Go2Africa has released its “State of Safari Travel Report” for 2024, highlighting trends shaping the safari industry across Africa. Based on its proprietary search and booking data, combined with global Google search volumes, Go2Africa has identified major trends in the safari industry in 2024, from customer preferences to spending habits. The report explores the changing attitudes towards safari this year and beyond.
The report analyzed global Google search volumes to reveal that interest in safaris has gradually increased over the years. A Q1 year-on-year comparison from 2021 shows a 38 percent increase in African safari search interest. Since the pandemic, 2023 was the first year with very few restrictions, and Google searches for African safaris more than doubled over Q1 in 2023 compared to the previous year. With an increase of 111 percent, this is indicative of the general growing interest in travel in Africa and African safaris outside of the influence of a pandemic.
There has been a notable increase in the average budget of travelers to Africa and safari-goers, with 70 percent of visitors from Australia, the U.S. and Canada now having medium to high budgets on average, a significant rise from 43 percent in the previous year. Similarly, travelers from South Africa, Europe and the U.K. with medium to high budgets now account for 25 percent of visitors from these countries, compared to just 18 percent in 2022. This surge in medium to high budgets has led to a 25 percent increase in the average budget compared to the previous year, with the average budget now ranging between $5,500 to $6,500. This trend indicates a notable shift towards higher budgets for African safaris, reflecting an evolving preference among travelers for enhanced experiences.
Year on year, there hasn’t been much variation in safari demographics. In 2023, the largest demographic of people were those traveling with their partners at 47 percent. This is smaller than in 2022 when 60 percent of all travelers to the continent were couples. However, Seychelles maintains its position as the most romantic destination, being the most popular African destination for this demographic.
Comprising the second largest demographic, families constitute 32 percent of visitors, with South Africa standing out as their most favored destination. Congo has emerged as a hot spot for friends embarking on adventures, with 13 percent of travelers opting for group trips. The central African nation also has the highest percentage of solo travelers among African countries. Interestingly, 12 percent of safari-goers are solo travelers.
The interest in sustainable safaris has been steadily growing over the years increasing by 6 percent from 2022 to 2023. However, when looking at the wider picture, sustainable safaris have seen more than a 1,000 percent increase in interest over the past four years.
Travelers are also searching for beach safari combos where they can spend half of the week exploring the animals that Africa has to offer and then end their week relaxing and swimming on the coast. This has seen some new countries emerging as hot spots that were not always popular including Malawi and Seychelles. Interest in travel to Zambia and Malawi spiked by 78 percent and 41 percent respectively between 2022 and 2023. Meanwhile, Seychelles experienced a notable increase in visitors, credited to a 20 percent rise in bush and beach combinations compared to the previous year.
More and more Americans are traveling with multiple generations and this trend is even more true for those booking safaris. Families are keen to find vacations that will be manageable for their older members while still capturing the imagination of their youngsters, and a safari vacation does just that.
Source: Go2Africa
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