Acacia Africa is launching seven new tours for 2019, four of which will be overland, with both camping and accommodated options, a popular tour style with solo travellers looking to book group tours as part of their journey.

The new itineraries include Short Safaris  and Treks to City Breaks and Short Stays, all of which are to go live in January, in addition to the camping and accommodated overland collections.

Arno Delport, Sales and Marketing at Acacia Africa comments: “The phenomenal growth of solo travel is perhaps one of the most singularly important trends to affect our industry this year. Our new overland tours will be attractive to the growing number of solo travelers; our camping options requiring no single supplement.”

Acacia Africa will also be making changes to all its overland tours and small group safaris that either started or ended in Johannesburg, replacing the city with Pretoria.

“A further advantage, switching from Johannesburg to Pretoria at the start and end point of many of our overland tours and small group safaris, will be a welcome change and differentiate us from our competitors.  Both adventurers who are travelling independently, female travellers especially, and families booking with us, all place a high degree of importance on their safety, and Pretoria is smaller and more pleasant to explore than its larger neighbour. This decision could well encourage them to extend their trip with our new three-day ‘Pretoria City Stay’. It will also reduce travelling time in and out of the city by one hour.” The change comes into effect in the New Year, adds Delport.

Furthermore, Acacia’s longest tour, the new 62-day ‘South Africa to Kenya’, visits nine countries. Long-established overland destinations have been combined with lesser known Africa – Swaziland, Lesotho and Malawi are incorporated in the tour. This tour is the operator’s product favoured by the growing number of clients who are concerned with not just responsible tourism, but also overtourism and authentic travel.

Millennials still make up a large portion of Acacia’s business, with its overland tours strictly targeting travellers in the 18- to 39-year range. They are ideal for a market that values experiences above things and one that is inclined to frequent and spontaneous spates of short-term travel. Therefore Acacia has developed more bite-size itineraries, such as the four-day ‘Garden Route Express’ (a favourite amongst UK travellers), and the 13-day ‘Kruger Swazi & Drakensberg’ overland tours, also scheduled to launch in January. These engaging trips are ideal for time-sensitive travellers and those on a return visit to Africa.

Fitting into the same category, the new five-day ‘Hwange & Victoria Falls Short Safaris & Trek’ focuses solely on Zimbabwe, voted one of Lonely Planet’s Best Countries to visit in 2019.

“Record numbers of travellers visited the Victoria Falls this year, and many travellers are looking to sample the country as a stand-alone safari destination, with perceptions of the country improving dramatically over the last year.  A strong indicator of that change in perception is that we’re seeing more interest from families and more mature travellers,” mentions Delport.

Additional new tours from Acacia include the 47-day ‘Kenya to South Africa’ camping and accommodated overland tour and the three-day ‘Durban City Stay’.

“One to watch when it comes to UK travellers, Durban has traditionally been overshadowed by Cape Town, but that could well change with British Airways’ new direct service between Durban and London Heathrow (scheduled to launch on October 29). The Indian Ocean escape offers year-round sunshine and its colourful Afro-Indian culture and cuisine and friendly locals make it one of South Africa’s best-kept secrets,” says Delport.

All the new tours are scheduled to go live on the tour operator’s website on January 2, however full dossiers will be available from Acacia Africa by October 31, with prices excluding return flights.