Research paper
African diaspora tourism - How motivations shape experiences

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2021.100565Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Deals with diaspora tourism within the historical context of African slavery and ancestry.

  • It attempts to identify the dimensionality of diaspora tourists' motivations.

  • The four motivations significantly affected the evaluation of the diaspora homeland destination.

  • Destination evaluation, satisfaction, place attachment, and future intention of diaspora tourism were tested.

Abstract

Diaspora tourism offers potential benefits for emerging African destinations that are rarely associated from traditional mass tourism - preserving historic sites, creating a sense of place and increasing awareness of the dark history of slavery, particularly amongst upcoming generations. Noting the importance of managing diaspora tourism effectively, this in-depth empirical investigation identifies whether the motives of diaspora tourists explain their evaluations of Ghana as a destination, satisfaction, place attachment, and future travel intentions. The study concludes that four of the five motivational dimensions have a significant influence on evaluations of the diaspora homeland destination, with escape being the exception. The study contributes to knowledge by providing a comprehensive analysis of the dynamics of diaspora tourism.

Introduction

In an increasingly polarized world where globalization is being challenged, diaspora tourism offers a potential channel for shared historical continuity and for the promotion of cultural understanding between continents. The phenomenon connects a diasporic community with an ancestral/migrant homeland through shared social capital (Coles & Timothy, 2004; Hughes & Allen, 2010; Li, 2019). Diaspora tourism connects the past and the present and offers a responsible counterweight to prevailing forms of tourism which may perpetuate cross-cultural misunderstandings, notably Safari trophy, hunting and voluntourism (Raymond & Hall, 2008). It also aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) by promoting the preservation of authentic heritage in destination settings (Addo, 2011; Lev Ari & Mittelberg, 2008). Building on several decades of investigation into diasporic tourism (e.g. Bruner, 1996; Zhu, 2020), an alignment with the UNSDGs can support Africa's emergence from neglect to one of the world's fastest growing tourism regions. However, the phenomenon needs accurate and reliable measurement.

The global migrant diaspora population exceeded 232 million in 2003, up from 77 million in the 1960s (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 2015). By 2019, the estimate was 272 million (United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, 2019). With its rapid growth and prevalence across many national economies, diaspora tourism has significant global potential for destinations. Diaspora tourism offers particular opportunities for multicultural societies with widespread “hyphenated” racial and national identities (e.g., Afro-Caribbean) (Mensah & Williams, 2015; Yankholmes & McKercher, 2015).

The current authors have identified substantial research gaps through a comprehensive literature review. First, most discussions about the sustainable tourism concept have emphasized ecological and environmental sustainability and have neglected the fostering of peace, renegotiation of heritage, and promotion of responsible cross-cultural interactions (Ramkissoon, Weiler, & Smith, 2012). There has been inadequate research on diasporic, ancestry, and roots tourism as integral components of cultural heritage (Boukhris, 2017; Dillette, 2021). Second, visits to diaspora homelands have been impeded by various external forces including poor living standards, different social norms and values, and inhospitable political environments (Coles & Timothy, 2004; Iorio & Corsale, 2013). Despite such constraints, an intrinsic desire is evident amongst diaspora communities to reconcile with their homeland. Diaspora tourism can fulfill intrinsic and extrinsic goals. However, Yankholmes and Timothy (2017) noted that repeat visitation is uncommon because of a gap between the initial motivations for travel and the realities of the diaspora tourism experience.

Third, the tourism sector can benefit from an enhanced understanding of diaspora tourist motivations. The exponential growth of diasporic populations has accelerated remittances to ancestral homelands including expenditures across the tourism and hospitality industries (Huang, Hung, & Chen, 2018; Li & Chan, 2017; Li & McKercher, 2016). The World Bank (2019) for example projects remittances from diaspora communities to low and middle income countries to reach between $551 billion and $597 billion by 2021. An understanding of the motivations of migrant populations may help to explain their decision-making and purchasing behaviors. Fourth, many previous investigations of tourism have incorporated measurement constructs associated with visitor motivations and satisfaction, destination evaluations, place attachment, and future travel intentions (Kil, Holland, Stein, & Ko, 2012; Prayag, Suntikul, & Agyeiwaah, 2018; Ramkissoon et al., 2012). However, while various constructs and concepts have been proposed, the potentially complex interrelationships have not been empirically tested for specific niches (Huang, Haller, & Ramshaw, 2013; Huang, Ramshaw, & Norman, 2016; Iorio & Corsale, 2013). There is still a limited understanding of diaspora tourist motivations, satisfaction, place attachment, and future travel intentions.

The current researchers contend that a better understanding of diaspora tourist motivations, destination evaluations, satisfaction, place attachment, and future travel intentions offers the prospect of promoting justice, peace, and inclusivity as elements of sustainability. Explaining the interactions between pre-travel, in situ, and post experience evaluations, suggests that diaspora tourists can provide a vehicle to alleviate the prevalent “us against them” exclusionary attitudes between members of the diaspora and residents (Yankholmes & Timothy, 2017). Other researchers have noted that diaspora tourism provides a potential link between the past and the future (Bandyopadhyay, Lin, & Lin, 2008; Boukhris, 2017). In this context, diaspora tourism offers a potential niche for understanding and preserving heritage and identity as well as contributing to sustainable tourism (Coles & Timothy, 2004; Yankholmes & McKercher, 2015).

This paper proposes a model to understand the motives of diaspora tourists to Ghana as potential explanations for destination evaluations, satisfaction, place attachment, and future travel intentions. The researchers draw upon social identity theory to illustrate the importance of socially shared identities as a driver for travel, and on classical tourist motivation theories including push-pull and the travel career ladder (TCL). The researchers have responded to calls for an enhanced understanding of the sociopsychological nature of a) diaspora tourism demand, b) the dynamic process of creating memorable diaspora tourism experiences, and c) limitations associated with circumstances prevailing in the homeland (Li, McKercher, & Chan, 2020; Otoo, Kim, & Choi, 2021). Previous studies have not examined the interrelated factors accounting for diaspora tourist experiences.

Despite the evident knowledge gap, there has been no empirical examination of the structural relationships associated with the multidimensionality of motivation and its crucial role in understanding destination experiences and their influence on future diasporic travel intentions. The current study aims to: (1) identify motivations that influence diaspora destination evaluations; (2) examine the structural relationships between destination evaluations, satisfaction, and place attachment; and (3) identify the effects of satisfaction and place attachment on future travel intentions. The set of constructs modeled in this study (i.e., motivations, destination evaluation, satisfaction, place attachment, and future travel intentions) is grounded in a cognitive-affective behavioral system, which is meaningful for a sustainability discourse within diaspora tourism (Prayag et al., 2018).

Section snippets

Theoretical and conceptual background

According to classical sociopsychological approaches, tourism motivations are shaped by push and/or pull forces that cause actions towards a goal (Dann, 1981). The push-pull concept and the TCL are notable theory-based approaches to understanding tourism motivations. Pearce and Lee's (2005) five-step TCL model posits that travel motivations are constructed hierarchically according to relaxation, safety and security, relationship-building, self-esteem and development, and self-fulfillment. Such

Study context and setting

African diaspora tourism is typically associated with the transatlantic slave trade between 1500 and 1900 when over 12 million Africans were transported to the Americas, principally from what is now Angola, Togo, Benin, and Ghana (formerly known as Gold Coast). The major slave trading nations established slave trading posts and forts in Africa over four centuries, particularly along the western coast. Standing as a permanent memorial to the transatlantic slave trade in modern Ghana are three

Demographic profile and travel-related characteristics

The frequency analysis of respondent demographics revealed that 43.4% were aged 45–50 years and 57.8% were female. Approximately half (50.1%) were married and 48.4% attained a college or university level education. With regards to occupation, 21.7% were employed in the education sector and 19.1% were professionals. More than half of the respondents (64.4%) possessed African ancestry (at least 5th generation diasporans). The highest annual household income percentage range was the United States

Discussion

It has been noted that diaspora tourism is a bricolage of several alternative approaches to tourism, including ethnic, pilgrimage, dark, and justice tourism. It also provides an important medium for communicating contemporary intercultural heritage. This study is novel by exploring the conceptual relationship amongst motivations, destination evaluations, satisfaction, place attachment, and future travel intentions by extending the cognitive-attribute behavior model into the context of diaspora

Credit author statement

Felix Elvis Otoo, Conceptualization, Methodology, Data curation, Investigation, Formal analysis Original draft preparation, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization. Seongseop (Sam) Kim, Conceptualization, Funding, Original draft preparation, Writing, Reviewing. Brian King, Writing, Reviewing, Conceptualization.

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