I read with excitement all over the web as the doctor who caught the ebola virus and was flown back to the United States had been healed. I don't know what warrants my excitement because as Africans we still haven't found a way of dealing with this deadly virus yet. I am happy there has still not been a major reported case of the ebola virus in Ghana where i am. I usually hear on the radio once in a while that someone is being quarantined in a hospital for a suspected case of ebola later it turns out to be a hoax. Measures Ghana has put in place includes suspending all international conferences for the time being as well as guarding its entry points to prevent entry by people suspected to be carrying the ebola virus. These are all good measures and i sincerely hopes it works. From the time i heard about the outbreak of this deadly virus in Liberia, i have been particularly concerned about the impact this disease would have on the tourism industry.
All the stories i have read on this disease since the outbreak has tagged it as a "west African disease" which is not helping matters in any way. Ghana amongst other west African nations receive an influx of tourists all year round. Tourism revenues has been a big earner for the Ghanaian economy and i dare say that a huge chunk of this revenues come from foreigners because for every tourist center i have been to in this country, foreigners are charged twice as much because they are deemed non-nationals. We can then add the fancy hotels, restaurants, parks and public places of entertainment which are closely associated with the tourism industry that is where we know foreigners especially Americans and Europeans are really supporting Ghanas tourism industry. I recently visited a museum (a blog post on that coming soon) and when i was asked to sign the guest book, most of the visitors that had been to the tourist site for the past two months were either European or American. Therefore if major contributors to travel/tourism industry in west Africa do not want to come for fear of ebola virus then there would be a guaranteed decrease in tourism revenues.
Ask most Africans why they don't go on holiday and there would be a unanimous "I can't afford it" answer. If we as Africans can't afford tourism, revelling, camping, sightseeing, backpacking and what have you then we must be willing to go the extra mile to make our countries safe, comfortable, clean and crime-free for those who can afford it and are willing to spend at our tourist sites. Whiles desperately trying to find the cure for ebola ourselves, we must also make our tourist destinations attractive to receive more visitors anually. But knowing Africa the way i do, it won't take long before i see it in the media that African leaders are 'pleading' with the American government to provide the serum that cured Dr Brantly for African patients to use. Americans have cured their own, it is left for us Africans to do same and i fervently pray this happens soon.
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