Tourism then and now

According to a published study of the sector, a 1964 Act of Parliament first set out the state's role in hotels, travel and a national tourist board, and a Ministry of Tourism was created in 1975. The same study lists hotels developed in this period, including the Paramount, Cape Sierra, Brookfields, Bintumani and Mammy Yoko.

Sources 137

Cape Sierra Hotel opened around 1970 on the bluff at the north end of Lumley Beach, with a pool and nightclub.

Sources 136

The 1980 OAU summit. Freetown hosted the Organisation of African Unity summit from 1 to 4 July 1980, and President Stevens became the organisation's chairman. The Washington Post reported that 60 villas had been built for visiting heads of state. The Bintumani Hotel was built for the same summit.

Sources 133, 134, 135

Holidays by brochure. Surviving 1980s tourist brochures advertised the Bintumani and Cape Sierra hotels and package holidays.

Sources 119

A hotel-industry report states that Sierra Leone received more than 100,000 visitors a year in the 1980s. Story of Salone has not found that figure in an official statistical series.

Sources 138

The war severely affected tourism. Freetown's three leading hotels, the Cape Sierra, Bintumani and Mammy Yoko, were used as headquarters by various factions, according to one historical account. The Bintumani was later refurbished by the Beijing Urban Construction Group and reopened.

Sources 135, 136, 142

Airport passenger counts include business and returning travellers, so they are not the same measure as tourist arrivals.

Sources 141

The 2011 Golden Jubilee book argues that the absence of mass tourism has left much of the coast unspoilt. It points visitors to Mount Bintumani, tarpon fishing, protected forests and heritage sites linked to the slave trade and its abolition. It also recalls the colonial nickname "White Man's Grave," earned because of malaria, and proposes a new one: "Once bitten, forever smitten".

Sources 125