Otangani fishing village, a short boat ride from Gabon’s capital, has no running water or electricity but hopes to attract tourists.
Despite the soft white sands and wildlife of its parks, tourists are few and far between on the Pointe-Denis peninsula where the village is located.
On a recent Sunday morning, Kossi’s bar and restaurant, a stone’s throw from Otangani, was empty.
Elsewhere on the peninsula, wealthy Gabonese and expats from Libreville, who come to escape the city for a few days, stay in the few plush hotels.
Jet-skiing and quad biking are some of the attractions, but the village is on the edges of a national park with monkeys, buffalo and elephants.
“The park doesn’t bring us tourists and we want to develop community tourism,” guide Gerard Adande Avili said.
He has opened up guest rooms in his wood-built house overlooking the mangroves, with a view to encouraging “ordinary Gabonese people who don’t have much money but want to escape the capital, have a good time, return to their roots”, the 47-year-old said.
For now, few come to do his “royal hike” which covers an area that is the final resting place of one of his own forebears from the 18th century.
King Rapontchombo ruled over the Mpongwe people and allowed French colonists to settle.
From Libreville, getting to the area involves a 30-minute boat ride, a short crossing in a wooden fishing boat, followed by a short walk through the forest.
– ‘Inaccessible’ –
Foreign tourists are rare here and in other parts of Gabon, even though forests cover nearly 90 percent of the small central African country, which markets itself as the “last Eden”.
It currently has around 350,000 foreign visitors a year but wants to double that figure, a likely priority for the winner of Saturday’s presidential election, 19 months after a military coup ended decades of Bongo dynasty rule in August 2023.
“Whether it is the leaders or the population, we do not have a tourist culture because we have focused on oil,” Tourism Minister Pascal Ogowe Siffon said.
“And we have forgotten the tourist potential of our country, even though I say frankly that Gabon can live off its tourism,” the minister said.
But there are challenges.
“The main obstacle is the price of the plane ticket, which is very expensive and inaccessible, and the laborious visa formalities,” Amelia Da Costa Soares, 40, who co-owns the upmarket River Lodge hotel and restaurant in Pointe-Denis, said.
Despite its idyllic setting, the lodge is only open at weekends, apart from when it hosts seminars.
Travel operator Guichely Ngoma, from Libreville, is trying to offer organised trips and tailor-made tours into the country’s interior but said the poor road network was a problem.
“There are lots of beautiful places where you can’t go because there’s no access, even in a 4×4. It’s a problem that bothers us all, especially as Gabon is a really expensive destination,” Ngoma said.
But Ogowe Siffon, the tourism minister, argues that tourists with their heart set on a destination will always find the money, time and energy for a trip.
“Those who want to satisfy their curiosity manage, whatever the conditions,” he said, recounting how a group who came to observe gorillas in Loango Park opted to swim across a river rather than give up on the end goal of their excursion.
– ‘Enormous potential –
South of Loango, at a renowned spot between a lagoon and the ocean, wealthy fishing enthusiasts arrive by helicopter from Libreville to stay at the Sette Cama Adventure lodge for exclusive week-long stays costing 10,000 euros ($11,100).
“Demand exceeds supply,” Ogowe Siffon said, who is banking on the country’s “enormous potential”, its lush forests and 950 kilometres (590 miles) of coastline to develop “selective tourism” while also allowing the Gabonese to discover their country at affordable costs.
Adande, the guide, wants to develop eco-tourism to revive the villages on the peninsula where many young people have left for the capital, he said.
But, added his forester nephew Juste Loubangoye Ozavino, the difficulty is both “opening up to other communities and preserving the mystical side” of the peninsula.
