Leave your worries behind

Tourists are relaxing and relishing a wildly diverse continent

August 26, 2007|David Swanson, Globe Correspondent

Dori Kaufman started planning what she hoped would be a trip of a lifetime -- an African safari -- nine months in advance. She worked with a travel agent well versed in safaris to craft the perfect itinerary.

"I was really excited, until about one month prior to leaving," says Kaufman, of San Diego. "Then I looked at a map and saw that one place we were staying in Zambia was right across the river from Zimbabwe."

Zimbabwe's acute economic unrest was just the first item on what became a laundry list of concerns. "I began to worry about cleanliness, whether I'd find scorpions in my shoes or be trampled by wild elephants, what we would eat and drink."

She and her husband also became apprehensive for their 14-year-old daughter's safety, leading to a last-minute rush to draft wills. "I felt we were headed for something worse than a third-world experience. I arrived at the airport with a suitcase filled entirely with medication."

Kaufman is not alone in assuming an African safari is a dodgy venture. But that perspective is in stark contrast with another: Tourism to Africa is booming, even by wary Americans.

With three decades of instability behind it, Uganda's tourism numbers swelled from 193,000 (in 2000) to 512,000 (2004). De spite a travel warning from the US State Department, in two years visitors to Kenya went from 1.1 million (in 2003) to 1.5 million (2005). Americans traveling to South Africa have increased by an average 11 percent annually for the last three years, and returning visitors to that country exceed 30 percent of total arrivals.

Many of us have or had apprehensions about our first African safari. Here are some of the perceptions that African tour operators, government representatives, and safari camp managers say they face selling safaris to Americans.

Africa is rife with wars and poverty "People don't know how to separate these countries; they see all Africa as one," says Norman Pieters, chairman of Miami-based Karell's African Dream Vacations (karell.com), who has been selling safaris for 35 years.

Americans have long had difficulty recognizing the world's second largest continent as comprising 53 highly individual countries. Although a number of them have their problems, the issues of one country typically aren't closely related to those of another. Zimbabwe and South Africa may share a border, but what's happening in troubled Harare has little bearing on what's going on in Cape Town, 1,400 miles away.

"When the news shows problems in Darfur, Sudan, some people drop their plans to visit South Africa," says Kent Redding, president of Denver-based Africa Adventure Consultants (adventuresinafrica.com). "South Africa is thousands of miles away and a world apart in terms of safety."