2011 Trans-Africa trips by Toyota and LR

[zeroland]

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]

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]

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]

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.

[jimosse]

my two cents on this interesting stat; granted the overall numbers are statistically low but nontheless nice effort

my wife and i kayaked Seattle to Juneau (2000 km) in the summer of '06. We saw no others but knew of 1 or 2 parties. I expected dozens. The knowledgeable Alaskan park rangers who live there said its dried up; people used to do 2-6 week (or 12 week trips) like our all the time. No more. People too scared/lazy/occupied by the internet, multisport 1 week do it all with a Go-Pro, and armchair adventures?

Yikes, do i sound old and cynical?
Jim

[Surfy]

To cross africa is more risky than 1-2 years before.

It is logical, that the people do other travels, who aren`t that well documented like a trans-africa.

In switzerland there are companys who close their factory, because they are specialized to equip cars for desert travelling. Not many plan to do it in the 2012, when you check sites like africa-overland and hubb...

[Allchin]

is not having kids, and retiring early , by about 8years,and living frugaly, we have traveled for the last 30 years, by motorbike, or old LCruiser, just come back from 6mths traveling the stans ,siberia, your right jim you are becoming a cynic!

[zeroland]

A year on from the 2011 stats, here are the 2012 statistics:
Overland Live: 2012 Travel Stats

The trans-Africa overland trips have again declined... it could be the financial crisis impacting trips, or current trips opting to use alternative online media to record their trips (ie facebook) which I am not capturing on The Africa Overland Network.



Just a friendly reminder that majority of these websites are English and generally start in the Northern Hemisphere heading South. Unfortunately I am unable to capture trips departing in 2012 from Germany and France (let alone other EU countries) due to my lack of searching for trips that opt not to list on The Africa Overland Network. I certainly try to keep abreast of all the trips...

Travel time: I have included a section on the travel time and a comparison between the two most popular vehicle choices: LR & Toyota.

[Surfy]

Many thanks for your work!

I guess that the number of people who plan or do a transafrika will decline again...

Surfy

[JulianVoelcker]

I'm finding that it is the number of young people travelling that has declined rapidly.

Over the last couple of years we have hardly had any young Brits travelling. We have however had a gentle stream of South Africans heading south and a few Brit couples who have shipped cars south and then visited the Southern Africa countriesm but still a fraction what we saw back in 2009/2010.

Whilst the young travellers still appear to have reasonably high disposable income, the main issue seems to be job security, people aren't as confident that they will be able to get the time off or find a job when they return.

We have however seen an increase in the number of older people/retirees preparing vehicles for trips and also greater interest in heading East along the Silk Route.

Obviously the problems in North Africa are of concern, but whilst the Brits tend to be reasonably twitchy about it the South Africans tend to be more bullish and not let it bother them so much.

Whilst on the subject of South Africans, most are heading south after a stint working in the UK. Three to four years ago the majority would be heading back home to stay, but now it has changed with less returning home for good. Now more of them are heading back to the UK or leap frogging on to places like Australia to settle.

[Wootan]

Thanks for your work collecting and sorting through the data. I like statistics but you are right that the overland network doesn`t cover many of the travelers who are not native English speakers. Would it be of any help to send you blogs that you can`t find on the network or would you like to stick to the listed ones?

Can`t send pms yet (less than 5 posts) so I ll just post two blogs that come to my mind right away and are at least to my knowledge not listed on the overland network.

Crossing East Africa (German)

Opel Frontera, started ~30.11.12

Heading South for Winter: Home

80s Land Cruiser, started ~03.11.12 (?)

Let me know if you would like to get to know about more.

Cheers
Fabian

[uk_vette]

Land Cruisers are out numbering Land Rovers in China, by huge margin.
I have never seen a series 1, 2 or 3 Land Rover in China.
I have never seen a Defender 90 or 110 here.

The Land Cruisers are almost all 4,5L petrol 80 series, and 3,4L petrol Colorado's

There are lots of new Disco's I think they are Disco 4. but none of these are overland trucks, they are just used for city driving. Showpieces, I am rich.
Nothing in Disco 1, Disco 2, or Disco 3.

The 80 series are about 1995 to 1997. many of these are overland monsters, with front and rear ARB, winches, lifts and snorkels, etc

The Prado's are split about 30% the older 120 series, and 70% the newer 150 series.
Almost every one I see is 4.0L petrol, but there are just a few 3.0L diesels.

Of the 80 series, I guess 80% are 4,5L petrol, and just 20% 4,2L diesel from what I have seen.

Never seen a 70 series Land Cruiser here.
Never seen a 60 series Land Cruiser here.

v

[moggy 1968]

I think the major reason for the decline in African travel is politics. Travelleing Trans Africa is now more difficult and dangerous than just 5 years ago.
Eastern Europe is the new Africa as far as travel is concerend.
I think if you did the same thiing looking at Eastern European Travel you would find it is on the increase.

[jpyrek]

This is all interesting. I'd like to see more on tracking specific vehicles as opposed to just LR vs. LC.

I think you'll generally see an LR bias in the UK regardless, just because of availability and driving a LR is the only sensible "British" thing to do ;-)

We took two Subaru Foresters on our UK - Cape Town adventure last year...but as we were all Americans, procured our Subarus in the US and shipped them to the UK.

I'm going to go look more closely at what you've put together, but would love to help you with data mining and putting together the information if you're interested!

[zeroland]

It's that time of year... a website count of all chosen vehicles used for trans-Africa travel (which are listed on The Africa Overland Network).

The number of overlanders creating websites are declining in lieu of facebook which makes it harder to track the preferred vehicle option.
Also worth noting, as in previous years, majority of the websites are in English and all trips focus on trans-Africa (regardless of the route).

Land Rover certainly ruled as preferred vehicle for the last decade of travel but in 2011 and 2013, Toyota was the preferred vehicle choice.

Read more via Overland Live blog including average travel time for 2013 and alternative vehicles used over the last few years.