Tipping in South Sudan
Tipping explained
We often get asked ’who, when and how much we should tip whilst in South Sudan?’ by our travellers. The information provided below should help with the issues involved with giving gratuities to the various guides, drivers, chefs, community guides and staff you’ll meet during your trip.
South Sudan’s economy: the effects of tipping.
Any tips given are naturally at your own discretion and are usually dependent on the quality of the services given. We believe that exemplary service deserves to be appreciated, but at the same time, we’d like our travellers to be aware of the potential impacts that tipping can have on the local communities.
Gratuities received can of course make a substantial difference to the salary of the staff involved, including drivers, guides, porters and community guides as well as waiting staff and general help in the larger hotels. There is a fine balance though, between tipping too much and tipping the right amount. While this may not seem to have a noticeable impact, it can affect the balance of the local economy.
For example, if we look at the jobs of the guides within South Sudan, these are important roles, requiring extensive training and sufficient knowledge of the area. You’ll generally find that such posts require a higher level of education, and since it’s important that the role is carried out by a competent team member, you’ll find that it will be occupied by someone who has worked within the tourism industry for quite a few years. You’ll also find that remuneration for these jobs are reasonable, though not at the higher end of the scale.
On the other side of the scale, you have more general staff either porters on your safari or hotel, or assistant staff in the camps. Whilst their jobs of carrying luggage or helping out are still important tasks, there isn’t the need for the same experience and education levels, resulting in significantly less responsibility and a reduced salary compared to those of the drivers and guides. As such, if such an employee receives much higher tips, then you could be left with a situation in which they are then making more than the guides.
In such a case, higher-than-average tips can affect the balance of responsibility and remuneration. If this were to happen regularly, drivers and guides could potentially be less motivated to work as hard or take on as much responsibility. If this ends up with them leaving their jobs to take on a role that would result in them earning more, once their tips were added on, this would of course have a severe impact on the industry, communities and the visitors.
Therefore, we would advise bearing in mind the importance of the work of each individual and tip accordingly.
When in South Sudan, which members of the teams do you tip?
- Tipping your guides
In South Sudan, your private guide and driver will be the main factor in a successful trip. Bearing this in mind, they are generally tipped separately.
- Tips for Community
The community will always welcome the guests and the leaders in the community play an important role in making the trip a success, there is always a need for a community fee and tips can be given to the guide who then will sort the community guides, it’s usually affordable.
- Tips for the Working Team
Many people are working to make sure your trip runs smoothly, many of whom you may see on the trip and may not even see, including the kitchen, most lodges will have a general tip box that is then split equally between this team.
- Should you tip the managers?
We are sometimes asked if it’s prudent to tip the managers. Whilst they are of course important to your trip, we’d advise considering this: would you leave a tip for the manager of a restaurant you visited? As always, you may have exceptions to the rule, but as a general rule of thumb, we usually wouldn’t recommend tipping the lodge or hotel managers.
To summarize, in South Sudan we generally suggest tipping your private guide and your guides on any trips separately to the ‘working’ teams, be that whilst hiking or at the lodges. It would be unusual for guests to leave gratuities for the manager of the lodge.
When is the right time to tip?
We do get asked when the best time is to hand out any tips. You have a few options, either to tip after each activity, at the end of each day, or the end of your stay.
Firstly, you may wish to tip your private driver/guide. In this case, we’d recommend that you give the money directly to him/her as you leave. Secondly, if you want to tip staff at the hotels, we would suggest placing the tips in the staff tip box again at the end of your stay.
What is the best way to tip?
You’ll find that the majority of hotels and lodges have a main tip box, often at reception, that is shared amongst the staff equally. Guests have asked us if they’re able to tip using a credit card, but this is not usually practical, the majority of hotels in South Sudan are unable to process this, so we advise that you take cash for tipping.
For your guides, drivers, community guides and porters, you’ll need to tip in US dollars or South Sudanese pounds. We’d advise bringing US dollars in small denominations for this purpose, as it’s often difficult to get small changes once out in the country.
If you want to plan, take a few envelopes along to prepare tips for individual guides along the way.
Is there a certain amount I ought to be tipping?’
We’re only able to advise based on our own trips out to South Sudan. Tipping is not compulsory, and whilst it’s always appreciated, the amount given depends completely on your personal experiences, opinions and satisfaction.
With that in mind, we’ve given a rough guideline below:
- Private Guide: $25 per person per day
- Driver: $15 per person, per trip
- Ranger: $10 per ranger
- Community guides: $50 for a group
- Hotel/lodge staff: US $5 per person per day
If you take into consideration the points above, the Gross National Income (GNI) for South Sudan is, on average, US $5 per person per day (2016 data), which reflects the average income for South Sudan’s population.
To put that into perspective, in the UK the average GNI is US $116 per person, while in the United States, it is around US $156 and in Germany approximately US $120 for each member of the population.
To conclude, though giving gratuities can be a complicated subject, it is a normal part of South Sudan’s culture and service industry. Do remember that more affluent travellers can impact disproportionately on the local economy, tipping the balance of social and economic factors, so keep that in mind when tipping staff and guides during your time in South Sudan.