A positive image for Africa.

Africans constantly complain about the persistent negative images of the continent in the Western press. The moment there is a bit of violence in a remote African state and the whole continent becomes 'a dangerous place to visit'. Because of the troubles in Zimbabwe, tourists are cancelling their trips to South Africa, East Africa and even, so we gather, countries such as Morocco which are thousands of miles away!

We have often taken issue with editors of Western papers, requesting them not to tar the whole continent with the same brush, to show discrimination in their reporting and to make it clear to their readers that by and large, Africa is one of the safest tourist destinations in the world. They shrug their shoulders and say "that's the way it is, bad news crowds out good news."

Now, at least as far as Britain is concerned, the boot is on the other foot. Anyone who has had access to newspapers, radio or television will know the UK has been going through the wars. First there was the BSE or 'mad cow' disease, then a series of horrific train crashes followed by the floods and now the country is in the grip of a foot and mouth epidemic. Britain's country side is littered with corpses of cattle, sheep and pigs. The air is saturated with the smell of burning animals and enormous pits are being dug to bury whole herds.

Britain's farming community has been hit very hard indeed. But of even greater concern to the government is the impact of the negative publicity generated by these calamities on tourism.

Britain is the fifth largest tourist destination in the world. Tourism earns around [pounds]166n annually. Millions of jobs depend directly on the tourist invasion which begins around this time of the year. The countryside, particularly around the scenic areas of Devon and Cornwall and the Lake District are heavily dependent on tourism -- both local and from abroad.

The British government and the tourism industry have been deeply worried that negative stories and apocalyptic pictures appearing in US and European media will scare away visitors. At the time of writing this piece, bookings for the usually busy Easter period were well down and cancellations were flooding in. Potential visitors want to know if people can catch foot and mouth, how much food to bring with them, do they need vaccinations, is the water safe to drink and a host of similar questions.

Those of us living in London and other cities cannot understand what the fuss is all about. The foot and mouth epidemic, devastating as it is to farmers, is confined to specific areas. Unless you actually visit those sites, you are unlikely to even know that a major crisis is in place.

But the view from outside the UK, thanks to the media, is of an entire country plagued with infectious diseases, crashing trains and floods of a Biblical proportion. No wonder holiday makers are cancelling their bookings and even local tourists are looking elsewhere for their break.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has blamed "exaggerated reporting" in the foreign media for the UK's tourism decline. Welcome to the harsh world of negative publicity, Mr Blair! We in Africa have had to live with it for at least 50 years.

But unlike many of our governments which lament the dire impact of negative media publicity and wring their hands helplessly, the Blair government has decided to fight fire with fire.

Ministers have been charged with promoting internal tourism. They will be expected to take their holidays in British resorts and other tourist sites. A massive poster and advertising campaign, both internal and external has already begun.

The Prime Minister has taken time off to talk to foreign ambassadors and enlist their support for British tourism. He has met with foreign correspondents and urged them to write balanced reports The government has launched a billion pound publicity blitz to convince the world that contrary to what they read in their papers and see on their TV screens, Britain is open for business and holidays. Major PR companies the world over have been hired to spread the good news. Television and film stars, sports personalities and other celebrities have all been enroled in the effort to sell Britain abroad.

That all this frenzied activity will pay off there is little doubt. Visitor numbers might be down but the tourism industry will not suffer near fatal damage. It might even work the other way and persuade people who would otherwise not have thought of visiting Britain to do so.

Perhaps there is something in this for us to learn. How many times have African countries, losing tourism business due to negative publicity, taken it upon themselves to aggressively sell their countries? When have we seen Heads of State going out of their way to drum up business? Where is the massive publicity campaign to improve the image of Africa?

We cannot continue to leave the image of Africa in the fickle hands of bored copyeditors in the Western media. We must fight to present Africa in its true, glorious colours. To do so, we need to form an Africa-wide organisation whose task will be to counteract negativity and replace it with a positive, shining image of our great continent.