Millennials are craving new travel experiences and off-the-beaten track adventure – and SA is ticking all the right boxes.

A desire for new travel experiences, a greater social and environmental awareness and growing interest in activity-based tourism are among the new global trends that stand to benefit South Africa’s tourism industry and position the country as one of the world’s most sought-after travel destinations in 2018.

This is according to Martin Wiest, chief executive of integrated tourism group Tourvest’s Destination Management division.

Driving many of these trends is the millennial generation, now in their twenties and thirties, who have emerged as a key source demographic.

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“Millennials are well known for their social and environmental conscience, and will shun countries with poor human rights and environmental practices,” says Wiest.

At the same time, these travelers are seeking new and authentic travel experiences, no longer content with visiting well-traveled destinations.

“They want to see lesser known and un-commercialised places, with Cuba, Iceland, Croatia, and South Africa highly recommended by respected travel websites and publications,” he added.

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“Additionally, travellers are looking for new experiences instead of mundane sight-seeing tours and South Africa emerged as one of the best adventure travel destinations in 2017, with its wide range of offerings such as safaris, canopy tours, animal interactions, quad biking and hot air ballooning.”

Wiest says technology is also having an impact on travellers’ purchasing behaviour with new websites aggregating the best deals across thousands of booking sites and tailoring options based on a person’s search history and preferences. In this environment, travelers have become more price conscious, and destinations that offer the best value for money will benefit.

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“South Africa is ticking all the right boxes in terms of its affordability, conservation tourism experiences, an original and sophisticated culinary scene, and the very best in adventure offerings,” he says.

“We also expect to see an uptick in local tourism with more young South Africans taking advantage of the world-class offerings in their own backyard.”