Is Sierra Leone ready for Tourism?

Once upon a time Sierra Leone was a prosperous nation and it was championed as the blueprint of a successful West Africa nation. Thousands came from the sub-region to be educated at our outstanding institutions. Tourists came from the world over to get a taste of this beautiful country and the lifestyle of its warm and hospitable people. However, one day, it all went wrong. In truth, the civil war was to destroy what was left of the already crumbling economy and dash the fragile hopes of the Sierra Leonean people who wished for a brighter future.

It has been six years since the war and Sierra Leone is looking to make up for lost time. It has a democratically elected government and a stable economy which is a pre-requisite for economic growth.

When I started Visit Sierra Leone (www.visitsierraleone.org) in 2004, Sierra Leone and Tourism were hardly mentioned in the same breath. It is certainly encouraging that the rest of the world now seems to be wakening to the potential of this industry in Sierra Leone. The talk of tourism is certainly getting louder and President Koroma has publicly stated that this is an industry he is looking to develop, which is great.

Make no mistake, the task facing the government is a huge one. To rebuild what has been destroyed over a period of over thirty years is not going to happen overnight. The Tourism sector can potentially offer much needed revenue stream to the economy. If managed properly, it will create jobs and will have a knock on effect on local economy. Take Ghana for example: the World Tourism and Travel Council’s 2004 Travel and Tourism Economic research states: “On a more specific basis in 2004, Ghana's Travel & Tourism Industry is expected to generate 4.8% of GDP and 193,722 jobs, while the broader Travel & Tourism Economy is expected to total 9.7% of GDP and 398,471 jobs.”

Whilst Sierra Leone tourism industry is not at the stage of our Ghanaian counterparts it highlights in real terms the potential benefits of proper planning.

If we are serious about moving developing our industry then more than just a verbal commitment is required. There needs to be the will and commitment to take this on.

The tourism ministry itself lacks sufficient capacity for this challenge which means a cross-ministry approach is the way forward as the tourism sector cannot be developed in isolation. A root and branch analysis is required; in short, we have to go back to basics.

Tackling negative perceptions on Sierra Leone…

This was the main reason I established VSL in the first place. I feel very strongly about this issue as I feel it is one of our biggest challenges and will involve huge costs. The important thing to note is that it affects not only Tourism but attracting Investment to Sierra Leone as a whole. The President has indicated the need for an attitudinal change campaign which is a great idea. I believe we should also seriously consider an International Communication Campaign. Sierra Leone needs to be re-branded. Some attitudes towards Sierra Leone are deeply entrenched in the minds of many, thanks to the graphics that came out during the conflict. Many have benefited from what I refer to as the Sierra Leone War Industry. These war DVDs, books, articles, documentaries which are still being showed in the international media only serve to perpetuate the image of a warring Sierra Leone. We need a more focused approach from the Information, Trade and Industry and Foreign Affairs Ministries. I’d also like to see the Diplomatic Offices take more of an assertive stance in communicating Sierra Leone’s progress. A “Positive Information” task force could be set up which includes representation from the above offices as well as that of Tourism and The Diaspora. One of the responsibilities of such a task force would be to challenge one-sided reports about Sierra Leone. One recent case from a couple of months ago was the broadcast of a documentary – Blood Diamonds – by Channel 5 in the UK. Not only was the program at least 5 years late but it also included graphic images of corpses littered along the streets of Freetown. This not only disrespected our dead but it also added nothing to the story – it was unnecessary. Or take the case of Leonardo Di Caprio’s movie ‘Blood Diamond’, where I was hoping the government at the time would use the international media - all of whom were covering the story - to talk about Sierra Leone and the positive strides we had taken so movie goers would be able to differentiate between past and present. It never came. Kazakhstan provides an example of how government’s can use the international media to their advantage. Recently Kazakhstan was the focus of the movie ‘Borat’, which portrayed the country in unflattering terms. The Kazakh government published angry four-page ads in the New York Times in an attempt to correct some of Borat’s claims. A tourism boom followed and some hotels reported a trebling of international visitors.

Customer Service…

Tourism is a service driven industry and for the most part, the service in this country is appalling. Imagine that you can quite easily pay over £1,500 to get to Sierra Leone only to have the most basic facilities and service. I often feel as though I’m being granted a favour even when I’m paying for a service with my hard earned cash. Consider that these days you can fly within Europe for £30, or get to The Gambia for half as much as it does to get here but you are treated to a superior level of service and professionalism. It’d be great to establish Customer Service Training Institutes which delivers students qualified to international level. Such qualifications must be made a requirement for working in tourist establishments and pay levels for staff should be reviewed. I know that the Milton Margai College of Education already has a faculty of Hotel and Tourism at the Brookfields Campus but their capacity to deliver high quality training is limited due to lack of adequate resources.

An ongoing training scheme would also be beneficial. It is in the interest of all stakeholders in the industry to see an increase in the service provided. So, twice a year for example, we could employ the services of an international consultant to provide a series of workshops for hoteliers, staff, wardens, the community etc.

Transfers…

The transfer situation – this is the proverbial pain in the ass. In the last year alone, we have seen one near miss from the helicopter, one crash which claimed over twenty lives and fire on the hovercraft. Both the helicopter and hovercraft are currently grounded. This is bad for business. The ferry, perceived as the safe option can add a few hours to your travel time just to get to the east of Freetown. You then have to negotiate your way through some pretty horrible traffic to get to any of the hotels in the west of town. Though there is often talk of a “Lungi Bridge”, in the short term getting good operators to offer proper and efficient service is the way forward. We may well need to see which operators are doing similar business in other countries and offer them ‘sweeteners’ to get them into Sierra Leone. I do however believe that a road connecting the airport and Freetown is probably the best bet. The Lungi to Rogberi Junction stretch is less than 30 miles and I wonder why no previous administration ever prioritised its construction. In most countries, people are used to driving for over a couple of hours from the airport to their destination. The psychological difference here is that once you get into your vehicle, you’re moving and getting your first view of the countryside - rather than just sitting at tagrin waiting hours for the ferry especially when flights arrive at awkward hours in the morning. This road will also connect to Waterloo which branches off into the peninsula route where the resorts are expected to be based. Hence, the traffic in the East can be avoided. Using other means of transfer such as the helicopter will add $140 (per person) to your holiday and if you're a family... well you do the math. The road will also hopefully bring development along the route.

Our Airport…

The first and last impression that visitors have of Sierra Leone is our airport, and its operations. It can be chaotic, especially on busy days and could be an intimidating introduction if you’re a first time visitor. Cutting down on amount of porters and putting them on the payroll, whilst adding value to the job may help. The airport is not a market, this only adds to the chaotic atmosphere. Serious consideration should also be put into installing CCTV cameras both for security and as a deterrent for questionable practices. The process especially for departures needs to be a bit smoother. I’ve heard whispers of plans to build a new airport (or extension), and whilst this might be a good thing going forward, we need to make sure we can efficiently run what we currently have and that staff are properly trained.

Making it easy to get here…

Just over a year or so ago, there was talk of a visa on arrival being introduced but this seems to have died a natural death. Allegedly, our diplomatic offices thought it would reduce the revenue derived from Visa applications. If this is the case, on one hand they have a point but on the other we need to look at the bigger picture. Our diplomatic representation worldwide is quite limited; we don’t have any in countries like Canada, Spain and Australia for example. With identity theft these days, folks may be uneasy putting their passports in the post. Could we work out a scheme for citizens of countries where we have no diplomatic representation they can apply for a visa on arrival? Remember we are competing with other well oiled tourism industries and we need to make Sierra Leone more competitive in the Global Tourism Market. We need to make it easier for folks to come here.

Infrastructure…

This is often cited as a main reason for lack of development in the tourism industry. Whilst it undoubtedly plays a part, some of the obstacles may well be overcome. For example, a map of Sierra Leone indicates an airfield in most of the major cities. Bo, Kenema, Daru, Kabala, Bonthe for example all (according to the map) has some sort of landing strip nearby. Again, attracting a reputable company (with a proven track record) to run internal flights may be an option. Identifying sites of touristic value and developing the infrastructure around them should also help overcome this challenge. The North for instance with Outamba Kilimi National Park, Loma Mountains, Bumbuna, and Lake Sonfon offers an interesting opportunity for tourism.

Education…

I talked to a couple of Belgian tourists who had booked their hotel through the visitsierraleone.org, just to find out about their experience in Sierra Leone. They said it was a great trip but one thing that surprised them was how no one would believe they were tourists. They had to be working for some NGO or on a project. Seems folks have just forgotten what tourists are. We need to educate the local community on who tourists are, what they are doing here and how they should be treated.

Sierra Leoneans should also be educated in about the value of our history and heritage sites. How many of us have heard about Outamba Kilimi National Park? Or know about De Ruyter’s stone? I believe the Monuments and Relics Commission are working on an audit of all such sites so we can have a clearer idea what we’re packaging for tourists.

And finally…

Having the commitment to move this industry on is vitally important for its development. I must commend the National Tourist Board who have been trying their best to make sure the industry stays alive – and this with limited resources. They have also been a great and consistent support to me since 2004 when I told them about plans for VSL. They have spearheaded all promotional efforts over the past 4 years and have been quite instrumental in acquiring funds for planning and marketing over the next five years. I hope their capacity will be further strengthened in the coming years.

There are still tough issues such as land ownership which have to be tackled head on. Sierra Leonean owned businesses should be encouraged to enter the sector and they must be given the support to grow - it is crucial that as much of the revenue derived from the sector stays in this country. There are plans and marketing programmes underway to stimulate the re-launching of the tourism sector but I think it is important that we do not ignore the basics for they are the foundation upon which a strong and sustainable tourism industry will be built.

The Best Part of Sierra Leone

The Best Part of Sierra Leone by Malaika Cheney-Coker

We’re warned before we get there by disappointed friends and relatives about the heat, the filth, the fact that electricity and constant water are still luxuries. And we hope they’ve been exaggerating, but then we get there and it’s sadly and absolutely true. But just as those of us JC’s see the poverty and problems so acutely, we also come with fresh eyes and appreciation for Sierra Leone’s beauty. In Freetown, we’ve probably each had our moments of awe. It could be the twinkling lights of the city seen from Hill station at night, or the sight of a beach as stunning and untouched as the prehistoric world must have been.

I have one such beach picture as my desktop wallpaper from my trip in December and I honestly cannot stop gawking at it. But the interesting thing for me during this trip was that for the first time, I thought that perhaps, the best thing about Sierra Leone may not be the natural beauty, or our abundant resources, but our people. This may hardly be profound revelation to the astute among us. But I’ve been used to hearing we Sierra Leoneans describe one another in less-than-appreciative terms. And yes, how can we deny the mentality of corruption, lawlessness, nepotism, and sense of entitlement that have accompanied us to the bottom of the human development index?

But we overcame a terrible war without letting more blood in retribution. We forgave. We accepted. We moved on. And we acted. Sierra Leoneans voted out the last government that didn’t do enough, in favor of a new government that just maybe (if our wildest hopes come true) will get us beyond paddling to rapid growth and rebirth. And it’s not just about the leaders. During my trip in December, I met many locals earnestly trying to make things better. Their jobs were a means of service, whether working with child healthcare, or education, or broadcast media, or writing books that encouraged patriotism.

I talked to people that were leaving successful lives overseas to return home and establish businesses or social services that are much needed in Sierra Leone. Conventional wisdom would say, surely these people have it backwards. True, they might seem a bit starry-eyed but maybe they are the ones who are really on to something.

Maybe we had to crash to be able to rise again. Maybe we have enough memories of hell to know that going back is not an option. I applaud all the Sierra Leoneans doing remarkable things for Sierra Leone whether at home or abroad, especially those at home who face the harsh day-to-day realities. Theirs, ours is a special love that perhaps we never even knew we had.

© Malaika Cheney-Coker. 2008.

Nataša's Freetown Encounters - Part 3 - Uncle Kalonko

Uncle Kalonko

It's my first night of nightclubbing in Freetown. We drive to Chez Nous, it's a meeting point, I am being introduced to some men by my friend. We roll down the car windows. One is »my uncle«, says my companion. »He has a buddha belly,« she says and stretches out her hand through the car window to give it a rub. It's a little bit provocative, but cute. She's like that all the time. We don't get out, we are already late so we move on.
Then we're off to Atlantic at the Lumley beach restaurant and night bar.

There are a lot of people there, many overdressed beautiful, and very young women, who have actually come to work. There are a lot of expats, and and some of them with the beautiful »working girls«. We stand in the middle. I feel a bit uncomfortable, exposed, self-conscious, unfamiliar. I stand straight. The Irish guy I came on the same flight noticed me, when I walked in with my friends, and came over with a vibrant »hi,« and extended arms, which patted me and hugged me, as if we were old friends. After all it was quite a rough flight, which connected all of us passengers, I guess. We tried to land twice in Monrovia, but not enough visibility, and then I don't want to mention the hovercraft journey as half of the people were sick, it was a windy summer night, in the rainy season. Yes, then we made a give-me-five gesture. We are both from Europe after all. Then he was off for more fun, more beer and company. It was Friday night, after all.

»Look at you, you've just come, and already you know people here,« laughs my companion. She is beautiful. Men literally drone around her, like bees on honey. It's not a coincidence, she plays with her predispositions, which she has been given in abundance, intellectually, and I watch her, and try to learn from her how to dress, how to express my femininity. Well, I am in a simple dress, black with white dots. I am not as bad as some young white volunteers in shorts and long t-shirt, and tewa sandals, who are having a good time nevertheless. No, I definitely don't want to look like them, I am in a dress. And I am older as well, I couldn't be like them, even if I wanted to.

I am being introduced. The usual questions arise. And explanations, where Slovenia is. Some men are good looking and fit, and some have the so called buddha bellies or borbor belles. Many of them know each other, Freetown is a small place. They are all proffesionals, businessmen, ingeneers, lawyers, and such.

I start chatting with one, he's a buddha belly guy, and quite short. Not that men here are tall. Soon he says: »So, how do you say you're beautiful in Slovenian?« he asks.
»Lepa si,« I answer. »Why do you ask?« I ask.
»Just interested,« he answers.
»Do you want to use it on me?« I ask. I am quite straight forward at times. And also not so inexperienced anymore.
»Well, yes,« he says. »We should go to Lakka this weekend together, to the beach, to have some grilled fish,« he says.
»Maybe,« I say. I smile. It's quite a usual proposal around here. But it's all just too transparent for me.

We soon move on to Old Skool, and there I dance with Patrick.

Nataša's Freetown Encounters - Part 2 - Alpha

This part is fiction, any resemblance to true characters is accidental .

Alpha

The evening was approaching, it was dusk. She just greeted her taxi driver friend, when someone from behind called her name. »Who else knows me now?« went through her head. She had been there for only a week. She turned around and saw a black Mercedes, one of the many of various conditions and ages on Freetown streets, stop in the middle of the road. This one was mud stricken, but new. It must had been driven on one of the many mud roads which in the rainy season substitute fun you get in Disney amusement parks, as the one to Lakka she had been to earlier in the day.

Its driver was half hanging out of his car and then climbed out of his seat and stood next to it. It was Alpha. She met him last year. They met a couple of times. But then he went back to Europe, and so did she. He stood there, and looked at her, like she was new. She walked over to his car and stopped in front of him, suddenly aware of her heavy backpack, hanging down one of her shoulders, of the plastic bags in her hands, of what she was wearing. His eyes glinted, it was just a flicker of a moment. His dreads were hidden under a cap, he had earrings, more than one, a heavy silver necklace with a silver dragon, a thick silver bracelet, a big silver ring. She recognized most of his jewelery from last year. He was trendy and youthful, but not young. He was not someone she would pick out from a group of men, not by style, not by appearance.

»What are you doing in town, I didn't know you were here,« his voice was loud, energetic. He sounded offended.
Suddenly she felt guilty, for no apparent reason. It was the way he said it. They only exchanged a couple of very brief mails, asking about how they were doing. No big explanations, not many words, never with him.
»We were not really in touch, were we?« she rhetorically asked.
He smiled to himself, somehow inwardly. It seemed as an agreement to what she said.
»Why have you come back?« he suddenly asked.
»I am working here,« she replied. Her short answer was followed by a moment of silence.
»Where are you staying?«
»Down there,« She waved vaguely towards the street at the bottom of which was her temporary home.
»Where, there?« and looked at a youth centre on the corner. His expression was saying, oh God not something so down the budget. »Are you alone?« he asked.
»What is this? An interrogation?« she felt it was getting a bit far.
There was more silence, and another inward smile.
»Can we meet?« he asked.
She thought. »I am quite busy.« She said it in a very formal tone. Her manner became strict, she somewhere found the authority she uses with children, when she knows they have to take her seriously. She was under control.
»Yes,« he said, in a small timid voice.
»Let me take your phone number,« She said, deciding not to give him hers. She pulled out her cell phone from the top pocket of her backpack. She held it in her hands, a nice fancy European Ericsson, with a video and camera and many lovely functions, which some time later got stolen. He looked at it, they were standing close.
»So, give me the number,« she said, holding it in her hand, ready to store it into her phone.
»Which have you got, Comium?« he asked.
»Celtel, just give me whichever.«
»033,« and then stopped. His right arm was resting on the top of the open car door. He looked up towards the sky, he seemed to be in deep thought.
»So, what, have you forgotten it?« she asked. She was a bit rude, and aware of that.
He continued, and stopped again. All of a sudden her phone turned into a live flapping fish fighting for life. It slipped from her hand, she fumbled after it, while it slid down against her body, and managed to recatch it at her bosom the last moment before it fell and crushed, crouching, her plastic bags swaying, her backpack slipped down to the elbow. She recomposed herself, as if nothing happened.
»Are your hands sweaty?« he asked. Now he was rude, his voice was loud. His car was full of silent immobile men, was it his friends, work mates or relatives? She looked at them, tried to find eye contact with either of them, to say we are all human, with our weaknesess. She wanted to dissolve her embarrasment. But they pretended they were not there, they had a blank expression, it was none of their business. They were mere passengers.
»Yeah, it's hot,« she said, and uncomfortably readjusted the backpack, swayed her body, and brought it back to initial position.
»So, are you going to tell it or not?« She regained at least part of her control. She was getting impatient, now she wanted this scene to end.

He told her the rest of the numbers, she pressed the digits on her Ericsson, and even before she saved it she was off, passed him, going around the car. »Enjoy the rest of your day,« she said not smiling, not nicely, very formally, turning around, just before she went down the street.

He stood still at the car door, then finally got all inside and drove off down, somewhere towards Aberdeen. She turned to the youth centre, walked through the entrance gate, towards one of the plastic tables with chairs, and sat down. She ordered a coke, and sipped it slowly, while the night approached.