While the period of post-pandemic "revenge travel" may be over, the numbers of people taking trips to destinations far from their home country show no signs of slowing down.
In its annual 2024 Travel Outlook Report, investment company and Fidelity brand IPX 1031 found that 50% of Americans plan to travel more in 2024 than they did in 2023, while global numbers showed 1.3 billion international arrivals last year — a number that is predicted to surpass the 1.47 billion record set in 2019.
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While European destinations like Italy and Portugal saw unprecedented numbers of visitors in 2022 and 2023, flight aggregator and travel booking platform Kayak identified the African continent as seeing the biggest increase in travel interest throughout 2024. While the biggest numbers come from North American visitors considering Sub-Saharan countries such as Kenya and Ghana, travel searches for the entire continent are up 6% year-over-year.
Travel searches to Africa are rising at new rates (here is where people want to go)
"If you're deal-hunting, North America, Central America, the South Pacific and the Caribbean are currently seeing the biggest price drops," Kayak writes in its Travel Check-In: Summer 2024 report. "But if you're less worried about budget and more invested in being on-trend – then head to Africa. Just as we predicted, interest in destinations to the Saharan continent is on the rise, making it our #1 trending region for summer."
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The quirky quote references the fact that the average ticket to an African city from a North American one clocks in at $1,497 — while only a 1% increase from a year ago, it is higher than the $1,212 seen for Europe (which experienced a 7% drop), $794 for South America (5% decrease) and $628 for the Caribbean (a 15% drop.)
Individual cities seeing a spike in traveler interest include Chinese cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong — each saw a respective 144%, 87% and 60% increase in searches from last year. Other places catching the attention of travelers include Peru's Lima, Albania's Tirana and Hungary's Budapest.
As Africa interest heats up, airlines are following suit
"Overall, we're seeing more increases in searches to African destinations than last year," Kayak authors write further. "But when we drill into the data and go city-by-city, the spikes are really happening in those places that either more recently opened to international travel (China) or are alternatives to popular European destinations (Austria, Switzerland and Germany)."
Interest in the African continent has also been observed by airlines which have been reworking their network to offer more flights there. In the spring of 2024, Last month, budget airline Norse Atlantic (NRSAF) launched the world's first low-cost route to Cape Town from London while Delta (DAL) and United Airlines (UAL) followed suit with new flights to Ghana and South Africa from several U.S. cities.
"If you look at the international arrivals from the United States to South Africa, it's within a relatively narrow corridor," United Airlines' Director of Sales for Europe, Africa, the Middle East, India, and Israel Thorsten Lettnin said in a recent interview. "There is stable demand throughout the entire year, which shows us there are potentially further growth opportunities."
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