South Africa possesses a growing reputation as an adventure capital. The country ranks among the world’s top adventure destinations for visitors from Europe, the United Kingdom, the Americas, Brazil, Asia, Japan, and even the rest of Africa.
Picture: iStock / WIreStock
According to Tourism Update, the offerings we have for adventurous travellers are not only good for the country’s reputation, but also for the economy.
Those who visit the country in search of adventure generally stay five nights or longer. They also spend almost three times more than the average tourist to South Africa.
In 2023, adventure seekers stayed an average of 19 nights and spent R30,000, compared to R11,800 spent by ordinary visitors to our wild and wacky shores.
SA Tourism’s Brand Tracker, which covers the entire year 2023, identifies adventure and wildlife as significant features in the country’s tourism attraction and appeal. In 2023 alone, adventure tourists accountinted for 8.8% (722,900) of the country’s 8.2 million arrivals.
The Western Cape was the adventure hotspot of South Africa in 2023, accounting for 85% of all the adventure tourists and 62% of overall spend.
Although the numbers look good, SA Tourism emphasised that South Africa has an opportunity to increase these numbers with improved marketing efforts to promote the sector.
Europe and Africa are key drivers of growth, driving the rebuild towards 2019 levels with 101% and 90% recovery of adventure tourist volumes respectively.
Adventure tourists are mostly first-timers, with this being true both pre-pandemic and in 2023 (59% compared with 67% in 2019). The survey found that the youth adventure market had consistently become smaller and that there was an opportunity to target them with fresh experiences that augmented technology and exploration within the destination.
SA Tourism further highlighted that the destination had 3 000km of shoreline with the potential for a variety of tourist experiences, including surfing, zip-lining, bungee jumping, kayaking and diving, amongst others. South Africa also has 14 561 named mountain peaks, enabling the development of hiking, rock climbing, and mountain biking trails.
‘Adventure tourism is the new gold. Tourists across the globe are seeking experiences over products and prioritising their spending on unique and exciting activities. This trend will continue and allow the country to drive growth following full recovery from the pandemic,’ said SA Tourism.
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