About Heritage and Routes
A memory operator, not a tourism operator. Based in Cotonou. Accountable here.
Heritage and Routes is a memory tourism operator working from Cotonou, Benin, across the former Slave Coast countries — Benin, Togo, Ghana, with extensions into Nigeria where the angle demands it. We design and accompany small-group programmes (4 to 10 travellers) for clients who want a serious editorial-operational frame around their journey. Our editorial line is held by our founder, Fèmi.
Who we work with
For Operators
For Institutions
For Press
Fèmi Kochoni — founder, and the person who travels with you
Founder & Cultural Programs Director · Tour Director · Cotonou, Benin
Fèmi has led cultural journeys across Benin, Togo, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire for fifteen years. He works as a Tour Director for Odysseys Unlimited and Grand Circle / Overseas Adventure Travel, two of the leading American small-group operators, directing groups of twelve to sixteen travellers across three countries at a time, and he heads cruise-ship ground operations in Benin: for the 2026 season he directed five of the seven calls at Cotonou, with shore excursions for Seabourn, Fred. Olsen and Swan Hellenic among others. His guest satisfaction over those years has stayed between 95 and 99 %.
He holds a degree in African Studies (history, civilisations, literature) from the Université d'Abomey-Calavi, trained as a certified guide in cultural and memorial tourism, and worked for several years alongside Professor Honorat Aguessy at the Institut de Développement et d'Échanges Endogènes in Ouidah. He speaks six languages — French, English, Yoruba, Fon, Bambara and Ewe — which is what lets a conversation in a convent or at a border post happen without an intermediary. He is trained in first aid and emergency response.
At Heritage and Routes he holds the editorial line, designs the programmes, and accompanies most of them himself. Cotonou is not a metaphor: it is the address, and the relationships with elders, priests, scholars and the Ministry are relationships of years.