A case for West Africa

I have observed that when it comes to tourists and holiday destinations the West African sub region is conspiciously missing. It is very rare to find holiday packages to West African destinations advertised in the news papers and broshures. The majority of the tourist traffic to Africa is consentrated in the Northern and Southern part of the continent.

ATTRACTIONS: West Africa has got attractions to match any tourist destination in the world. Be it natural or artificial attractions, they are there in aboundance. It boast of some of the most breath taking land forms, beaches and hotels in the world. Coupled with the most colourful festivals and fantastic wheather you can find anywhere. The people are exceptionaly hospitable and warm and believe me some counties there have enjoyed over 21 years of peace and political stability.

QUESTION: My question is why is it that inspite of all the above attaractions, it doesn't attract tourist like it should.

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Here in France, Senegal is very popular. One of the most popular in Africa (Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, and Kenya are the others). But we never hear anything about other countries such as Mali and Ghana. I wanted to visit Ghana but just getting there was very expensive unless we did a round trip which we didn't want to do.

Because there is little wildlife left. Where are the elephants, for example?

Nature also helped east Africa. Its savannahs are a tourist's delight, because they are home to an impressive range of wildlife, and the animals don't hide in the forest.

Spent several months crossing West Africa a few years ago and I don't think we ever saw any independent travelers until we got to Senegal. Only Peace Corps and the very occasional package tour. Granted, this was May-August, which probably isn't the most pleasant time of year to be there.

Janneke,

There's wonderful, friendly African people there. West-Africa may have less natural highlights than other parts of Africa, but the rich variety in culture probably makes well up for that. If your main interest is African culture and you don't shy away from mingling and mixing with the locals, West-Africa won't dissapoint you. I've travelled in large parts of West-Africa for about 8 months. I loved it and still go back there regularly. The discomforts you've listed are certainly there and some of them shouldn't be taken lightly, though it is my experience that trying to assess them from home often yields to an overly negative picture thereby yielding to the grim image the western media often depicts Africa with. Once you're there and have enjoyed both the discomforts as well as the comforts and have seen how the locals (have to) deal with them, it'll be easier to put things into a better perspective. At the risk of sounding perverse; the discomforts will make you enjoy the comforts more. They're both inextricably part of life. The greater the contrast between them, the more you learn to cherish life. Perhaps that's why Africans generally seem to be happier than we are. Granted, some of the discomforts may be out of proportion in Africa, but so are many of the comforts in the West.