2011 Trans-Africa trips by Toyota and LR

**zeroland** · #1 6 Jan 2012

I have attempted to keep track of English based websites dedicated to trans-Africa trips over the last 11 years...

In 2011, a little bit of history was made... for the first time Toyota overtook Land Rover as the preferred overlanders choice of vehicles.

I only managed to link to 42 trans-Africa trips using Toyota or LR during 2011 (a huge decline compared to the past few years).
The criteria needed to be a website dedicated to trans-Africa trip - this makes it easy to track however I do recognise that many trips don't bother with a website. Early 2000-2004 trips are very low due to the internet connectivity and the requirement to be a web guru to publish a trip website.

In 2011 Toyota had 60% popularity when compared to the two vehicles.

Additional stats are available

Another interesting stat is that travel time is still roughly a year but has been declining.

ps - this post is not intended to create rival comments between Toyota and LR merely its intended to show an interesting trend. My thoughts on why are on the blog, however, one particular reason is the affordability of Toyota spare parts and equipment in the UK.

**tacr2man** · #2 6 Jan 2012

I dont see that your selection for data is that acurate , too many variables as to posting a web or not , your abilityto find etc etc

The reason for your suggested trend , is also open to debate , it could equally be argued that the cost of LC being higher than LR shows that the trend is down to more affluent travellers that can afford an LC are less affected by the world financial situation JMHO

non intended

**MovingHouse** · #3 7 Jan 2012

This is fascinating information. We have spent the past year on Tunisia -> Cape Town, and would add a few observations and anecdotal data points:

1) Virtually every group (around 30 groups) doing a similar journey was aware of the Africa Overland Network, and about 1/3 of them had posted their site info on it.

2) Analysing just the English language based web sites are likely to be somewhat favorably biased towards LR as more British travelers are in LRs. We met only two non-British groups in an LR out of around a dozen.

3) Some overland prep outfits in the UK are nudging their clients more towards one manufacturer as they try to build standardised set-ups to reduce costs. LC tends to win out here as perceived/actual reliability is seen as important by non- car enthusiast clients who tend to go more to overland outfits in the first place. We experienced this first hand when we went around England choosing a workshop for some of the major work.

The number of trips data you have for 2011 may well be affected quite a bit by the Arab Spring - Libya and Syria still problematic. We know of several couples who have postponed their trips.

**JulianVoelcker** · #4 8 Jan 2012

Running a business specialising in prepping Land Cruisers I can't really comment on the LR side of things, however we have noticed a major drop off in all overlanding trips.

Whilst the Arab Spring has undoubtedly had an affect on the Africa travel, the number of people planning trips elsewhere from the UK has dropped off massively.

With the current recession and increased fuel and prep costs I don't see the situation changing for a while - the consensus from friends in the City and running businesses is the situation is unlikely to change for a few years.