For tour operators · B2B partner programmes · Discreet ground operations

For operators — work the West African coast with us as your ground partner

Your brand on the brochure. Our work on the ground. No consumer-facing competition.

Heritage and Routes operates as ground partner for premium B2B operators across the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Australia. We do not compete with our partners on consumer marketing. Our role is the depth — protocols with traditional authorities, scholar coordination, accommodation locks during festival weeks, pre-clearance at restricted sites. Your role is the relationship with the traveller.

Why a ground partner

What you do not have to build yourself

Building serious operational depth on the West African coast — Benin, Togo, Ghana, with selective extensions into Nigeria — takes years. The FENAVOB relationship at Vodun Days, the Awoamefia liaison at Hogbetsotso, the Asantehene protocol at Kumasi, the chieftaincy of Notsé at Agbogbo-Za, the access at Cape Coast Castle during PANAFEST — none of these are arranged through a tourism board phone call. They are arranged through years of presence, scholarly relationships, and demonstrated discretion.

We have that depth. We extend it to operators who want to programme West Africa seriously without building the infrastructure themselves. The relationship is structural: we are not a sub-contractor; we are the ground operation under your brand.

What we deliver

Operator-grade ground service across four countries

Our discipline

What we do not do

We do not run consumer marketing campaigns in your territory. Our editorial site (the one you are reading) speaks to direct-booking individual travellers as a small portion of our pipeline. We do not advertise to your existing customers, and we will not solicit them through channels we know you use.

We do not poach. If you bring us a client and they later return as a direct booking, we will route the booking back through your system unless you have released us. This is a written clause in our partnership agreement.

We do not over-promise. Our cornerstones are explicit about what we cannot deliver — initiated ceremony access, restricted Egungun sessions, private Asafo posuban interiors. We hold the same discipline in our operator briefs. If you need something we cannot do, we say so.

How we work together

From first conversation to first departure

Comparables — who already books West Africa programmes

For context, the operator universe we know

Premium B2B operators currently running West Africa programmes that touch the Vodun, the Slave Route, or the Asante traditions include — to our knowledge — Smithsonian Journeys (heritage editions), Road Scholar (educational programmes), Tauck Tours, GeoEx, Audley Travel, Mountain Travel Sobek, Wild Frontiers, Abercrombie & Kent, Voyageurs du Monde, Tirawa, and Maison de la Chine. We name them not as references — relationships are confidential where they exist — but to situate the operator tier we work with.

We do not currently work with budget operators, mass-market tour companies, or operators whose West Africa programmes are sold under twelve thousand US dollars per traveller (the segment is incompatible with the depth we operate at).

Let us talk about your West Africa programming.

First conversation, NDA optional, no obligation. We respond within 48 hours.