International flight bookings to Africa for the summer season are currently almost 6% ahead of where they were at this time last year.
This is according to statistics provided by ForwardKeys, which monitors future travel patterns by analysing 14 million reservation transactions each day.
According to the data released there is a 5.9% increase in forward bookings during May to October this year, with robust growth in arrivals from across the globe as well as from within the continent.
It is interesting to note that the figures show forward bookings from Europe – which at 57% has the biggest market share – are up 6.0%. Significantly, travel within Africa is also increasing and at a faster rate, up 6.2%. The Americas, with a market share of 15%, are up 12.3%.
Bookings made for the beginning of May onward show that nearly all the top African destinations are seeing an increase in international arrivals. Namibia tops the list, up 31.2% on the previous year, with Kenya in second place, up 27.7%%, followed by South Africa, up 21.6%.
Only three of the top 15 destinations in Africa are showing fewer advance bookings – Egypt down 7.9%, Morocco down 6.6% and Tunisia down 25.8%.
The ForwardKeys data has been produced in partnership with AviaDev Africa, a route planning and development conference being launched by Bench Events in Kigali, Rwanda.