African safari demand is growing, but the numbers show a market more varied than a simple list of famous parks. In Go2Africa’s 2024 safari report, search trends grew 12% year over year, while South Africa, Tanzania, and Kenya together accounted for 60% of safari enquiries. The wider tourism picture is also substantial: South Africa recorded about 8.9 million tourists in 2024, and South African National Parks welcomed 6,070,046 visitors during 2023/24.
Contents
- Safari demand and destination choices
- When people search and how they travel
- Trip length, lead time, and budget
- Who travels and where enquiries come from
- South Africa tourism in 2024
- National parks and visitor economies
Safari demand and destination choices
Go2Africa’s State of Safari 2024 report places three countries at the center of safari enquiry demand. South Africa accounted for 23% of enquiries, Tanzania for 19%, and Kenya for 18%. Together, those destinations held 60% of total safari interest in 2024. This concentration is useful for understanding the mainstream market, while the remaining 40% indicates meaningful demand for other countries and combinations.
The same report shows that destination certainty is not fixed. In 2022, 65% of travelers had a clear safari destination in mind. That share rose to 72% in 2023 before easing to 68% in 2024. Consequently, 32% of 2024 travelers remained undecided about their destination when they enquired. Safari planning therefore includes both highly intentional destination searches and a sizeable group still comparing alternatives.
Interest in Indian Ocean destinations also strengthened. Enquiries for Seychelles and Mauritius grew from 4.4% to 7.5%, an increase of 71%, according to Go2Africa’s 2024 report. Travel to Madagascar and Malawi more than doubled from 2023 to 2024. These figures suggest that safari interest can extend beyond the best-known mainland circuits into island and less frequently selected destinations.
The country mix can be summarized as follows:
| Destination or group | Share or change reported for 2024 |
|---|---|
| South Africa | 23% of safari enquiries |
| Tanzania | 19% of safari enquiries |
| Kenya | 18% of safari enquiries |
| Top three countries combined | 60% of enquiries |
| Seychelles and Mauritius | 7.5% of enquiries, up from 4.4% |
| Madagascar and Malawi | More than doubled from 2023 |
These are enquiry and interest measures, not a complete census of every safari booked across Africa. They describe the demand captured in Go2Africa’s report and should be read within that measurement scope.
When people search and how they travel
Seasonality appears in both search behavior and enquiry behavior. June through August consistently produced the highest volume of safari-related searches in Go2Africa’s 2024 report. Global safari research was concentrated most heavily in July and August, while January remained the main month for Go2Africa enquiry volume. The distinction matters: the month when people research most is not necessarily the month when the company receives the most enquiries.
Search trends for African safaris grew 12% in 2024 compared with the prior year. The late-December 2024 spike was especially strong for the query “africa safari.” Together, these figures point to sustained interest with a pronounced planning cycle, rather than demand being evenly distributed through the year.
Single-destination trips remained the majority choice. Travelers enquiring about one destination made up 66% of 2024 enquiries, while multiple-country safaris accounted for 34%. The multiple-country share was also 34% in 2023, so the reported split remained stable year over year.
Traveling with a partner was the most popular travel type at 45%. Solo travel rose from 12% to 13% year over year. In California, the top US state for safari enquiries, 44% of enquiries were for partner trips. New Jersey led the United States for safari enquiries per capita, while the United States remained the leading nation for safari enquiries overall.
Trip length, lead time, and budget
Ten-day trips were the most popular duration, representing 36% of enquiries in Go2Africa’s 2024 report. At the shorter end of the market, enquiries for trips lasting under one week fell 40% year over year. The figures indicate that the most common safari plan is long enough to support a substantial itinerary, while very short trips became less prominent in the reported enquiry mix.
The average booking lead time rose to 19 weeks in advance. At the extreme end, the longest enquiry-to-travel lead time reached 10 years in 2024. That maximum is not an average; it demonstrates how far ahead at least some travelers were planning. For readers comparing safari options, the combination of a 19-week average and a much longer maximum points to a market containing both ordinary advance planning and unusually early future-trip enquiries.
Budget distribution shifted upward. The average safari budget moved into the $5,500 to $7,500 range in 2024. Medium-budget enquiries fell from 53% to 39% year over year, while medium-high budget enquiries rose from 36% to 59%. High-spending source countries represented only 4.1% of total bookings, so the budget shift should not be interpreted as meaning that high-spending markets dominated all bookings.
Go2Africa has more than 25 years of safari experience, and its team spends more than 365 days each year on safari. Those figures describe the organization’s experience and field time, not the size or performance of the entire African safari industry.
Who travels and where enquiries come from
The United States remained the leading nation for safari enquiries in the Go2Africa 2024 report. The top three source countries accounted for 70% of enquiries in 2024, compared with 74% in 2023. This four-percentage-point difference indicates a somewhat less concentrated source market in 2024, although the leading countries still supplied most enquiries.
South Africa’s tourism statistics provide a separate view of international travel connected to one of the continent’s major safari destinations. Statistics South Africa recorded about 8.9 million tourists in 2024, 5.1% above 2023 but 12.8% below the 2019 pre-pandemic level. Among foreign arrivals, 97.4% were visitors and 2.6% were non-visitors. Same-day visitors represented 21.9%, while overnight visitors represented 78.1%.
Holiday travel accounted for 96.9% of South Africa’s tourists in 2024. Business travel accounted for 2.7%, and students for 0.4%. Male tourists made up 57.7% and female tourists 42.3%. The median age was 45 for overseas tourists, 38 for SADC tourists, and 38 for other African tourists. Among SADC tourists, the largest age group was 25 to 34 years at 25.9%.
The leading reported source markets included both neighboring countries and overseas markets. Zimbabwe sent 2,183,260 tourists, or 33.1% of SADC arrivals; Mozambique sent 1,591,751, or 24.1%; Lesotho sent 974,369, or 14.8%; and Eswatini sent 842,318, or 12.8%. Among overseas arrivals, the United States supplied 372,362 tourists, or 17.4%; the United Kingdom supplied 349,883, or 16.4%; Germany supplied 254,992, or 11.9%; the Netherlands supplied 132,422, or 6.2%; and France supplied 125,823, or 5.9%.
Brazil recorded the largest increase among the ten leading overseas source countries, at 94.2%. Mozambique recorded the largest increase among the ten leading SADC source countries, at 18.7%.
South Africa tourism in 2024
Statistics South Africa recorded 5,250,856 tourists entering and leaving South Africa in 2024 who spent an average of 65 days. Average stays differed by origin group: SADC tourists stayed 32 days, other African tourists 19 days, and overseas tourists 14 days. These averages describe the relevant tourism groups in the national statistics and should not be treated as the typical length of a safari itinerary.
Transport patterns also varied by market. Most overseas tourists arrived by air, at 92.0%, and most other African tourists also arrived by air, at 89.0%. SADC tourists predominantly arrived by road, at 91.6%. OR Tambo International Airport handled 66.0% of foreign air arrivals and 64.8% of foreign air departures.
Among road arrivals, Beit Bridge was the leading entry point with 1,734,304 tourists, followed by Lebombo with 1,613,869. The highest monthly share of tourist arrivals was recorded in November at 11.0%, followed by December at 10.4%. January was the lowest month at 6.5%.
Across arrivals, departures, and transits, South Africa recorded about 30,805,000 total traveler movements in 2024. Foreign arrivals rose 0.6%, from 11,655,000 in 2023 to 11,729,000 in 2024. Foreign departures fell 1.6%, from 10,069,000 to 9,903,000, while South African resident arrivals fell 1.7%, from 4,418,000 to 4,344,000.
National parks and visitor economies
South African National Parks welcomed 6,070,046 visitors in 2023/24. SANParks tourism revenue reached R2.162 billion, 21.1% above the previous year’s R1.785 billion. Accommodation unit occupancy was 64.9%. Visitor numbers recovered to 95% of the 2019/20 level, when SANParks recorded 6,326,435 visitors.
Table Mountain National Park drew more than 1,702,995 tourists between December 2023 and January 2024. The park stretches 70 kilometers from Signal Hill to Cape Point. Its Marine Protected Area spans 127 kilometers from Muizenberg to Mouille Point and covers 1,000 square kilometers. The MPA was declared in 2004, and its review synthesized more than 300 scientific studies, theses, and grey literature sources.
Visitor management and safety were also quantified in SANParks reporting. Table Mountain crime-related incidents fell from 33 in November to 6 in December and 1 in January. More than 100 fires were reported to the park during the 2023/24 fire season, while SANParks teams aimed to extinguish fires within 90 minutes.
Across the continent, African Parks generated 230,000 park visitors in 2024. Host-country nationals made up 65% of those visitors. Park revenue rose 13% to more than US$14 million. The organization also reported 376 rhino translocations under Rhino Rewild, more than 8,000 environmental DNA samples collected across five parks, and 160 staff trained for that project.
The visitor economy extended into education and local communities. African Parks reached more than 34,000 people through environmental education and park visits, supported more than 250 schools, and reported that park-supported socioeconomic initiatives benefited about 27,000 community members. Those initiatives generated US$4.9 million for communities, while local procurement exceeded US$102 million.
Akagera’s figures show how tourism can support park operations. Tourism produced 97% of the park’s total annual revenue, and Akagera welcomed more than 56,000 visitors in 2024. Since 2010, Rwandan citizens have averaged more than 40% of Akagera’s paying guests. The park’s revenue-sharing contribution equals 10% of park income.