The African Safari Is Changing for the Better. Here’s What You Need to Know
After three difficult years, tour outfitters are creating new offers to appeal to changed traveler tastes and mindsets.
Kenyan-owned Lalashe Maasai Mara Lodge, a small luxury retreat, offers private game drives and walks.
Source: Zebra Plains Collection
If you’re eyeing a luxury safari in Africa in 2023 and 2024, expect to find a changing landscape on the ground in Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa, Zambia and Botswana. When high-spending foreigners vanished in 2020, safari lodges were left struggling to fund wildlife conservation as well as host community projects. They were given plenty of time to rethink the kind of tourism Africa needs and how visitors can better support their environmental and civic goals.
Travelers, at the same time, have redefined their safari priorities to seek privacy in accommodations, flexible schedules, exclusive wildlife experiences and more cultural context. Lodges and tour operators are responding with a new crop of safari experiences and accommodations in hopes of standing out from the competition and capturing the demand that’s roaring back to the continent.