Africa Travel and FOMO
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| Boris Kodjoe & African Americans in Ghana for The Year of The Return |
I used to work in hotel finance in Africa and advise a lot of hotel owners on funding to build their hotels so I know a lot of people in the African hospitality industry and hotel groups. In December I was on a call with a former client of mine who is finishing his hotel just outside Accra when I asked how the celebrations for 'The Year Of The Return' were going. He said I was missing because the whole of Black Hollywood has visited Ghana in 2019 culminating in the festive season celebrations. Several Black celebrities I saw on TV were talking about their plans to spend the holidays in Ghana.
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| Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones & kids in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe |
I had spent Thanksgiving and Christmas away chasing warm weather in LA and Arizona but it seemed like the whole of the US was cold over the holidays so I might as well have stayed home in Seattle. To make matters worse, many Africans return home to Africa for the holidays and it is the best time to visit when the Diaspora is back home so social media was full of posts from people I know who were having a good time in the sunshine back in the motherland. A friend of mine was in Zimbabwe with his family and there were pictures on Instagram of his kids swimming at Mutarazi Falls in Nyanga which is one of my favorite places in Zimbabwe. My family is also from Mutare and I grew up going for family vacations in hotels in the Eastern Highlands so their posts made me nostalgic for my homeland. Then I saw posts posts of Hollywood stars visiting Victoria Falls and the FOMO was real because the resort town is a huge party town over the holidays and I have visited so often in the past that I am now friends with several people who work in the tourism industry there. I haven't done this yet but I plan to do New Year's Eve at the Victoria Falls Carnival, one of the hottest music festivals in Africa which is held on New Year's Eve every year.
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| 'Empire' star couple Grace & Trai Byersin Victoria Falls |
Recently I set up my new full service DNP Travels agency which is an Africa destination specialist agency bringing groups to Africa. Curated and tailored services offered include:
-Vacations, tours and safaris to the top destinations in Africa, from Cape to Cairo.
-Destination weddings and honeymoons in Africa, with the best venues and suppliers.
-Family reunions, religious travel, social impact travel including volunteers and charity missions.
-Business groups, nonprofit groups, school trips, sports teams and student exchange programs.
-Conference groups, trade shows, exhibitions, meetings, event travel and concert travelers.
-Specialized tailored travel like women-only groups or bachelors matchmaking tours.
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| I fell in love with Ghana on my first visit here in 2009 |
Most people can book their own travel online these days but when it comes to groups, it becomes harder to coordinate the planning for everyone. When it comes to Africa, there is a lack of information on exactly where to go and how to navigate the continent easily. Many African Americans these days are having their DNA tested so they are interested in discovering their roots and visiting the countries where their ancestors came from but there is nobody catering to this market. Many would like to visit Africa but they have no idea where to start. I have traveled extensively in Africa and it is a challenging continent so I will use my experience and network to plan travel in Africa so all my clients have a flawless travel experience. I have friends here in the US who do not travel much and they say that they will travel more often if somebody else does the planning. As a travel advisor I have very high standards so I only work with trusted suppliers and partners. I am so hands-on that I will not offer anybody an option that I am not familiar with or not confident about, even if it means I have to visit a venue myself first before I send anybody there. I offer both escorted travel or planning services for my groups. My escorted services are trips include trips where I will travel with my clients or have a guide on hand throughout the stay in Africa. I am planning a ladies trip to West Africa where we will visit Ghana, Nigeria, The Gambia and Senegal. As an alternative to our men who like to visit Brazil, we can offer a fun tour through Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Maputo, Johannesburg and Cape Town where the women are just as beautiful so they can find their African brides. I am a member of Rotary and we have many projects in Africa including the 'Malaria Partners' project. My fellow Rotarians in Seattle are excited that there will be a full-service agency which will handle their travel in future.
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| Spending an afternoon was a normal thing when I lived in Lagos. |
Additionally, DNP Travels offers services for African clients wishing to travel to the US including family trips to Disney, golf tournaments for executives to network with business leaders in the US, college tours for high school students, honeymoons in Hawaii and other destinations as well as any travel needs for groups coming to the US. As an experienced event planner, I will be organizing several business events as well as social events to bring Africans to the US. For instance, we can do a package to the Essence Jazz Festival and pair it with a series of meetings with the local chambers of commerce for networking purposes. The market will also determine the services we offer so if a certain company or industry body in Africa would like to offer an incentive program in the US, for instance, we can happy put that together. There are also numerous trade shows and exhibitions in the US like the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas where we can offer a full, concierge service. I have close relationships with a number of tourism authorities and embassies in Africa where DNP Travels can offer visa application support which is usually the biggest challenge for African visitors to the US. This is an exciting time for travel to Africa and for Africans as the Diaspora Africans rediscovers their roots in Africa. I am proud to facilitate the journey back to Africa and tourism does more to lift Africa out of poverty than charity or foreign aid. Communities that are involved in tourism are less likely to poach wild animals so the promotion of tourism leads to the conservation of wildlife in Africa. African countries tend to rely on commodities so the development of tourism leads to the diversification of economies away from oil and minerals as well as the growth of a middle class. Instead of sending remittances to families in Africa, please send tourist who will spend their dollars in Africa so Africa can feed itself.
