African tourism: Expatriates’ high costs for holidays and return home [5/5]

2024-08-22 22:04:12

Every summer, airports are flooded with people heading home to visit family. With overflowing shopping carts and noisy children, French families face financial challenges as they must pay for daily expenses and prepare for their return home.

Aminata lives in social housing in Paris. As a housekeeper for a large company, she struggles to raise money to buy a flight to Bamako. Indeed, as they say, it’s a little hot. To go to Africa, we have to make a donation to the United Insurance Company, and in addition, we have to save money, because Africa has become very, very, very expensive “, she explained.

A tontine is a collective savings system that allows families to finance a holiday in the country. Our association will have 20 to 40 peopleIf she To start, say in January, you must ask the person who is responsible for the money to be able to get the amount when he picks up the ticket in June », Aminata specified. Before adding: « It’s difficult, the house costs money and the children need to be fed. In addition to the tontine you must save €100 to €150 per month for the holidays. ».

Aminata had been preparing for this vacation for nearly two years: To purchase tickets only, 3 000 EUR», she recalled. Then you have to add money in case the kids get sick, gifts for parents, family members and sometimes even neighbors who visit often. ».

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Gift budget is too heavy

Aminata was one of the travelers whose trolleys were overloaded and whose luggage was overweight. But now that the gifts are over, she prefers to donate a little while she can: « Some people were not happy. They said: She is from France, but she only gave us 5,000 CFA francs. There, they thought we picked up money from the ground. ».

Germaine is a mother of four from Cameroon. She doesn’t go home to see her family every year. For her, the most important part is the gift budget: They expect gifts, perfumes, jewelry, handbags. For them, everything from France is always better. »

So in order to meet everyone’s expectations, Germain operates, has fairs and even associations: ” I have limited financial resources and cannot afford to pay for everyone. I try not to see everyone in my family because every time I visit someone, they ask me for a gift. ».

Aminata, for her part, prefers to finance trips to restaurants or group activities, such as going to the swimming pool. But it’s expensive, so much so that she sometimes asks friends to borrow money to cover her vacation budget.

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