Arousing in Senegalese the desire to discover their country, such is the credo of Ziggy Faye, a young vlogger, adventurer but above all entrepreneur.
It was following a trip that took him to Malaysia to Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and then to Ghuanzhou in China that his desire to explore his country was born. He therefore decided to launch the ‘one weekend, one city’ initiative.
“The love of Senegalese culture came to me quite naturally because I had the chance to grow up between Dakar and Toukar which is a village where there are plenty of cultural events that take place there”, explains- he at the BBC.
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Resign from my job to promote my country
Its social media content portrays the beauty of Senegal’s sights and cultures. For him, it is also regarding showing the different facets of Senegalese communities.
This desire that grew in him finally pushed him to resign from his job “to take to the roads of the world. »
“The transition happened naturally because logically if you decide to stop something you would have to do something else to replace that thing and when I decided to resign I had to show my mother that entrepreneurship was possible”, says the young Senegalese, with a smile on his face.
Ziggy is no longer limited to criss-crossing Senegal for pleasure. He decides to make his passion his livelihood. A choice that seemed crazy at first is structuring to the point of becoming a good deal.
Ziggy is one of ten content creators from Africa and the Diaspora chosen by Instagram to collaborate with Meta as part of the Visa To Africa campaign.
Indeed, Ziggy Faye is one of ten content creators from Africa and the Diaspora chosen by Instagram to collaborate on the Visa to Africa campaign.
According to Meta, he appropriates the tools of Instagram to show a new authentic and seductive face of Africa.
According to figures from the World Bank, Senegal recorded a total of 1,376,000 number of tourists who joined the country of Teranga (which means hospitality in Wolof, a language widely spoken in Senegal). The Emerging Senegal Plan (PSE) aims to welcome three (03) million tourists per year by 2023.
The Senegalese authorities have taken several measures to boost the competitiveness of tourism in the country. They thus proceeded according to a report by the National Agency for Statistics and Demography (ANSD) published in 2020, to a “reduction of the tax on hotel services by reducing the VAT from 18% to 10%. »
“Added to this is the abolition of the entry visa and the 50% reduction in airport taxes”, continues the document.
However, the covid 19 crisis has dealt a serious blow to the tourism sector in Senegal. The health crisis has led to the temporary closure of airports, although Senegal is less affected than European countries, for example.
Ziggy Faye still remembers the first paid trip he organized. “During my first organized excursion, which paid off, I was filled with a sense of pride and a sense of accomplishment because I didn’t think it was possible,” he recalls.
“When I had just started this project, it was a rather local fight, because I wanted to create among the Senegalese, the desire to travel in their Senegal as I did myself”, explains he. Although its main target was the Senegalese, its clientele has become much more diversified over time.
“Today the clientele is in fact mixed, very cosmopolitan, with diversified profiles that come to us from Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, France, the United States, from all over the place,” he says. -he.
However, his success story has not always been smooth sailing. He had to face some obstacles related to the life of an entrepreneur.
“People do not respect their commitments because in Senegal we are not very contractual,” he laments.
Between “transport partners who rent you buses, or hotel partners who tell you at the last minute we can no longer give you 40 rooms, we can just give you 30 because we have more room”, Ziggy Faye do not give up.
These few odds did not dampen his determination. On the contrary, he learns from it, learns to adapt.
