Towards Ecotourism Promotion through a Destination Management System in Benin.

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Towards Ecotourism Promotion through a
Destination Management System in Benin.
Gautier K. AMOUSSOU National Coordinator
Abomey-Calavi, Bénin, Tel. [phone],
ecobenin_at_yahoo.fr www.ecobenin.africa-web.org
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General description

• Benin is a laic, peaceful, and democratic country
  contrary to most of its surrounding countries.
• Benin is a developing country located in West
  Africa, 114,763 sq. km.
• It shares borders with Burkina Faso, Niger,
  Nigeria, Togo and the Atlantic Ocean.
• The coastline is 124 km long across the south,
  with the land stretching from north to south for
  672 km from the Niger River to the Bight of
  Benin.
• With a population of around 7 million, Benin has
  an average population density of 55 people per
  square km, one of the lowest in West Africa.
• The pillars of Benins economy are agriculture,
  tourism, cotton, and palm products.
• The largest provider of employment is
  agriculture. The country's per capita income is
  approximately US370 per annum.

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Ecotourism potential in Benin

• Protected areas in the North 1,250,000 ha,
  20,000 species
• Forest reserves sacred forests 18,159 ha,
  2,940 forests

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Ecotourism potential in Benin

• Wetlands areas Ramsar sites (1017 1018)
• There are shores of lakes, lagoon, beaches,
  and many fishing villages, thermal springs, and
  lively markets.
• Bird watching

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Ecotourism potential in Benin

• Mountains and hills
• There are complex mountainous and hills with
  up to 650 m height
• Royal and Ethnographic Museums
• Village areas game viewing hippos, manatees,
  primates, pythons, etc
• The Slave Route
• This pathway is the original route the
  slaves walked from the centre of town to the
  coast to board the ships
• Feasts and events
• At national level
• la Gani in the North, Fête du Vodoun, le
  Festival du Danxomê, Festival Racines at
  Porto-Novo, Caletas
• At international level
• FITHEB, BOULEVART, Gospel et Racines,
  Quintessence

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Tourism trends in Benin
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Global arrival situation in Benin
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Tourist arrivals from Europe
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Tourist arrival from America
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Major Tourism/Ecotourism constraints

• low level of marketing and ICT using for tourism
  promotion,
• limited access to Internet and online
  registration systems,
• the elevated cost of the VAT,
• the elevated cost of the energy,
• the elevated tax on accommodations
• high costs of tourism investment,
• the lack of training and courses for hotel
  workers and guides,
• the absence of visibility of promotion actions at
  promoters and government levels,
• the absence of incitement to investment,
• the lack of tourism facilities,
• difficulties due to the internal transport,
• Expensiveness of the aerial transport with the
  monopoly of Air France,
• irregular distribution and the valorization of
  tourist attractions,
• absence of funding for private and NGOs
  initiatives,

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Setting up a Destination Management System
ECO-BENIN case study

• General mandate
• Ensuring better living standards of communities
  at local and national level through ecotourism
  and eco-development promotion as a sustainable
  management of natural resources.
• Objectives
• Provide technical assistance to communities to
  enable eco-development initiatives
• Carry out market studies and marketing programme
  elaboration with reference to ecotourism-related
  objectives
• Build capacity of and empower local communities
  to promote their natural potentialities through
  ecotourism
• Improve the education and training of relevant
  personnel (nature guides, tour operators,
  conservationists, etc)
• Promote best practices of Community-Based
  Natural Resources Management (CBNRM)
• Mainstream issues of poverty eradication and
  gender into natural resources management
  programmes and projects.

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Setting up a Destination Management System
ECO-BENIN case study

• Historical background
• The Benin Ecotourism Concern was created in
  1999 as a working group for nature promotion
  through ecotourism to establish and maintain good
  working relationship between local and
  international non governmental organizations,
  regional and international wildlife societies,
  travel industries, and other relevant bodies.
• ECO-BENIN funding partners
• local communities and voluntarism
• Confhôtel auberge (local private lodge in Benin)
• ECO-BENIN weaknesses
• No efficient marketing initiatives for ecotourism
  promotion
• Low capacity in self-funding
• Narrow partnership and networking group
• Lack of professionalism regarding communications

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ECO-BENIN team, working for Nature and
Communities Welfare
ECO-BENIN strengths Young, small, dynamic, and
multidisciplinary team Voluntary work of most of
the members
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Major on-going activities

• Creation and regular updates of a portal web on
  the ecotourism in Benin www.ecobenin.africa-web.o
  rg
• ECO-BENIN being composed of young voluntary
  graduates, the group functions until now with its
  own resources. The collection of data, the
  conception, and the realization of ECO-BENIN web
  site comes from self-funding resources.
• Regarding the progress done with the website,
  the group is now thinking about how to move by
  passing from the present static fashion of the
  web site to a dynamic web site so long as a
  system of management of the content as the SPIP
  (System of Publication by the Internet Shared).
  This will permit us to decrease our present
  difficulties of management and updating of
  information on the web site.
• Development of ecotourism circuits
• ECO-BENIN has just signed a partnership with
  Planète Urgence, a French NGO making the
  Interdependent Holiday promotion. This
  Association organizes the departure of volunteers
  wishing to participate directly in field
  activities. This will help us to train local
  guides mainly in Southern Benin so that they can
  
• 1) Conduct hikes while interpreting nature to
  eco-travellers,
• 2) Set up community-based ecotourism circuits
• Development and organizational management of
  ecotourism activities
• It is also a small project to be developed in
  partnership with Planète Urgence. It is to
  train local guides in ecotourism activities
  management at village level such as
• 1) Development of the local handicraft and
  activities bound to ecotourism
• 2) Accounting, management of the descended
  profits related to ecotourism activities and the
  local production merchandising,
• 3) Creation and management of camping

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Short-term challenges at ECO-BENIN

• ECO-BENIN has just prepared a project that
  aims to develop a competitive electronic
  marketing system at regional and international
  levels. The main activities of the project result
  in
• the creation of a communication mechanism with
  site-based stakeholders
• the definition of different stakeholders roles
  for ecotourism promotion
• the production and vulgarization of brochure,
  posters, CD-ROM, and electronic advertising
  supports
• the cooperation improvement with tourism
  agencies, local embassies and other stakeholders
  involved in ecotourism
• the improvement of the Internet advertising and
  vulgarization,
• the promotion of ecotourism products through the
  Web pages of international organisms of
  tourism/ecotourism.
• The project will also permit to reinforce the
  partnership between ECO-BENIN and similar
  organisms of which notably The International
  Ecotourism Society, World Tourism Organisation,
  the UNCTAD, Eco-club international, Ecotourism
  Society of Kenya, and Ecotourism Society of
  Nigeria.
• We are searching funds for this project so that
  it will start in 2006.

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Global strategies solutions

• A targeted marketing.
• It will be about orienting promotion actions
  towards targeted markets, that concerns countries
  with important flux towards Benin.
• Some specific promotion actions will address
  themselves to the local, under-regional,
  regional, international clientele and
  particularly to the African-American Diaspora.
  Efforts will be made to encourage the practice
  for multiple destination tourists.
• Facilitation measures improvement.
• These measures must facilitate the entrance and
  the exit of tourists in Benin. Effort have to be
  done to stop harassments at borders. Also, the
  Visa Entente must be reactivated and the
  project of African visa must be perfected.
• The widening of the air-traffic.
• The present monopoly of Air France cannot permit
  an efficient promotion of the Benin destination.
  The diversification of the aerial servicing is
  important in order to reduce the transport plane
  cost and increase tourist flux. It must be
  achieved by the concession of the approval to
  companies of aerial transports of world renown.

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Global strategies solutions

• Training and empowerment of tourism stakeholders
  
• It is imperious to elaborate and execute a
  program for training and perfection of tourism
  stakeholders. Aforesaid program will include the
  specific technical training and the general
  foreign language formation, the English, notions
  on management, marketing, data processing, tax,
  etc.
• Creation of the tourism sector
• Create the tourism sector will allow benefiting
  and encouraging measures to raise tourism
  services levels some of these measures are
• - The ordering of the tourism sector as the
  Government's priority
• This measure allows the tourism sector to
  benefit the first attention on behalf of the
  Government.
• - The specific investment code to the Tourism
  sector
• A specific investment code of the tourism sector
  has been elaborated and has been under
  finalisation. It offers important fiscal measures
  and other incitements in favour of the tourism
  sector.

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Global strategies solutions

• - A special credit affectation
• A special credit affection in favour of the
  sector will encourage the realization of tourist
  infrastructures of good quality and in sufficient
  quantity and will permit to intensify the
  promotion.
• Besides all above, the following solutions are
  recommended
• Characterization of the Benin destination
• Review of the VAT rate for hotels,
  establishments, restaurants and all sectors
  related to tourism
• Application of the industrial energy tariff
• Setting up of tourism/ecotourism promotion
  lobbies and monitoring Groups
• Giving great attention to the application of
  norms in restoration as well as to questions of
  the investment Code.

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Solutions at local level

• To represent poor communities and establish
  network with national and foreign tourism
  organisms
• To give means to the poor communities to take
  decisions in the tourism domain
• To bring a support to Private Enterprises,
  Community-based tourism enterprises and the
  casual sector,
• To identify the social projects susceptible to
  get the support from tourism enterprises and
  visitors
• To count and encourage the best practices in
  ecotourism establishment
• To adopt practices that offer employment
  possibilities to poor people.
• To work with several stakeholders to develop the
  local chain of provision

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