Luxury Safari Travellers Are Booking Earlier. Here’s What Advisors Should Do With the Extra Time

Luxury safari travellers are planning further ahead, and the shift is pretty significant.

Ker & Downey® Africa’s booking data shows that between January and 11 September 2025, 29.7% of confirmed bookings with travel dates were for travel beginning in a subsequent calendar year. Over the same period in 2026, that jumped to 47.6%. For North American clients, the shift is even more pronounced, from approximately 36% to 54%.

For travel advisors, that extra planning time is valuable. The question is how best to use it.

Secure the things that actually sell out

Booking early isn’t just about getting the perfect lodge. It gives you a better chance of securing a private guide, family unit, exclusive-use vehicle or specific camp that can make a much bigger difference to the safari.

Private guiding is a great example. Clients rarely know to ask for it, but for photographers, families, honeymooners or anyone with a particular interest, it can completely change the experience. There’s no negotiating when to leave a sighting or when to head back to camp. If they want to spend another 40 minutes watching a leopard sleep in a tree, they can.

That can be worth far more than a fancier suite. Which brings us to the next point…

Be smarter with the budget

It’s easy to put every available dollar into accommodation, particularly when the next room category looks spectacular. But it’s worth thinking about what else that money could buy.

Staying one category down might leave enough for a balloon flight over the Serengeti, a helicopter over Victoria Falls, a sleep-out or a private flight across the Okavango Delta.

The question we’d ask is: what will they still be talking about when they get home? Very often, it isn’t the room.

Don’t confuse more with better

Around half of Ker & Downey® Africa’s confirmed itineraries are multi-destination, at 54.1% in 2025 and 50% in 2026. So clients clearly still want to see more than one place, but that makes good pacing even more important.

It’s tempting to add another camp because it looks good on paper. But another camp also means another checkout, another transfer, another arrival and another bag to unpack. Sometimes the better call is simply an extra night where they already are.

Give clients time for a long lunch, an afternoon by the pool or a few hours doing absolutely nothing. On safari, having nowhere else to be can be a luxury in itself.

The same goes for transfers. If a bush flight can replace several hours on the road, it may be worth the extra spend. You’re giving clients valuable time back, and in somewhere like Botswana, the flight itself is part of the experience.

Keep an eye on where clients are going

There are some interesting shifts happening in the destination mix too. South Africa remains remarkably consistent, appearing in 48.6% of confirmed itineraries in 2025 and 46.4% in 2026. Kenya, however, increased from 16.2% to 27.4%, while Zambia rose from 2.7% to 11.9%, albeit from a much smaller base.

For advisors, that’s worth watching. Zambia in particular can be a brilliant option for clients who have already done a more traditional safari and want exceptional guiding, wild landscapes and something that feels a little less obvious.

And that’s another advantage of having more time to plan. You can look beyond the places a client initially had in mind and introduce them to somewhere they may never have considered.

Use the extra time well

Earlier booking doesn’t need to mean a more complicated itinerary. In fact, we’d argue the opposite.

Use the time to secure the right guide and the right camps. Build in some breathing room. Look at where the budget will make the biggest difference. And occasionally recommend the place your client didn’t know they wanted to visit.

The best safari planning isn’t about adding more. It’s about knowing what’s actually worth booking.

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