« Women in Burkina Faso | Main | More photos from Burkina Faso »

April 01, 2006

Burkina Faso - tourist hotspot?

Just before I went to Burkina Faso, I was asked by Northstar Travel Media if I would be interested in updating the Burkina Faso chapter of their online “Intelliguide” travel guide. Strangely they were having trouble finding travel writers with much experience of Burkina…

I just finished the job yesterday, and it has been fascinating. It has been nice being asked to write about Burkina, and about some of the things there I know and love. But it has also given me an opportunity to look a bit more into other parts of Burkina that I know of and yet where I have never done the tourist visit thing. Now, I know Burkina doesn’t leap to the mind as a top tourism destination, but there is actually quite a bit of interesting stuff there – the wildlife parks, the mask festivals, the traditional villages and dances, the markets, and of course the famous Fespaco film festival. It strikes me that Burkina is under-developed as a tourism destination, and maybe there is room for an ethical tourism business to be started there.

Sharon, my contact at Northstar, has been very friendly, and if you are a travel agent, I can recommend you get in touch with them. I have particularly appreciated how, as well as just the facts about the destination, they look for input on appropriate etiquette and behaviour - something from my past experience of tourists in Burkina that seems to have been lacking in many people's preparation.

Unfortunately, as you will have noticed if you followed the link above, Northstar is a subscription service, and this means you won’t actually be able to get onto the website to read what I have written...

Unless of course you pay...

I know. Frustrating isn’t it?

Tags: africa burkina burkina faso tourism travel sahel travel writing

Posted by Keith at April 1, 2006 07:26 PM