notes on educational disciplines
CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW
This section shall explore the literature to understand the scope and definition of Tourism Promotion, the different approaches and institutions involved in promoting domestic tourism as well as the history, geography culture, tourism infrastructure and potentials in Limbe
1.1. Scope, Definition and Approaches of Tourism Promotion
Promotion is a broad term that includes advertising, personal selling, public relations, publicity and sales promotion activities such as familiarization tours, give away, trade shows, point of purchase and store displays. Basically, promotion activities include the creation of demand for a product or service. To sell a product, it is necessary to attract attention, create interest and desire and get action. Thus, tourism promotion can be defined as every action carried out to motivate the consumption of tourist products.
The following reasons explains why there should be a focus on the domestic markets apart from the fact that the domestic market currently provide significant value to an economy, it also has untapped values and potentials for growth. Moreover, the domestic tourist provides the base load for the international market in the sense that support of the local industry by local population can realize improved quality in products and services, maintenance of occupancy levels and ultimately the confidence of international visitors.
Tourists have grown more sophisticated and knowledgeable about different destinations and tourism products. There is an increasing demand on promotional agencies to provide adequate information. The growing demand for information has facilitated the shift in promotional and marketing strategies to semi-public National Tourism Organization (NTOs) because they tend to be more entrepreneurial, more responsive and more aware of business trends.
Given the importance of domestic tourism, various approaches and structures have been adopted by different countries to promote tourism in general and domestic tourism in particular. Many countries have created NTOs to take care of the marketing and promotional aspects of tourism and in most cases, the NTO is a statutory board and has a degree of autonomy from government in its budget and decision-making powers and these can be public, semi-public or private.
It is important to note that the current trend around the world is towards semi-public institutions which involve partnership between the private sector and the government. For instance, North America and Europe have used the semi-public NTO structures for a long time, and many developing countries such as Chile, Egypt and Costa Rica are moving toward this direction. Other structures for the promotion of tourism include National Tourism Administration (NTA), NTO, private associations, and regional or local bodies.
In many developing countries and in countries where tourism is in the transition stage, the government’s role in tourism is strong (Eastern Europe and Cameroon). In such a situation, the main institution promoting tourism is the government, as most agencies are out for business. In countries such as in Europe, North America and East Asia, the balance of power for tourism promotion has shifted in favor of the NTO and private industry.
This trend toward public-private partnership in tourism recognizes the important contribution that private industry can make to government promotional efforts. The shift in emphasis towards private initiatives does not mean that there is no longer a relevant role of government in tourism promotion.
As can be noticed, there is a market difference in tourism promotion structures of larger and developed countries and smaller developing countries. Developing countries and countries in transition tend to have greater involvement of the government in tourism development and promotion. The NTAs in these countries often play a stronger role and funding often comes solely from the public sector.
At the same time, developing countries, especially smaller ones, tend to have fewer public resources to devote to tourism promotion, thus leveraging private sector involvement and funding can be a crucial step for strengthening promotional activities in smaller countries.
It is important to note that the promotion done by NTOs is usually a nationwide campaign designed to present a unified image of the country and focuses on the international market. Domestic and regional marketing are to the country’s local tourism agencies.
The experiences of the five countries below may serve as useful models of public-private cooperation, for countries like Cameroon to draw on, in redesigning their own promotion structures. These countries include:
Hong Kong, whose tourism association HKTA is a semi-public national tourism organization responsible for promotion and marketing activities. It has a 12 member Board of Directors appointed by the government, 17 overseas offices and a staff of 367 and has as functional activities the following:
- to implement promotional and marketing camping,
- to promote tourism product development,
- to coordinate public and private sector activities of the travel industry,
- to advice the government on tourism-related matters. For HKTA, 95% of funds are drawn from government and 5% from the private sector.
Ireland, whose main agency responsible for tourism promotion and marketing activity is the Irish Tourist Board, which is an executive agency in the department of tourism. Other agencies include the Council for Education, Recruitment and Training (CERT), an executive agency dealing with the education and training of tourism personnel.
In New Zealand, the New Zealand Tourism Board (NZTB) established in 1991 as the marketing body for New Zealand tourism sector. The Tourism Marketing Networks (TMN) is a public-private partnership developed to facilitate New Zealand tourism. Its budget is funded as follows; 72% from government, 24% private contribution and 4% from commercial programs.
Also, in New Zealand, the domestic travel industry makes up the largest component of its tourism industry. It is similar to other export industries in the sense that its domestic market provides the foundation for business activity, and expansion into serving overseas markets. In 2003, New Zealanders spent a total of 7.98 billion dollars on domestic travel and 42% of overnight trips were made for the purpose of taking a holiday, 32% to visit family and friends and 16% for business. While the South Africa’s domestic market constituted a total of 93 million trips with a total value of 47 billion Rand in 2002/2003 and according to the DEAT/SA Tourism, research indicates that there is definitely an opportunity for growth.
In Australia, Australians took 73.6 million domestic overnight trips in December 2006 with a total value of 35.4 billions dollars.
In Singapore, apart from the Ministry of Trade and Industry, a national government agency that overseas tourism policy and whose main functional activity is to formulate and implement national tourism polices, there is also the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), a statutory autonomous board whose role has gradually expanded beyond the purely promotional function. The government of Singapore draws 100% of its tourism budget from revenue generated by hotel bed night tax.
In South Africa, the main agency is the SATOUR (South African Tourism), a statutory body charged with the international marketing and promotion of South African tourism, has as function, product development, hotel grading and training.
In line with what the above mentioned countries have developed as strategies for the promotion of tourism, the Cameroon government has opened a tourism office in Paris in charge of promoting Cameroon in the international market (inbound tourism). Also, there are travel and tourism agencies that somehow contribute in the promotion of tourism, but their efforts are limited and worse still, none of them specializes in the promotion of domestic tourism.
In Cameroon, there are three categories of tourism agencies: first, second and third categories and their domain of activities varies enormously.
First category agencies sell individual or collective tours, flight tickets and/or offers car rental services and usually requires a caution of 5 million CFAF. Most agencies around town are travel agencies, as this is the most common category.
Second category agencies provide services that include transportation, hotel, and all kinds of tourist events and organize individual or collective tours. This is the kind of tourism agency which we intend to set up and it requires a caution of 10 million CFAF.
Third category agencies (Tour operator) are direct partners to product providers or providers of parts that constitute product. They prepare their own products, or complete those that have been provided by official organizations of tourism. They are whole producers/distributors; the caution required for setting up this category is 15 million CFAF. (see appendix VI).
As can be observed, the different categories of agencies have different functions or services to offer to the public. Their function or objective is not only to facilitate travel arrangements but also to conceive and develop tourist products that meet the needs of travelers no matter the reasons behind their tours. (Choice and reason of travel).
Travel, whether for business or pleasure, requires arrangements. The traveler usually faces a variety of choices regarding transportation and accommodation, and in the trip for pleasure there are a variety of choices regarding the destinations, attractions, and activities. The traveler may gather information on prices, value, schedules, characteristics of the destination and available activities, directly investing a considerable amount of time on the internet or money on long-distance telephone calls to complete the trip’s arrangements. Alternatively, the traveler may use the services of a travel agency, obtaining all these arrangements at no cost or for a small fee (Goeldner and Brent Ritchie, 2003).
Owing to the fact that the tourism industry is immersed in a highly competitive environment as a result of consumer’s direct access to the purchase of its products through the internet, in order to maintain a competitive market position and active business success (Camis?n et al, 1996; Ritchie and Ritchie, 2002), the quality of the services offered, the skill of employees in performing the task, the use of new technologies, the capacity to innovate and continued training of personnel, among others, form a platform of actions for agencies to achieve a competitive position (Lopez and Veciana, 2004) and implicitly generate customer value. This idea is also shared by KauGuep, 2003, who holds that agencies’ efforts to improve their performances in relation to their competitors must be channeled towards improving their service quality and being more effective in the commercialization of their products.
With regard to products, a tourism agency has three main functions: advice, intermediation and production of journeys (goods and services). Most travel agents specialize in the intermediation function; they act as middleman between Tour Operators and clients, partners (providers) and clients. (These partners can be hotels restaurants, flight companies and transport companies. (Meli, 2003). It has been observed that most travel agents in and around town specialize in the sales of flight tickets because it is most profitable (Tchokotcheu, 2003).
But the adoption by providers of new communication technologies constitutes a serious threat as this has an enormous impact on the intermediation function of tourism agencies.
It is in this light that T. Peuyeu (2006) writes that air companies, through modern technologies, have noticed that they can sell their products directly and cheaper, compared to the commissions paid to travel agencies. These put most travel agencies in a delicate situation and hence, one is forced to ask the following questions: how are travel agencies which generally specialize in the function of intermediation going to manage this predicament? Will they survive the elimination of airline commission? In addition, ever since the internet gave consumers the ability to plan and book their own travel, there have been speculations surrounding the viability of traditional agencies. (Goeldner and Brent Ritchie, Op; cit).
Tourism agencies offer services that are valued by the majority of clients, hence instead of concentrating on the intermediation function and specializing in the sales of flight tickets for commissions, they should diversify their productions and hence the design and marketing of tourist products; town tour, excursions and circuits which all constitute a set of composite products called a package, should be their principal activities. (Mfeque, Ntyam, 2003). And the relationship with other providers (Hotels) should be solely professional since they both want to maximize profit and have as principal objective the satisfaction of the client (tourist) ( Meli, Op. cit).
In the literature of travel and tourism agencies, especially those in Cameroon, much has not been said. However, theoretically, the Cameroon government has a guideline for the creation of travel and tourism agencies.
Section 9 of Law No. 98/006 of 14 April 1998 to regulate tourism activity states that the exploitation of a tourism establishment is subordinate to obtaining an exploitation license issued by a competent authority. Also, Section 15 of the same law stipulates that tourism establishments and traveling organization structures can be classified following national or international norms. Furthermore, Section 17 of the said law stipulates that every person exploiting a traveling organization structure, tourism establishment, classified tourist sites, must produce statistical documents following a model fixed by the administration in charge of tourism.
Moreover, Sections 18, 19 and 20 respectively stipulate that none can exercise the function of director in a traveling organization structure, tourism establishment or tourist site if he does not have the professional qualifications prescribed by the present regulation. Every person exercising any tourist activity regulated by this law is subjected to control carried out by administrative agents, and is obliged by same to provide all information necessary for the accomplishment of their mission and the authorization, agreement, or license provided by this law can be withdrawn or its exploitation suspended. (See appendix V)
After a review of what others have written on tourism agencies and taking cognizance of what MINTOUR has in stalk for these agencies, one can assert that several aspects regarding tourism agencies have been developed. However, they have failed to indicate how these agencies contribute in the development of tourism. The tourism sector is quite broad, involving several segments in which domestic tourism is an integral part. This study intends to provide precise ideas as to the role of tourism agencies in the development of tourism in general and domestic tourism in particular, with special emphasis on the Limbe municipality.
This section shall explore the literature to understand the scope and definition of Tourism Promotion, the different approaches and institutions involved in promoting domestic tourism as well as the history, geography culture, tourism infrastructure and potentials in Limbe
1.1. Scope, Definition and Approaches of Tourism Promotion
Promotion is a broad term that includes advertising, personal selling, public relations, publicity and sales promotion activities such as familiarization tours, give away, trade shows, point of purchase and store displays. Basically, promotion activities include the creation of demand for a product or service. To sell a product, it is necessary to attract attention, create interest and desire and get action. Thus, tourism promotion can be defined as every action carried out to motivate the consumption of tourist products.
The following reasons explains why there should be a focus on the domestic markets apart from the fact that the domestic market currently provide significant value to an economy, it also has untapped values and potentials for growth. Moreover, the domestic tourist provides the base load for the international market in the sense that support of the local industry by local population can realize improved quality in products and services, maintenance of occupancy levels and ultimately the confidence of international visitors.
Tourists have grown more sophisticated and knowledgeable about different destinations and tourism products. There is an increasing demand on promotional agencies to provide adequate information. The growing demand for information has facilitated the shift in promotional and marketing strategies to semi-public National Tourism Organization (NTOs) because they tend to be more entrepreneurial, more responsive and more aware of business trends.
Given the importance of domestic tourism, various approaches and structures have been adopted by different countries to promote tourism in general and domestic tourism in particular. Many countries have created NTOs to take care of the marketing and promotional aspects of tourism and in most cases, the NTO is a statutory board and has a degree of autonomy from government in its budget and decision-making powers and these can be public, semi-public or private.
It is important to note that the current trend around the world is towards semi-public institutions which involve partnership between the private sector and the government. For instance, North America and Europe have used the semi-public NTO structures for a long time, and many developing countries such as Chile, Egypt and Costa Rica are moving toward this direction. Other structures for the promotion of tourism include National Tourism Administration (NTA), NTO, private associations, and regional or local bodies.
In many developing countries and in countries where tourism is in the transition stage, the government’s role in tourism is strong (Eastern Europe and Cameroon). In such a situation, the main institution promoting tourism is the government, as most agencies are out for business. In countries such as in Europe, North America and East Asia, the balance of power for tourism promotion has shifted in favor of the NTO and private industry.
This trend toward public-private partnership in tourism recognizes the important contribution that private industry can make to government promotional efforts. The shift in emphasis towards private initiatives does not mean that there is no longer a relevant role of government in tourism promotion.
As can be noticed, there is a market difference in tourism promotion structures of larger and developed countries and smaller developing countries. Developing countries and countries in transition tend to have greater involvement of the government in tourism development and promotion. The NTAs in these countries often play a stronger role and funding often comes solely from the public sector.
At the same time, developing countries, especially smaller ones, tend to have fewer public resources to devote to tourism promotion, thus leveraging private sector involvement and funding can be a crucial step for strengthening promotional activities in smaller countries.
It is important to note that the promotion done by NTOs is usually a nationwide campaign designed to present a unified image of the country and focuses on the international market. Domestic and regional marketing are to the country’s local tourism agencies.
The experiences of the five countries below may serve as useful models of public-private cooperation, for countries like Cameroon to draw on, in redesigning their own promotion structures. These countries include:
Hong Kong, whose tourism association HKTA is a semi-public national tourism organization responsible for promotion and marketing activities. It has a 12 member Board of Directors appointed by the government, 17 overseas offices and a staff of 367 and has as functional activities the following:
- to implement promotional and marketing camping,
- to promote tourism product development,
- to coordinate public and private sector activities of the travel industry,
- to advice the government on tourism-related matters. For HKTA, 95% of funds are drawn from government and 5% from the private sector.
Ireland, whose main agency responsible for tourism promotion and marketing activity is the Irish Tourist Board, which is an executive agency in the department of tourism. Other agencies include the Council for Education, Recruitment and Training (CERT), an executive agency dealing with the education and training of tourism personnel.
In New Zealand, the New Zealand Tourism Board (NZTB) established in 1991 as the marketing body for New Zealand tourism sector. The Tourism Marketing Networks (TMN) is a public-private partnership developed to facilitate New Zealand tourism. Its budget is funded as follows; 72% from government, 24% private contribution and 4% from commercial programs.
Also, in New Zealand, the domestic travel industry makes up the largest component of its tourism industry. It is similar to other export industries in the sense that its domestic market provides the foundation for business activity, and expansion into serving overseas markets. In 2003, New Zealanders spent a total of 7.98 billion dollars on domestic travel and 42% of overnight trips were made for the purpose of taking a holiday, 32% to visit family and friends and 16% for business. While the South Africa’s domestic market constituted a total of 93 million trips with a total value of 47 billion Rand in 2002/2003 and according to the DEAT/SA Tourism, research indicates that there is definitely an opportunity for growth.
In Australia, Australians took 73.6 million domestic overnight trips in December 2006 with a total value of 35.4 billions dollars.
In Singapore, apart from the Ministry of Trade and Industry, a national government agency that overseas tourism policy and whose main functional activity is to formulate and implement national tourism polices, there is also the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), a statutory autonomous board whose role has gradually expanded beyond the purely promotional function. The government of Singapore draws 100% of its tourism budget from revenue generated by hotel bed night tax.
In South Africa, the main agency is the SATOUR (South African Tourism), a statutory body charged with the international marketing and promotion of South African tourism, has as function, product development, hotel grading and training.
In line with what the above mentioned countries have developed as strategies for the promotion of tourism, the Cameroon government has opened a tourism office in Paris in charge of promoting Cameroon in the international market (inbound tourism). Also, there are travel and tourism agencies that somehow contribute in the promotion of tourism, but their efforts are limited and worse still, none of them specializes in the promotion of domestic tourism.
In Cameroon, there are three categories of tourism agencies: first, second and third categories and their domain of activities varies enormously.
First category agencies sell individual or collective tours, flight tickets and/or offers car rental services and usually requires a caution of 5 million CFAF. Most agencies around town are travel agencies, as this is the most common category.
Second category agencies provide services that include transportation, hotel, and all kinds of tourist events and organize individual or collective tours. This is the kind of tourism agency which we intend to set up and it requires a caution of 10 million CFAF.
Third category agencies (Tour operator) are direct partners to product providers or providers of parts that constitute product. They prepare their own products, or complete those that have been provided by official organizations of tourism. They are whole producers/distributors; the caution required for setting up this category is 15 million CFAF. (see appendix VI).
As can be observed, the different categories of agencies have different functions or services to offer to the public. Their function or objective is not only to facilitate travel arrangements but also to conceive and develop tourist products that meet the needs of travelers no matter the reasons behind their tours. (Choice and reason of travel).
Travel, whether for business or pleasure, requires arrangements. The traveler usually faces a variety of choices regarding transportation and accommodation, and in the trip for pleasure there are a variety of choices regarding the destinations, attractions, and activities. The traveler may gather information on prices, value, schedules, characteristics of the destination and available activities, directly investing a considerable amount of time on the internet or money on long-distance telephone calls to complete the trip’s arrangements. Alternatively, the traveler may use the services of a travel agency, obtaining all these arrangements at no cost or for a small fee (Goeldner and Brent Ritchie, 2003).
Owing to the fact that the tourism industry is immersed in a highly competitive environment as a result of consumer’s direct access to the purchase of its products through the internet, in order to maintain a competitive market position and active business success (Camis?n et al, 1996; Ritchie and Ritchie, 2002), the quality of the services offered, the skill of employees in performing the task, the use of new technologies, the capacity to innovate and continued training of personnel, among others, form a platform of actions for agencies to achieve a competitive position (Lopez and Veciana, 2004) and implicitly generate customer value. This idea is also shared by KauGuep, 2003, who holds that agencies’ efforts to improve their performances in relation to their competitors must be channeled towards improving their service quality and being more effective in the commercialization of their products.
With regard to products, a tourism agency has three main functions: advice, intermediation and production of journeys (goods and services). Most travel agents specialize in the intermediation function; they act as middleman between Tour Operators and clients, partners (providers) and clients. (These partners can be hotels restaurants, flight companies and transport companies. (Meli, 2003). It has been observed that most travel agents in and around town specialize in the sales of flight tickets because it is most profitable (Tchokotcheu, 2003).
But the adoption by providers of new communication technologies constitutes a serious threat as this has an enormous impact on the intermediation function of tourism agencies.
It is in this light that T. Peuyeu (2006) writes that air companies, through modern technologies, have noticed that they can sell their products directly and cheaper, compared to the commissions paid to travel agencies. These put most travel agencies in a delicate situation and hence, one is forced to ask the following questions: how are travel agencies which generally specialize in the function of intermediation going to manage this predicament? Will they survive the elimination of airline commission? In addition, ever since the internet gave consumers the ability to plan and book their own travel, there have been speculations surrounding the viability of traditional agencies. (Goeldner and Brent Ritchie, Op; cit).
Tourism agencies offer services that are valued by the majority of clients, hence instead of concentrating on the intermediation function and specializing in the sales of flight tickets for commissions, they should diversify their productions and hence the design and marketing of tourist products; town tour, excursions and circuits which all constitute a set of composite products called a package, should be their principal activities. (Mfeque, Ntyam, 2003). And the relationship with other providers (Hotels) should be solely professional since they both want to maximize profit and have as principal objective the satisfaction of the client (tourist) ( Meli, Op. cit).
In the literature of travel and tourism agencies, especially those in Cameroon, much has not been said. However, theoretically, the Cameroon government has a guideline for the creation of travel and tourism agencies.
Section 9 of Law No. 98/006 of 14 April 1998 to regulate tourism activity states that the exploitation of a tourism establishment is subordinate to obtaining an exploitation license issued by a competent authority. Also, Section 15 of the same law stipulates that tourism establishments and traveling organization structures can be classified following national or international norms. Furthermore, Section 17 of the said law stipulates that every person exploiting a traveling organization structure, tourism establishment, classified tourist sites, must produce statistical documents following a model fixed by the administration in charge of tourism.
Moreover, Sections 18, 19 and 20 respectively stipulate that none can exercise the function of director in a traveling organization structure, tourism establishment or tourist site if he does not have the professional qualifications prescribed by the present regulation. Every person exercising any tourist activity regulated by this law is subjected to control carried out by administrative agents, and is obliged by same to provide all information necessary for the accomplishment of their mission and the authorization, agreement, or license provided by this law can be withdrawn or its exploitation suspended. (See appendix V)
After a review of what others have written on tourism agencies and taking cognizance of what MINTOUR has in stalk for these agencies, one can assert that several aspects regarding tourism agencies have been developed. However, they have failed to indicate how these agencies contribute in the development of tourism. The tourism sector is quite broad, involving several segments in which domestic tourism is an integral part. This study intends to provide precise ideas as to the role of tourism agencies in the development of tourism in general and domestic tourism in particular, with special emphasis on the Limbe municipality.
Source: Fako Tourism Board
Victoria now Limbe, a seaside resort city in the South West Region of Cameroon, is located at the foot of Mount Cameroon (Mt Fako) from which Fako Division derived its name. This city is situated along the West African Coast in the Ambass
Bay within the Gulf of Guinea. It covers a surface area of 549 km². It is bounded by undemarcated territorial limits in the north by the Buea rural council, in the east by Tiko rural council, to the west by the Idenau rural council and in the south by the Atlantic Ocean. The Limbe coastline stretches from Batoke in the west to Man O’ War
Bay in the east.
Before the arrival of Portuguese missionaries to this region, a few Bakweri indigenes from Buea had started doing farming here. They had a chief called King Williams of Bimbia. This region extended from the border line of the littoral to the Bakassi region which was called Bimbia, with administrative headquarters at Bonabile. Trade by barter was practiced among indigenes and gradually this area grew up into a commercial centre called Liwo La Fo (meaning “beach market”), which refers to the present Limbe
Down
Beach.
The Atlantic port city of Limbe, formerly known as Victoria, was founded by a British missionary, Alfred Saker, in 1858. The city lies on the southwest coast of the Republic of Cameroon. King William of Bimbia, then a well known friend of Saker and the Baptists, sold outright to them the whole of the Ambass
Bay with its islands and a strip of the coastline 16km long to a depth of 8km from the seashore. Saker asked Queen Victoria to allow the settlement be named after her. She gave her consent and thereafter, the settlement was called Victoria. This name lasted nearly 124 years, and was later changed to Limbe on 18 May 1982 by presidential decree.
The new name was derived from the river that runs through the city (Limbe
River), which also acquired its name from one engineer, Limburg, who constructed the first bridge at the entrance of the city. This name has met resistance from the natives who have their native name for the town as Foo (“far away distance”).The town was given the name Foo because it was a missionary settlement which served as a refugee settlement for unwanted persons (criminals, wizards, witches etc). Persons sent on exile from all neighboring villages had the sympathy of missionaries and also the advantage of receiving some form of education.
The prominent relief feature in this region is the Mount
Cameroon with an altitude of about 4 100 m above sea level. This mountain is found in a subsistence zone along the main Cameroon fracture. The Mountain has a length of about 50 km, a width 35 km covering an area of about 1750 km². This mountain rises from the sea and contains many small volcanic cones, about 75 of them, with the principal one having an altitude of about 1713 m and called Etinde or Small Mount Cameroon whose most recent eruption was in 1999, and is an active volcano. Also, the coastline of Limbe stretches from Batoke in the east to Man O’ war Bay in the west.
The main types of soils found in this area are the volcanic and sedimentary soils deposited during cretaceous tertiary era and by marine transgressions of the quaternary era. The volcanic soil comes from cinder and ashes deposited during eruption of Mount
Cameroon and are very fertile and good for agriculture.
The climate that dominates this area is the equatorial climate of the Cameroon type, characterized by heavy rains above 1,500mm per annum. It is characterized by two seasons: wet and dry. The rainy season lasts for about 8 to 9 months during which we have abundant rains, and a very short dry season. The temperatures are constantly high, above 25°c. The rainfall is generally very heavy, an average of 250mm and atmospheric humidity throughout the year is high, and an average of 82.5% .This is one of the only regions of the country which receives maritime influences. Table 2 and figure 1 in appendix 1 show the climatic condition of Limbe.
The slope facing the sea receives the monsoon winds at right angles, thus causing a lot of rain and a micro climate at Debundsha, with 10,000 mm of annual rainfall. Debundsha also has constant high temperatures. Moving up the mountain, temperatures reduce, and this climate favors the development of dense equatorial vegetation. From the base of the mountain, the vegetation has been destroyed to create settlement and farmland, especially business plantations. As one moves towards the summit, at about 915 m, there is an evergreen forest which extends up to the altitude of 1700 m and here, it gives way to typical Savannah vegetation which goes up to 3000 m with temperatures of 3°C. After this height the vegetation is made of lichens and mosses.
The population of Limbe is 84,500 (INS 2001 estimates) and predominantly Christian 80%, muslin 10% and traditional 10%. The main languages spoken here include English, French, Pidgin English, Bakweri, Isu, Douala, Malimba, Mokpwe, Wumboko, just to name a few. The ethnic groups include Bakole, Bakweri, Bamboko, Duala, Limba, Mungo, with Wovea and Isubu being the most renown. The Isubu (Isuwu, Bimbians), are an ethnic group who inhabited part of the coast of Cameroon along with other coastal people, like the Wovea. They belong to the Cameroon Sawa ethnic groups.
They were one of the earliest Cameroonian people to get in contact with the Europeans and over two centuries, they became very influential traders and middlemen. Under King William I of Bimbia and young King William, the Isubu formed a State called Bimbia. The name Bimbia came as a result of the fact that when a descendant of Isuwu named Mbimbi became king, the people began to refer to their territories as Bimbia. The Wovea like the Isubu live south of Mount
Cameroon at the Gulf of Guinea in the Fako Division.
The town of Limbe is a mixture of Isubu, Wovea and other ethnic groups. Their settlements lie largely along the coast or just inland. Fishing is their major form of occupation even though subsistence farming is also practiced.
Limbe is “Africa’s melting pot” since it is a multi-secular metropolitan city with many religious bodies, a cultural diversity of ethnic groups and a variety of traditions, rites, rituals and believes. It is widely and commonly believed by indigenes that the peace that reigns and the riches of the “Limbeans” come from the gods of the mountain and the sea. This is the reason why the indigenes of this locality still pay annual tributes to the respective gods.
It is believed by these indigenes that Epassa Moto, half person, half god, lives right inside the bowels of the mountain and is responsible for each eruption, which is an indication that the god is angry and that certain rituals have to be performed to appease the god without which, an important person would die. At the same time, it is believed that the lava that is sent out of the mountain is the mountain god’s way of replenishing the fertility of the soil.
The god of the sea is also capable of affecting the lives of the “Limbeans”. Once a year, when the tides are high, the people of Bota land go by boat to a shrine made of stones to sacrifice food to the sea goddess, Nyango Na Muna (mother of the child who provides abundant fishes). Prayers and blessings are often organized in her name whenever there is an offshore incident like the annual canoe race at Down
Beach, in November.
In arts, the Isubu as well as the Wovea participate in the Ngondo, traditional festivals of the Douala to which all Cameroon’s coastal people are invited. The main focus is communication with the ancestors and asking them for guidance and protection for the future; the festival also includes armed combat, beauty pageants, canoe races and traditional wrestling. This population is also good in handicraft, they produce musical instruments, sculptures out of wood, baskets, potteries, cane chairs, and all these illustrate the Bakweri man’s attachment to the work of arts.
Cameroon is world famous for its agricultural production and Limbe is the centre of the oil industry. The port of Limbe is one of the four commercial ports in Cameroon. This is a region where plantation farming is done in large scale. The fertile volcanic soil on the lower slopes of Mount
Cameroon coupled with the favorable climatic conditions make this region suitable for the cultivation of many cash and subsistence crops. There are big corporations of banana, rubber, oil palm and tea plantations. Apart from these large business plantations, there also exist smaller peasant farms which are mainly for food crops. The major agro-industrial undertakings here include CDC (Cameroon Development Corporation) PALMOL, SOCAPALM, HEVECAM, OCB (Organisation Camerounaise de la banana), Tole Tea, Tiko rubber and Soap industries, the Ombe brewery, Moliwe factory and the Oil refinery at cape
Liembo (SONARA).
 
Pictures1: showing view of CDC plantation (source Ebude Amate Mabel)
Cultural tourism includes urban tourism, visiting historical or interesting cities, especially their cultural heritages. Limbe is a historical city and has much to offer culturally: the way of life of the natives, cooking (dishes), music and dance (male dance), traditional festivals; the Wovea and Isubu ethnic groups participate in the annual Ngondo festival. Also, the Presbook handicraft and gallery Yom’s, can be visited, with much to offer and portrays the Bakweri man’s attachment to arts work.
Coastal tourism involves tourist products located along coastal environments and due to the limited extent of coastal environments, they are often the first places to experience tourist congestion for a region. As a seaside resort, Limbe is one of the two coastal towns which are popular and located along Cameroon’s 400 km coastline. Here, sports like fishing and swimming can be practiced. Also, one can enjoy a ride in engine boats and contemplate nature.
Sport tourism can be practiced in the Fako Division; for instance, golf can be played at Tiko golf course, the Mount
Cameroon race, an international competition, run in Buea some, 31 km from Limbe. Also, football and tennis can be played in Limbe.
Agro tourism, which is farm-based tourism, helping to support the local agricultural economy. It can be practiced in the CDC plantation, Tiko banana plantation, rubber plantation and Delmonte.
Ecotourism: sustainable tourism which has minimal impact on the environment. Some ecotourism sites include the Limbe
Botanic Garden, Mile
Six
Beach, Mount
Cameroon, 300 km from Limbe, the Limbe
Zoological Garden, etc.
Picture-2: River Limbe passing through the botanical garden(source: Ebude Amate Mabel)
Infrastructure
infrastructure includes a set of installations indispensable for the development of tourism. They can be divided into two: basic and tourism infrastructure.
Airports: Cameroon has 14 airports, including, that of Tiko, situated some 20 km from Limbe.
Seaports: There are a total of 4 maritime ports in Cameroon: Douala, Limbe, Kribi and Tiko. The port of Limbe is one of the four commercial ports in Cameroon. This port is very important because during a good portion of the colonial era, it was the main port to the West
Cameroon
State.
Road network: The Limbe municipality has a network of national roads linking it to Buea, Tiko and Idenau and narrow collectors linking the quarters, most of which are tarred.
Telecommunication and postal network
Limbe is linked to the rest of the country by a good telephone network among which are: the fixed phone of CAMTEL, Mobile private telephone networks (MTN and ORANGE). Also, Limbe has a post office which operates on daily bases, private operators like, interurban transport, micro finance corporations, which facilitate the transfer of money in and out of Limbe.
Health facilities
Besides the Limbe
Provincial
Hospital, other health care canters are present in and around Limbe. They include the Tiko Cottage Hospital the Bota
Annex
Hospital.
Water and electricity
The electricity of the Limbe urban council is a monopoly of AES (SONEL). Over 90% of homes in Limbe are connected to the SONEL’S conventional grid. As far as potable water is concerned, the SNEC network ensures water supply in and around the Limbe municipality.
These include:
• Lodging establishments
• Restaurant establishments
• Leisure establishments
• Tourism agencies
In Limbe, there exist numerous hotels that vary from one star to three stars and they can be classified as follows:
- 3 STAR HOTELS. There are two in number and include:
Atlantic Beach Hotel which offers 52 air conditioned rooms,
Seme New Beach Hotels, with 80 single and standard rooms.
-2 STAR HOTELS. There are two in number and include;
Holiday Inn which has 35 rooms,
First International Inn, with 40 air conditioned rooms.
-1 STAR HOTEL: three in number and include;
Park Hotel Miramare with 63 standard rooms,
King
Williams
Hotel with 26 rooms and,
Victoria Guest House which has 23 rooms.
Other recommended establishments include Coastal Beach Hotel with 25 rooms and Bay Hotel with 23 rooms. It is worth noting that prices vary from 5000 to 30 000 CFAF a night and that most of the establishments have swimming pools, restaurants, tennis courts, private beaches, night clubs and bars, just to name a few.
Restaurant establishments
The restaurants in Limbe include Atlantic
Beach, Seme New Beach Hotel, First International Inn, Bella Restaurant, Etisah Beach Hotel.
The leisure establishments present in Limbe include the CDC senior staff club, Sonara club, (private), Cabarets like La Fiesta, Botanic Garden and night clubs like Calypso night club, Limbe Palace, Seme New Beach night club, Park Miramare night club, and Black and White.
They include Euro Voyage, Kerlj, Cameroon Rev Tours Bakingili, Fiffa Voyage Limbe and the Mt Cameroon Ecotourism Board.
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