By Dr. Vicki L. Otaruyina, Founder & Group CEO, The Africa Guide
As direct air connectivity between Africa and the Caribbean begins to move from aspiration to reality, The Africa Guide will host a timely virtual panel examining what must happen next to build a sustainable tourism corridor between both regions.
The virtual panel, titled “The Africa–Caribbean Tourism Partnership: Connecting Two Sides of the Diaspora for Mutual Tourism Growth,” will take place on Saturday, June 27, 2026.
The event begins at 8:00 AM AST/EST, 1:00 PM WAT, and 2:00 PM CAT via Zoom.
The conversation comes at a defining moment for Africa-Caribbean relations. Following an initial Air Peace flight between Nigeria and Barbados in December 2025, the service resumed in May 2026 and continues in June with a third flight.
This emerging air connection represents an important step towards strengthening tourism, trade, cultural exchange, and diaspora reconnection between Africa and the Caribbean.
However, opening an air route is only the beginning.
The long-term success of the connection will depend on sustained traveller demand, destination readiness, competitive tourism packages, coordinated marketing, cultural understanding, investment, and collaboration among airlines, governments, tourism authorities, tour operators, media platforms, and diaspora organisations.
The upcoming panel will therefore move beyond celebrating shared ancestry to examining how Africa and the Caribbean can develop the partnerships, products, narratives, and infrastructure required to support reciprocal tourism growth.
Hosted and co-moderated by Dr. Vicki L. Otaruyina, Founder and Group CEO of The Africa Guide, alongside co-moderator Abatesi Peace, Digital Innovation and Immersive Experiences Assistant at The Africa Guide, the event forms part of The Africa Guide’s 2026 Thought Leadership Panel Series.
The Africa Guide is a diaspora-first storytelling, tourism, culture, and engagement platform created to connect Afro-Caribbean and African-descendant communities to Africa through credible, culturally grounded, and multi-sector storytelling.
According to Dr. Otaruyina, the timing of the panel is especially significant.
| “The route between Africa and the Caribbean is beginning to open. Our responsibility now is to build the market, partnerships, tourism experiences, and traveller confidence needed to sustain it.“Africa and the Caribbean share deep roots, but shared history alone will not create shared growth. We must intentionally develop the routes, policies, products, stories, and economic opportunities that allow people from both regions to meaningfully experience and invest in one another,” she said. |
The panel will feature Dr. Kerry Hall as Keynote Speaker and Panellist. Dr. Hall is a tourism development strategist, historian, and international consultant whose work spans Barbados, the Caribbean, and beyond, including her tenure as former CEO of the Barbados Tourism Product Authority.
She brings deep insight into tourism development, African heritage, Caribbean identity, and the historical foundations required to build a meaningful Africa-Caribbean partnership. Her contribution will help frame how shared history can inform future tourism policy, cultural reconnection, and regional collaboration.
Ghana will be represented by Akwasi Agyeman, Tourism Strategist and Diaspora Engagement Leader.
As former CEO of the Ghana Tourism Authority, Agyeman played a key role in the landmark Year of Return and Beyond the Return campaigns. These initiatives demonstrated how heritage, national positioning, diaspora engagement, and destination marketing can be combined to generate international attention and economic participation.
His contribution will offer a policy-to-market perspective on how African destinations can prepare to welcome Caribbean travellers, and how the lessons from Ghana’s diaspora tourism strategy could inform wider Africa-Caribbean engagement.
Other confirmed panellists include David F. Roberts, MSc, Africa-Caribbean Investment Strategist and Partnership Builder; Dr. Madonna Doyle, Communications Architect and Founder of Words Matter; and Charles Nkaivu, Youth Tourism Advocate and Digital Tourism Voice.
The session will be co-moderated by Dr. Vicki L. Otaruyina and Abatesi Peace, Digital Innovation and Immersive Experiences Assistant at The Africa Guide.
Together, the speakers will explore several urgent questions.
How can the emerging air connection between Nigeria and Barbados be translated into sustained tourism demand?
What tourism packages and experiences must be created for African and Caribbean travellers?
How can both regions market themselves more effectively to one another?
What roles should governments, airlines, tourism authorities, investors, media organisations, and the diaspora play?
How can storytelling, digital platforms, youth participation, and cultural intelligence help build traveller confidence and interest?
The panel will also examine the barriers that continue to affect Africa-Caribbean travel, including airfare, limited flight frequency, visa requirements, insufficient destination awareness, and the absence of coordinated tourism marketing.
The guiding message of the event is:
| “We share the roots. Now let’s build the route.” |
For The Africa Guide, the present moment offers an opportunity to move Africa-Caribbean tourism from emotional connection into structured and mutually beneficial engagement.
The route is beginning to open. The next task is to build the tourism ecosystem that will allow it to grow and endure.
Registration is now open at: https://bit.ly/africacaribbeantourism
The event is open to tourism professionals, aviation leaders, destination marketers, tour operators, travel entrepreneurs, investors, cultural leaders, media professionals, policymakers, students, diaspora organisations, and anyone interested in the future of Africa-Caribbean partnership.
Press Contact
Dr. Vicki L. Otaruyina | Founder & Group CEO, The Africa Guide
E: partnerships@theafricaguide.net | W: www.theafricaguide.net
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