Discover Africa & Drive South Africa Reveal the Top African Travel Trends for 2023

• Discover Africa and Drive South Africa reveal the biggest trends for those travelling to Africa in 2023
• 39.7% of travellers claim their budget is £2-3k per person – the lowest threshold option for a holiday of a lifetime with Discover Africa. Only 5.8% of travellers say their budget is over £7,000
• Drive South Africa found that self-drive safaris are on the rise, with an increase of 141.7% in 4×4 bookings between 2021 and 2022

February 2023: Luxury tour operator, Discover Africa, and car and campervan rental, Drive South Africa, have revealed their findings for top African travel trends in 2023.

The research reveals the most popular destinations in Africa, the activities travellers are looking to tick off their bucket lists, and the decline of the blow-it-all budget. Interestingly, self-drive safaris are on the rise, says Drive South Africa, with an increase of 141.7% in 4×4 bookings between 2021 and 2022.

African travel trends

Do you know where you want to travel?

Discover Africa found that almost 40% of travellers say that Tanzania is the destination they want to visit the most in Africa in 2023. It comes as no surprise that the east African country is so popular… after all, it’s world-renowned as the best seat in the house for witnessing the annual wildebeest migration and, for those brave enough, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.

Discover Africa offer their own wildebeest migration itinerary, which you can view the full information on here: https://www.discoverafrica.com/tours/safaris/migration-river-crossings-fly-in-special-lemala-kuria-hills/ 

Alternatively, keep up to date with the wildebeest’s movements virtually, with Discover Africa’s live HerdTracker tool here: https://www.discoverafrica.com/herdtracker/ 

South Africa and Kenya rank second and third as the most popular destinations in Africa, with 33.2% and 32.4% respect of respondents wanting to visit the countries respectively.

What is your budget (per person), excluding international flights? (GBP)

Amidst the current cost of living crisis, many travellers will be looking for ways to keep holiday costs to a minimum. 39.7% of travellers say that their budget is between £2,000 and £3,000 per person for a holiday to Africa in 2023 – the lowest threshold option.

Only 5.8% of travellers have a budget over £7,000 per person. 72.3% of travellers in total answered that they currently have a budget of £4,000 per person or less for their holiday in Africa, excluding flights.

What do you want to see / do on your holiday?

It’s predictable that a staggering 72.1% of travellers are most keen to see the Big 5 on their African safari. All of the top 3 results centre around seeing animals whilst on holiday in Africa, with seeing big cats (38.6%) and seeing animal migration (38%) ranking as the second and third most popular activity choices.

Self-drive safaris

Drive South Africa analysed booking data to establish how the car rental space in South Africa has changed over the last few years, particularly when looking at self-drive safaris.

The data showed how self-drive travel in South Africa overall has increased significantly, with a 140% rise in bookings from 2021 to 2022.

The research also showed that demand for 4×4 rentals has grown by 142% when comparing 2022’s figures with those from 2021.

Additionally there was a huge increase in the number of camper van bookings between 2021 and 2022, with demand increasing by a staggering 457%.

Once again, many travellers may be considering the impact of the cost of living crisis and are looking at ways to save money on their African holiday. A self-drive safari is a great option for keeping the cost down, and also provides tourists with a lot more independence and the ability to take things at their own pace.

Andre Van Kets, co-founder and director of the Discover Africa group commented on the findings:

“We’ve noticed that interest in motorhome trips and the more adventurous 4×4 trips into Africa’s wilderness areas has grown quicker than trips requiring a ‘regular’ rental car, likely due to people’s yearning to get into the great outdoors again following the pandemic. With self-drive travel up by 140% from 2021 to 2022, there has been a rapid recovery of more than double since Covid-19.

We predict that 2023 will see a further 30% increase in 4×4, camper and car rental based self-drive trips into Southern Africa, especially with airlift growing in the region. Many major airlines have resumed flights to Johannesburg International Airport – where the majority of self-drive trips into Africa commence.”