Provocative ‘Go Back to Africa’ Travel Campaign Sees Early Success in Ghana
Photo Credit: A traveler on a Black & Abroad trip to Ghana in Dec. 2019, at the end of the country's Year of Return, receives her Ghanaian name. Black & Abroad
Skift Take
Much of the black travel movement is concerned with destinations that see few black visitors. Now one of the movement’s key companies is focusing on a decidedly black space: the African continent.
Almost a year later, Black & Abroad is still getting dividends from its provocative Go Back to Africa marketing campaign, designed to combat racism, diversify travel advertising, and help black Americans envision themselves on the continent. The boutique Atlanta-based company sells international trips and is a staple of the black travel movement.
The campaign was unexpectedly popular in Ghana, according to Black & Abroad co-founders Kent Johnson and Eric Martin, who said the majority of their upcoming trips are now on the continent. They are also in the early stages of considering more personalized ancestry trips to Africa based on DNA tests. Most recently, Johnson and Martin took a group of 20 to Ghana at the end of 2019, also known as Ghana’s Year of Return, a government initiative targeting the diaspora. The country has a decades-long history of encouraging black American visitation.
