WATCH | 'It’s five seconds of fear or a lifetime of regret': SA bucket list goes viral

It’s the kind of publicity marketers can only dream of. A viral video of a group of American friends enjoying a holiday in SA has made not only our tourism agency happy, but given about 9-million people around the world a reason to visit.

On Monday popular YouTubers Dude Perfect (DP), a group of five friends from Frisco in Texas, uploaded a second episode of their new series entitled Bucket List. It began in 2020 with ticking off things they want to experience before they die.

The first video, Aircraft Carrier, documented the group spending three days on the USS Nimitz, a US navy aircraft carrier, where they got to launch aircraft jets, play golf and basketball on the deck, catch fish and fly in fighter jets.

Released on January 14 2020, that video garnered more than 42-million views. The second trip, to SA, had to be halted for a year because of Covid-19.

The friends flew to Cape Town in March to tick off their bucket-list items, which included paragliding, photographing the Big Five, and bungee jumping at the Bloukrans Bridge in the Western Cape. Also on the agenda was trimming a rhino horn as part of the conservation of the species, scuba diving with seals, shark-cage diving and abseiling off Table Mountain.

By Friday, the 31-minute video had 9.2-million views. It was at number six of the top 10 trending videos on YouTube, with only a soccer-match highlights reel and music videos above it.

Altaaf Kazi, spokesperson for SA Tourism, was thrilled. “In less than 24 hours the view count was over 6-million, so this kind of content will only do us well in terms of our tourism recovery strategy and to push SA [travel],” Kazi said.

“Considering we are on a few red lists this does help to show that SA is accessible from a travel perspective.”

A document was released in August outlining the tourism department’s strategy for renewing the industry. The plan proposes a series of measures to protect and rejuvenate supply, reignite demand and strengthen enabling capability.

DP is made up of friends Garrett “The Purple Hoser” Hilbert, twins Cory and Coby Cotton, Cody “Tall Guy” Jones and Tyler “Ty” or “Beard” Toney, who are former college roommates at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas.

“It’s five seconds of fear or a lifetime of regret,” Coby Cotton says in the video, moments before he jumps off Bloukrans Bridge.

Dude Perfect started 12 years ago and the show has more than 51-million subscribers. It  has spawned side shows, including the Dude Perfect Fancast Show which reviews DP shows.