Private jets, elite lodges, haute cuisine and watching the perfect sunset – luxury safaris and bespoke experiences can cost anything from $20,000 to $350,000.
My greatest experience was standing in the Makgadikgadi salt pan in Botswana, which, as far as you can see in all directions is absolutely flat and white. Then the sun goes down. All of us have seen beautiful sunsets, and then there’s the glow and all of us have seen that. But then, there’s a kind of… grey pause. And then, the real sunset begins. It lasts for 35-40 minutes. The entire sky starts changing color and then the sun is long gone. But the sky lights up with all these fabulous colors that keep shifting all the way around you. We watched it every night,” says Christopher Beach, an American tourist describing a moment on his R3 million ($208,700) tour around southern Africa in May 2018.
This trip – a bucket list-adventure for the group of six friends and partners – was guided by tour company Luxury Africa Destination Management.
A 19-day excursion, this one-of-a-kind experience included private planes, luxury lodges and a full immersion in the sweeping landscapes of South Africa, Botswana and Namibia.
How is ‘luxury’ defined?
Is it a five-star stay at the Ritz-Carlton in New York, or a meal from a top chef at an elite restaurant?
For many top-tier, elite travelers today, ‘luxury’ isn’t about caviar and diamond-encrusted cutlery.
‘Luxury’ in travel has changed from a garish display of wealth to one about experiences, privacy, and unique memories all bundled into one bespoke package.
As Angama Mara Lodge co-founder, Nicky Fitzgerald, with decades of experience in decadent travel and top-tier lodges in southern Africa, explains: “There are different opinions of luxury. In the end, the stuff is just the stuff, and if you have enough money, anyone can have gold cups or build a beautiful lodge. But experiencing good game is unique, and having a talented guide and caring staff take the experience out of the ordinary. Luxury is bespoke care for each person. Luxury for the super-elite is watching the perfect sunset, and seeing the Milky Way from bed.”
The sunset on the Makgadikgadi salt pan in Botswana was such a luxury experience for Beach.
“It is more than a poetic experience. It’s a life-changing experience,” he says.
A regular traveler, he is the retired President and Artistic Director of the La Jolla Music Society in San Diego. For over 40 years now, he and his partner have traveled annually to Venice. A few years ago, Beach and his sister went on National Geographic’s 24-day ‘Around the World by Private Jet’ trip (costing a minimum of $82,950 per person and including destinations like Easter Island and Marrakesh). “[My partner and I] say to everyone – people know that we’ve spent 40 years traveling and we say to everybody – you have to trust us. [A trip to southern Africa] is the most transcendent travel experience of your life. I went on the National Geographic ‘Around The World By Private Plane’ trip a couple of years ago and it was great and it was first-class and all of that… But going on a safari exceeded anything we’ve ever experienced.”
According to Virtuoso’s annual Luxe Report, a luxury trip advisory service, “the desire for unspoiled natural beauty is continuing to motivate travelers”.
Their 2018 forecast listed Africa as one of the top five must-take trips. They said in the report: “From culturally-rich South Africa, which is also 2018’s top adventure destination, to the wilds of Botswana and Kenya, and to the souks of Morocco, Africa is one of the world’s most diverse continents. Virtuoso’s advisors say a safari is an integral part of the African experience, particularly with wildlife preservation a priority for today’s sustainably-savvy travelers.”
Though Beach doesn’t consider himself ‘rich’, his trip on the continent was certainly in the upper echelons of tourist budgets pouring into the continent.
As the Southern and East African Tourism Update website writes: “Millionaire tourism in Africa has been on the rise for several years. In 2016, a study by a Johannesburg-based research institution found that in a period of 12 months, around 43,000 individuals with net assets of $10 million or more visited the continent for a holiday.”
Stats SA backs up the importance of all tourism in South Africa: “The tourism sector directly contributed 2.9% to South African gross domestic product (GDP) in 2016.”
The lure of the bush and a chance to experience a complete immersion in landscapes unseen in the West, not to mention close encounters with animals, are hugely appealing to international visitors. Says founder of Famba Famba Tour Design Specialists, and winner of Gauteng’s Lilizela tourism award, Valentino Meirroti: “The tourism industry is growing. There is a growing market for luxury travel as air travel becomes cheaper worldwide. The super-wealthy are spending less money on material things and more on unique experiences.”
The private villas, the haute cuisine, the sundowners, and the private jets aren’t the draw cards for the super-elite traveler, Meirroti explains. The biggest appeal for these luxury tourists is the chance to experience the raw beauty and these special moments in relative privacy.
Angama Mara Lodge, a 30-sleeper villa is perched on a hill overlooking Kenya’s Maasai Mara, with these needs in mind. In peak season, during one of the world’s most phenomenal sightings – the Great Migration – guests will pay $1,650 per night per person. The lodge’s co-founder Fitzgerald, describes: “We have a heart-stopping view from our position over the valley. We’re absolutely packed in high season. We’re very, very high-end and visitors find that visiting us on a safari tour and witnessing the Great Migration at such close quarters is a huge highlight.”
Beach describes it as well: “This is like being on earth millions of years ago in the garden of Eden. You are invisible in your jeep. The animals ignore you. They are acclimatized to you. You’re not a threat, you’re not something to eat.”
Patrick Siebel, founder of Luxury Africa Destination Management, has a whole business built around creating bespoke, luxury tours.
Most people using his services spend a minimum of R300,000 ($20,877) for two weeks, but on his most opulent trip, six people spent R5 million ($348,000) on a 15-day trip. He says he has serviced, amongst others, Russian oligarchs, American businessmen and CEOs, and super-wealthy families.
Says Siebel: “Last year, I had a guy, he wasn’t even planning to visit South Africa I guess. But he had a super yacht with the tallest mast in the world. While he was here having their main sail fitted on, he ended up going up to Johannesburg and bought a whole safari camp. Fascinating people.”
This type of travel is also falling into the enlarging wellness travel industry.
This billion-dollar section of luxury travel feeds another, equally important part of the luxury traveler’s needs – relaxation and enrichment.
Skift quotes Joss Kent, CEO of andBeyond: “Health and wellness are an increasingly larger part of travel, but these can mean different things to different people. We’re seeing that guests are traveling, not to escape their daily lives, but to enrich them.”
Fitzgerald agrees: “It seems outrageous but people who like luxury travel have more of an issue with time than money. Some guests have no clue what they paid for their accommodation. There is so much money for people to do beautiful travel.”
Meirroti adds: “Our guests appreciate exclusivity, and a combination of complete relaxation while having a unique experience. People are happy to spend money for a bespoke experience that is well-organized and guided by knowledgeable guides.”
Perhaps Beach says it best: “When I travel to Africa, I want a place that is private, private, private, and you walk out in the morning and you are the only person in the world looking out over a vast horizon. It feels like you’re in Discovery Channel. And though African safari costs are some of the most expensive trips I take over the world, they are life-changing.”
- Samantha Steele