South Africa’s reputation as an adventure capital continues to grow, with the country ranking among the world’s leading adventure destinations for travellers from across Europe, the UK, the Americas, Brazil, Asia, Japan and the rest of Africa.

SA Tourism’s Brand Tracker – covering the full year 2023 – highlights adventure and wildlife as key differentiators in the country’s tourism attractiveness and appeal. The Brand Tracker Survey, an international brand assessment that determined appeal and demand creation in South Africa’s markets, found that adventure tourists made up 8.8% (722 900) of the country’s 8.2 million arrivals in 2023.

The UK, Germany, the US, Netherlands and France were the top five adventure tourist markets by volume. Europe provided the highest proportion of adventure travellers with 65% of overall arrivals, up from the 60% share recorded in pre-COVID 2019. Overall, 14 of the 15 top adventure markets by incidence were in Europe, led by Norway, Switzerland, France, Sweden and Germany.

North America contributed 107 000 arrivals (15%), followed by Africa with 77 400 (11%). Asia, Australasia, the Middle East and South America contributed the remaining 10%.

High-spending, long-staying

The survey found that adventure tourists to South Africa stayed five nights longer and spent almost three times more than the average tourist to South Africa. During 2023, they stayed 19 nights on average and spent an average of R30 000 (€1 570) compared with the R11 800 (€617) spent by the average tourist.

Adventure tourists spending in paid accommodation is also lucrative; they spend on average 14 nights (compared with six nights spent by the average tourist) in paid accommodation. Adventure tourists to South Africa have a share of 23% of paid bed nights.

Growth drivers

Europe and Africa are key drivers of growth, driving the rebuild towards 2019 levels with 101% and 90% recovery of adventure tourist volumes respectively.

The markets leading the recovery were eSwatini (+332%), Russia (+246%), Namibia (+220%), UAE (+215%), and DRC (+208%). The six other fully recovered markets are New Zealand, Uganda, Finland, Lesotho, Turkey, and Switzerland.

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.

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.

Time to capitalise

The Brand Tracker concluded that while significant work had gone into profiling South Africa’s adventure offerings, there was an opportunity to elevate marketing efforts to realise the full potential of the sector.

SA Tourism 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.