One African safari specialist is urging Kiwi agents selling safaris over the green season to reframe it not as the cost-effective low season, but instead as a season that has calving, migratory birdlife, storm light and more exclusivity.
The green season refers to the rains that follow Africa’s long dry winter. Safari Guru says the rainfall tends to arrive in short, dramatic afternoon bursts rather than settling in for the day, leaving mornings clear for game drives.
Southern Africa sees rain roughly Nov-Apr, heaviest Jan-Mar, while East Africa sees short rains Nov-Dec, a drier window Jan-Feb, then longer rains from Mar-May.
Deon De Villiers, founder of Safari Guru, says the agents who do well with the green season aren’t the ones who oversell it as a bargain. “They’re the ones who can explain, region by region, exactly what a client will see that they wouldn’t in Aug and match that to what the client actually wants from the trip.”
For example, during the green season in Tanzania’s southern Serengeti and Ndutu plains several hundred thousand wildebeest calves are born within weeks of each other, this typically occurring late Jan-Mar; while in Nov impala give birth across Kruger and the Sabi Sands in South Africa.
The Okavango Delta and Moremi in Botswana are quieter over these months, with low visitor numbers suiting clients who prioritise privacy over anything else, while the green season in Zambia’s South Luangwa boasts birding conditions that are among the best on the continent.
“This isn’t a season we position as a compromise,” De Villiers adds. “It’s a season we recommend on its own merits, to the right client, at the right camp, with a guide who knows how to read a greener, wilder bush.”
The operator does point out that malaria precautions are worth raising with every client travelling in these months, recommending agents position this as a routine conversation, not a deterrent. For more on Safari Guru 10% commissionable product, see HERE.
