Confidence in booking Destination Victoria Falls has increased to 74% in 2021, according to the annual Future Traveller Sentiment Survey conducted by We Are Victoria Falls collective.
This figure is close to the 85% confidence level recorded in 2019. The confidence level recorded post-COVID in 2020, dropped to 50%.
Furthermore, 73% of survey respondents believe it is now safe to travel to Victoria Falls and that clear rules on entry, pricing awareness, flexibility of terms and conditions, and ease of access (including direct flights) are key priority areas to accelerate recovery of tourism to the destination.
Trends emerging
The report provides an annual snapshot of data to support the sector in planning for the future. According to international agents who responded to the survey, future travellers to Victoria Falls will be motivated by nature and will travel in smaller groups.
Travellers will be mainly older couples, multi-gen families and families with older children. Compared with the previous survey, agents predict growing preference for boutique hotels over safari camps, and a move away from branded properties.
The most marked developments from the previous year are an expected uptick in demand for wellness and gastronomy experiences.
Among international agents, 100% said connecting with nature would be most in demand, while 80% predicted that a wilderness setting would be in demand, and 60% felt urban areas would also be (up from 45% in 2020).
Lack of direct flights
Agents reported access and lack of direct flights as a major obstacle. To help alleviate this, the newly formed Air Access Development Committee has facilitated four new routes, or increased frequencies to Victoria Falls over the last few months.
This includes the Lufthansa Group’s Eurowings Discover’s inaugural flight from Frankfurt arriving on March 30.
The We Are Victoria Falls outreach and crisis communications initiative has been working with both public- and private-sector stakeholders since May 2020 following the onset of the pandemic. Some 86% of survey respondents indicated that the We Are Victoria Falls initiative had been impactful in maintaining or improving their confidence in booking the destination, compared with 62% in 2020.
Click HERE to access the full report.
