzzes with life even on an ordinary afternoon. She understood, sitting there, why guests keep coming back.

Then came a discovery worth talking about. Browsing the wine list, she came across Jabulo, a fruity dry Shiraz sourced from South African terroir and curated by Jérôme Carlier, General Manager of Heritage Awali Golf and Spa Resort and Corporate Sommelier for Heritage Resorts. Sipped by the pool on a sunny afternoon, paired with a salade de palmiste and grilled fish, Jabulo does exactly what a great wine should do. It puts you in a good mood. Finding a wine from home, chosen with such intention and served on an island in the Indian Ocean, is one of those small details that say everything about how a property thinks.

That kind of care runs through everything Susan does. Two decades of attentiveness, of remembering preferences, anticipating needs, and treating every booking as a personal commitment. Her clients return because the experience earns it, every time.

In the travel industry, word of mouth is the most honest measure of a professional. By that measure, Susan Roth has been getting it right for a long time.