Press kit
Everything you need to write about Heritage and Routes — clearly and accurately.
Fact sheet, founder bio, three ready-to-use pitch angles, and brand assets. For deeper access — festival accreditation, fixer service, expert interviews — see our For Press page.
contact@heritageandroutes.com1 · Fact sheet
| Name | Heritage and Routes (visual brand mark: Heritage and Routes) |
| What we do | Premium memorial tourism operator on the Slave Coast (Benin · Togo · Ghana · Nigeria). Operator-to-operator partnerships for premium agencies. Direct booking for private groups 6–14. |
| Founded | 2025. First commercial season: 2026. |
| Based in | Cotonou, Bénin (founder & cultural programs). Brussels, Belgium (operations & partnerships). |
| Geographic scope | Benin · Togo · Ghana · Nigeria (the historical Slave Coast). |
| Festivals covered | Vodun Days · Porto-Novo Mask Festival · PANAFEST + Emancipation Day · Hogbetsotso · Oguaa Fetu Afahye · Evala · Agbogbo-Za. |
| Working languages | English, French. Ground interpretation in Fon, Yoruba, Goun, Kabyè, Ewe, Twi, Fante, Akan, Ga. |
| Team | Founder + 4–6 ground partners per country (tradition holders, fixers, drivers, interpreters). Operator partners in France, Belgium, USA, UK on retainer. |
| Positioning | "Operators of memory, not operators of tourism." — Walk the routes. Listen to the silences. |
2 · Founder bio
Fèmi Kochoni — founder & cultural programs director
Based in Cotonou, Bénin
Short form (for captions, 50 words): Fèmi Kochoni founded Heritage and Routes in 2025 to bring a new ethical standard to memorial tourism on the West African Slave Coast. He works between Cotonou, Brussels, and the festival sites of Benin, Togo, and Ghana, in partnership with tradition holders and academic institutions across the region.
Long form (150 words): Fèmi Kochoni is the founder of Heritage and Routes, a Cotonou-based operator built for premium memorial tourism on the West African Slave Coast. After years working at the intersection of African cultural anthropology, heritage transmission, and high-end travel, he assembled a network of tradition holders, fixers, and academic partners across Benin, Togo, Ghana, and Nigeria — and built the operation as a deliberate counter-model to mass voodoo tourism: published ethical protocols, transparent contre-don to host communities, no commission revenue, no staged rituals. Heritage and Routes opened its first commercial season in 2026 with a portfolio of festival accreditations (Vodun Days, Porto-Novo Mask Festival, PANAFEST, Hogbetsotso, Fetu Afahye, Evala, Agbogbo-Za) and a private-group offer for travelers willing to come without spectacle. He divides his year between Cotonou, Brussels, and field.
For longer biographical context, his Heritage page on heritageandroutes.com — see /about/femi/.
3 · Three ready-to-use pitch angles
Angle 1 — Operator model
The first West African operator built on operator-to-operator partnership — not direct-to-consumer
Heritage and Routes does not sell to end travelers through advertising or commission-driven channels. The company works as a wholesale partner to established premium agencies (Smithsonian Journeys-type, Road Scholar-type, Odysseys Unlimited-type) and as a direct booking partner to private groups who find them by word of mouth. This is a deliberate structural choice: it keeps margin available for ground community contre-don, prevents pressure on tradition holders to perform, and lets the operator say no to stories that violate the ethical protocol.
Angle 2 — Ethical protocol
A published ethical protocol for festival tourism — readable by host communities, journalists, and clients alike
The operator publishes its ethical framework — what it photographs and does not, who grants permission, how contre-don is calculated and traceable, what happens to the archives produced — and treats the document as part of the deliverable. This is a counter-move against an industry where "respectful tourism" is a marketing claim without verification. Heritage and Routes invites journalists to audit the protocol, talk to host communities, and write critically. The first season (2026) is the test bed.
Angle 3 — Reframing voodoo
Reframing "voodoo tourism" — from spectacle to scholarship
The Western tourist imagination of voodoo (Hollywood pins-and-dolls; the Benin-as-witchcraft-frontier travelogue) has been an industry constant since the 1990s and reliably damages the religion and its practitioners. Heritage and Routes refuses that imaginary in its own product, brief, and press relations — and instead routes travelers and reporters through gardens of tradition holders, scholars, archives, museums. The result is a different kind of trip: slower, less photogenic, harder to consume — and accurate.
4 · Brand assets
Logos, photographs, founder portraits, and a complete press pack (PDF) are available on request — we serve them custom-cropped to your editorial format. Please write to contact@heritageandroutes.com with your needs and we respond within 72 working hours.
All assets are released under editorial license — no political, advertising, AI-training, or derivative commercial use without separate agreement.
5 · Press photos — free for editorial use
Six high-resolution photographs, cleared for editorial use with the credit © Heritage & Routes. No permission needed for press coverage of West African memorial tourism; for commercial use, write to us. Larger selections from our ~120-photo library are available on request.
Logo files (SVG + PNG): download the logo ↓
Open the press conversation
Tell us your media, your story angle, your deadline. We respond within 72 working hours with assets, expert availabilities, and accreditation feasibility.
contact@heritageandroutes.comFor press
Accreditation, fixer access, expert intro. Reach Fèmi directly.