Martin Hatchuel: The 60-second biography Executive (ahem!) summary Freelance writer & communicator for hire. Tourism specialist with broad experience in other sectors (property, general business, etc.). My background in the earth sciences provides me with a powerful ability to translate scientific concepts and jargon into English for the lay public. Deeply experienced in communications projects management (including web sites - where my strengths lie in planning site architecture and creating content - and print and advertising projects).

Also, I write stories. The Full Marty I qualified in horticulture in Durban before going into the real world to put my hard-won knowledge to good use... as a boat boy in Knysna.

Went on to work in restaurants, a timeshare resort and, in the very early days, one of those old-fashioned caravan park/holiday camp places. I then used my knowledge of the earth and its wild things to become a tour guide (the first, mind you, at Featherbed Nature Reserve - now Knysna’s biggest tourism attraction), a ferryboat skipper and, eventually, the owner of my own business in the Wilderness National Park: a bird-watching concession called the Kingfisher Ferry. Then the floods of ’96 hit us and silted the Touw River, and my boat and I found ourselves up the creek without an, er, creek - so I started to write.

I entered the fray as the editor of a newspaper called Cape Tourism Update - which survived for just 21 months. When it closed, I went out as a freelancer (in about 2000), and I now blog about issues affecting tourism to South Africa and about responsible travel (see This Tourism Week), and I write feature articles, media releases, advertising copy, commentary, business strategies, and souvenir books (e.g. Ferry Boats & Fossil Fish for Featherbed Nature Reserve; Guide to the West Coast Fossil Park; and The environment of South Africa’s Garden Route - originally a manual for guide training in Knysna and Plettenberg Bay).

I have extensive experience as a project manager in the production of print adverts, printed brochures, etc. and for web sites - including www.visitmosselbay.co.za, www.mosselbayart.co.za and my own project, www.capecoastalroute.com. I’m also a public speaker - pet subjects: Responsible Tourism and ‘The Social web for grannies’ (see my presentations on SlideShare).

And I write fiction, too, as I’ve said. My first novel, Belthar’s Garden, is available in print or Kindle format from Amazon, and two of my short stories were shortlisted for the 2011 Pen-Studzinski Literary Award, and subsequently published in African Pens 2011: New writing from Southern Africa. I’ve recently completed the 4th (and hopefully final) draft of my second novel: Timor. The personal stuff? I was born on 21 October 1958, and I’m the single foster father of two boys (men now, actually) and the grandfather of the world’s most beautiful and talented child - but I’m not biased. (We have a pirate ship.) martinhatchuel@gmail.com Telephone: 0027(0)84 951 0574 Skype: Reefgod www.thistourismweek.co.za | @ThisTourismWeek www.capecoastalroute.com | @CapeCoastalSA YouTube: www.youtube.com/martinhatchuel Amazon Author Page: www.amazon.com/author/martinhatchuel 63 Wilson Street, Knysna, Western Cape, South Africa, 6570