Poor Image Blocks Tourist Flow to Africa [Part 2 of 5] | Voice of America - English
Leaders in the international tourism industry are making concerted efforts to establish Africa as the world?s next top travel destination. They?re facing an uphill battle, as statistics show that most international tourists don?t consider the continent to be a good place for a holiday. Travel experts blame this on Africa?s poor reputation. They say tourists continue to view the continent as a place wracked with poverty, conflict and disease ? and little else ? despite the fact that Africa offers visitors a myriad of wonderful vacation possibilities.
?Abig problem about trying to sell Africa is (that tourists) think it?s dangerousto them; they?re going to get a disease; they?re going to get killed in civilstrife; the cities are dirty,? says Sean Barlow, producer of Afropop Worldwide,a company that sells African music programs to 110 radio stations in the UnitedStates and organizes cultural tours to the continent. MarkWalton, of the Africa Channel, a privately owned television station withoffices in London, New York and Johannesburg, acknowledges that the continent?simage among travelers, and especially those in the US, is ?probably about the worst in the world.? According to researchrecently commissioned by Walton, only two per cent of the 30 million Americanswho vacation outside their homeland every year visit Africa. ?When you see statistics likethese, then you know you?ve got a lot of work to do in terms of improving Africa?simage,? he states. Mariam Adam, a Tanzanian tour operator, says mostAmericans she comes into contact with in the US consider Africa ?just a placeof famine, war and crime. When they think of Africa, they don?t generally thinkof exotic destinations. They think of war and violence in Somalia, Sudan andZimbabwe, as it appears on television news bulletins.? Samantha Taylor, the Kenyan owner of a company aiming toimprove Africa?s image globally, says despite democratic and economic advanceson the continent, there?s a still a fundamental ?lack of trust and confidence?in Africa among international travelers. This, she says, is due to some?current political events and some untrustworthy social and businesspractices.? PaulCohen, an American marketing guru whose firm is credited with boosting touristnumbers to Vietnam, says the ?final and largest obstacles? preventing Africafrom becoming one of the world?s premiere travel destinations remain ?safetyand security concerns, sanitary issues and food issues.? Cohensays most international travelers continue to think of Africa as a ?dangerousand dirty? place where good, nutritious food is unavailable and where they?relikely to contract a serious illness. ?You watch(President) George (W.) Bush in Africa (on television) and they?re talkingabout malaria and AIDS and all the problems. Well, what we need to do is talkabout all the positive attributes ? whether it?s the beaches, the golf, thewineries, the safaris. Africa has so much to offer. We need to change the brandand the perception from the negative to the positives,? Cohen emphasizes. JoeGerace, who works for the travel section of the Wall Street Journal newspaper,agrees that most American tourists base their views of a holiday destination oninformation they glean from the mainstream media ? and also from Hollywood. ?Thelast five movies I?ve seen on Africa ? (including) ?Blood Diamond? and ?TheInterpreter? ? all have had violence (as themes),? he says. Maxwell Eliogu, aGhanaian based in Washington, D.C., whose communications company markets Africato American travelers, expresses an opinion that?s on the lips of manyconcerned with promoting holidays on his home continent: ?It?s time for Africato take control of her own reputation.? Eliogu states, ?WeAfricans want to start to manage our own image and our own media. For too longwe?ve left other people to represent us, other people to report about who weare.? Like many Africangovernment officials, James Mwangi of the Kenyan embassy in Washington largelyblames journalists for Africa?s poor international image. ?If you look at theAmerican market, the media is very critical in selling a country?s tourismopportunities. And when I look at Africa, there are always those very negativestories. But to me every day there?s really a good story about Africa (thatcould be told).? Yet, Mwangi says,these stories hardly ever appear in the international media. ?Instead all we aretold about Africa is war, death, AIDS and (conflict in) Darfur and foodshortages.? But Brad Ford, aUS-based tour operator who sends hundreds of international travelers to Africaevery year, insists it?s not journalists? work to be public relations agentsfor governments or tour companies. His view is that international and Africantourism industry players should mount an intense campaign aimed at urgingtravelers to rely less on the media in terms of forming an image of adestination, and more on speaking with people who?ve actually experienced theplace they intend to visit. A case in point,Ford says, is Kenya. After post-election violence in the country at thebeginning of the year, tourist numbers in the East African nation dwindled to atrickle even though, says Ford, most of Kenya ? including the county?s leadingattractions ? were untouched by conflict. He?s sure that if potential visitorsto the country had access to knowledgeable people, instead of ?taking theirlead? from the world?s media headlines, they would have considered a vacationin Kenya. Manypeople trying to boost tourism in Africa lament what they call the ?reluctance?of the African Union, regional organizations on the continent and internationalAfrican embassies to help them in their mission. ?Theyneed to open more doors, and more collaborative initiatives. Not only with theAfricans and NGOs, but also with the press, because information is veryimportant,? says Chris Onuorah, the Nigerian editor of Africa Message, a NewYork-based website that spreads positive news about Africa around the world,and advertises the continent as an ideal travel destination. Onuorahfeels that African officials often ignore their own people and turn instead tointernational companies for help in publicizing the ?good things? about Africa. ?Africansaren?t cooperating with Africans. Our governments and tourism officials moanabout everything, and how they?re discriminated against. Yet they discriminateagainst themselves by always looking overseas for help, for expertise. Weignore our own communities; even our government organs don?t work with us; theyprefer to work with foreigners,? Onuorah maintains. Brad Ford says he?shad several bad experiences with African governments. ?We?ve hadinternationally some situations where governments were not necessarily sohospitable to a lot of the tourists that are coming into the areas that wevisit,? he says. That?s why, Fordadds, his firm now prefers to create lasting relationships with the Africancommunities who live near the various attractions to which he takes visitors,rather than with state officials. According to EdwardBergman, the director of the Africa Travel Association in New York, thoseseeking ?positive information? about destinations in Africa from embassies inthe U.S. are often disappointed. ?No one bothers toreturn your calls. Or the phones just ring. Or you?re told that the informationthat you want is not available,? Bergman laments. Referringagain to President Bush?s visit earlier this year to Africa, Mark Walton saysthe world saw only the ?negative or neutral pictures? related to theevent. Yet, at a press conference at the White House shortly after Mr. Bush?sreturn to Washington, the media got a very different picture of Africa. ?PresidentBush did a slide show. It was incredible. It was President Bush and (his wife)Laura eating and dancing and conversing in (African) villages.? Waltoncontinues: ?If masses of Americans had seen this, instead of the bland ornegative images that came out during the president?s African tour, their badattitudes towards Africa would?ve changed overnight. But no one?s seen theseimages. Where are the videos of these things Unlikeofficials such as James Mwangi of Kenya?s US Embassy, Walton doesn?t blame themedia for this situation. Like Brad Ford, he says the onus is on the travelsector itself to market Africa as ?no longer the Dark Continent, but theTechnicolor Continent.? Waltonsays the African and international travel industries must present Africa as a?vibrant place, full of sights, sounds and colors.? Dr. Lawrence Martin, an anthropologist at Stony BrookUniversity in New York, is convinced that Africa?s status as the ?Cradle ofHumankind? will only improve the continent?s image internationally. But others in Africa?s tourism industry, including MaxwellEliogu, don?t agree. The communications specialist, who publishes a magazinededicated to traveling in Africa, acknowledges the tourism value in ?sellingAfrica as the birthplace of human beings? but adds that many Africans are?skeptical? about it. ?We are tired of being seen as apes. Some of us considerourselves to be contemporary Africans who are tired of these images,? Eliogustresses. Some tour operators, though, like Mariam Adam, believeit?s ?valuable? for the continent to reinforce its reputation as the origin ofcivilization and that this shouldn?t be seen in a negative and ?overlysensitive? light. But Eliogu maintains: ?Some Europeans travel to Africa totrace the roots of their race. They look at Africans as a primitive form ofhuman development?. When they look at Africa as a cradle of human civilization,that?s exactly what they perceive.? Martinconcedes, ?Cultural anthropology is so tied up with imperialism and colonialismthat it has a sorry history ? particularly in Europe and America, and itsinvolvement in racism as well.? But he says the world has ?moved on? and it?stime for Africa to embrace its heritage as the place where man originated sothat Africans receive the ?respect they deserve.? ?It?sone of the hopes that as we get this word out, people will realize that it?sillogical to have any questions about the equality of Africa, the equality ofAfrican people. The centrality of African people in the heritage of allhumanity (is what it?s about),? Martin asserts. Eliogu, though,insists that he?ll use his magazine to ?reflect contemporary Africa? and not?ancient? or ?traditional? Africa: ?Africa belongs in the 21st century, not in prehistory, when apes roamed the earth.? Waltonsays of all the strategies that could be implemented to improve Africa?s imageabroad, ?old-fashioned marketing? is most important. ?Noone invests in a country that they don?t visit, and no one visits a countrythat they haven?t seen (in advertisements),? he declares. Lesde Villiers, the South African author of several guidebooks and a tourismconsultant specializing in Africa, says the continent can look to severalinternational success stories for guidance in boosting tourist numbers. ?Vietnam the other day was a country that everybody hated.And today, you find that people want to go there and want to do business there.And to a large extent it?s the way in which they promoted it, and it didn?thappen?in one day.? De Villiers says it?s going to take a long time to makeAfrica one of the globe?s top travel destinations. Lelei LeLaulu, a former United Nations official who nowworks for a non-profit organization that advocates sustainable tourism, says akey step towards achieving this should be the introduction of tourism as asubject in African schools. ?We?re not going to get very far in the development oftourism in the longer term until we focus on education right at the firstgrade, at the primary, elementary school level,? LeLaulu emphasizes. He points to Barbados as a place that?s boosted touristnumbers significantly since schools on the West Indian island startedinstructing pupils in tourism studies. ?Tanzania is also beginning to teach tourism in the firstgrade,? he says. ?So what we have to do is focus on education so that the bestand the brightest of the youth in Africa select tourism as their first and nottheir last resort for a career.?