Imagine if common images of going to Africa were dancing at Youssou N'Dour's nightclub in Dakar, venturing north of Timbuktu to the Festival in the Desert for three nights of sublime music at this annual gathering of the Tuareg community, or enjoying the ambience of Dar es Salaam before going by boat to Zanzibar for the annual Sauti za Busara (Sounds of Wisdom) Swahili culture Festival?

Cultural tourism leads to falling in love with Africa and her peoples, and creates some of the continent's best ambassadors back home. It also offers African countries tremendous economic growth potential, allowing them to earn much needed foreign exchange, employ local people, and attract a whole new kind of traveler. Cultural tourism can play a significant role in rebranding Africa as an attractive tourist destination.

Eddie Bergman is the dynamic new Executive Director of the African Travel Association (ATA), a travel and trade association promoting travel and tourism to and within the continent, since 1975. Bergman broadly defines cultural tourism as "anything involved in interacting with people or immersing yourself in local culture." This might include anything from visiting a home or school, touring a village, or attending a local sporting event or a music festival.

A recent Zanzibar Association of Tourism Investors report said, "In cultural tourism, visitors are attracted, fascinated and intrigued in what locals regard as ordinary."

Bruce Poon Tip is the Chief Executive Officer of G.A.P. Adventures, one of the leading specialists in "adventure travel." They offer over 1,000 different tour packages around the world. Tip explained, "the whole company is focused on cultural exchange between tourists and communities...It must benefit both." G.A.P. Adventures limit tours to eight to twelve participants to achieve a more intimate experience. They are against isolating people in hotel bubbles and always include experiencing local transportation for instance.

Tip reports that Africa is experiencing a major boom in the youth market. He also sees a growth in travel to the continent by the more experienced, high-end customer. Tip said that G.A.P.'s sales of African destinations grew by 156% in the last two quarters. Their product grew by 50% over this period and they added only cultural destinations.

G.A.P.'s biggest selling destinations in Africa remain Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Botswana, and South Africa. However, Tip says that "Cultural Kenya" is hot, and the organization now has "exploratory trips" going to Mali and Burkina Faso.

Just a quick survey of some of the major music festivals in Africa brilliantly illustrates the potential of cultural tourism. For example, the Sauti za Busara (Sounds of Wisdom) Festival in Stonetown Zanzibar that showcase Swahili music and culture, takes place every February. I was fortunate to cover the inaugural edition of the festival in 2004 for the nationally syndicated public radio series Afropop Worldwide. The few foreign visitors there and the thousands of locals enjoyed Zanzibari music-gorgeous, orchestral taarab, and more earthy ngoma - as well as Swahili artists from the mainland Tanzanian and Kenyan coasts, plus others from throughout East Africa. The Festival now attracts hundreds of foreign visitors and pumps up the local tourist economy at a traditionally slow time.

Director Yusuf Mamoud, the director of Busara Promotions, which produces the Sauti za Busara Festival, said job-creation is very important: "As an alternative and complement to East Africa's other tourist attractions (wild animals, Mount Kilimanjaro, pristine beaches and coral reefs), we are now seeing that the music and film festivals in Zanzibar are attracting a different kind of tourist and that these visitors to the islands are spending in a way that has more impact on ordinary people.

From hotel workers to drivers, guides, fishermen, market traders, artists, and crafts sellers, cultural tourists are boosting the grassroots local economy far more than the all-inclusive package tourists who pay for their holidays upfront in Europe and spend most of their time in bikinis next to the hotel bars and swimming pools of Kiwengwa."

Of course, cultural tourism does not exist in a box.

It's a shame that everyone only thinks about an african safari when they think of taking a trip to Africa.  But that is not to say that African safaris are not exciting! 

But while in Africa here are some things you can do:

1.  Learn about the african flag