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Kenya ranked the third most popular African destination for the super-rich during the 12-month period to September 2016, with about 4,000 multi-millionaires visiting the country.
A new study by New World Wealth placed Kenya in a tie position with Botswana behind South Africa and Morocco which tiered first and second respectively as the most preferred places where the upper wealthy go.
Kenya and Botswana had a similar number of local high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) visiting the countries during the period, with Nairobi, safari lodges and wildlife in Maasai Mara favored destinations for the moneyed.
The HNWIs are multi-millionaires whose worth is US$10 million (Sh102 million) or more.
Wildlife safaris were the most popular pastime for African HNWIs in 2016, with cycling and car collecting becoming more popular in recent years for the super-rich, while sporting activities like golf, tennis and horses have become less popular among these individuals.
Nairobi ranked the top performing African city for HNWIs during the year, according to the survey released yesterday in collaboration with AfrAsia bank.
The survey showed that the African HNWI numbers had shot by 19 per cent during the review period with Kenya producing 9,400 HNWIs and 370 multi-millionaires’ last year.
That number is however expected to rise over the next few years, according to another survey conducted by real estate consultancy Knight Frank which revealed the number of local high-net-worth individuals in Kenya had swollen by the same margin in 2016 from 8,500 in 2015 – representing additional 900 dollar-millionaires.
South Africa remained in the top spot among multi-millionaires due to its charming beauty, game parks and advanced cities, according to the survey on millionaire tourism in Africa, with approximately 15,000 multi-millionaires visiting the country during the year.
Africa had a total of 48,000 multi-millionaire visitors in 2016, an increase from 43,000 a year earlier, signaling a growing number of millionaires’ club visiting the continent – with ideal major destinations for them being Marrakech and Casablanca in Morocco, the Serengeti in Tanzania, Sharm El Sheikh and Cairo in Egypt, Livingstone in Zambia and the Okavango Swamps in Botswana as well as Gorilla safaris in the Virunga Mountains and the Bwindi Forest in Uganda.
The report provides a wide-ranging review of the wealth sector in the continent, including HNWI trends, luxury trends and wealth management tendencies from 2006 to 2016, with projections to 2026.
The New World Wealth HNWI profiles over 10,000 African HNWIs with regular interviews with wealth managers, financial advisors, property agents and art and classic car dealers, property registers and property sales statistics in each country.
The report also looks at income distribution and stock market trends in each country, while tracking HNWI movements in the media. Interviews with over 800 global HNWIs a year – mainly used for ratings and surveys.