TOGO
Togo also called the Togolese Republic, is a country in West Africa, whose population is estimated in 2020 at around 8.6 million inhabitants for a density of 152 inhabitants/km2. Togo takes its name from the current city Togoville.
TOGO ECONOMY
Togo port is the central economy of the country where all activities are coming from. Togo port is one of the largest port in West Africa and the only ports that connect most African capital. Togo is aspiring to become a hub of logistics concerning the maritime trade domain.
The Port of Lomé (PAL) placed 3rd position in West Africa behind the port of Lagos and Abidjan in terms of total trafc of goods. Although a large part of the volumes concerns transshipments, container trafc is remarkable and is experiencing strong growth. The great strength of PAL is to be the only deep-water port in the sub-
region with a depth of 16.6m. It can thus accommodate large vessels. However, the two bulk carrier quays are much smaller and offer fewer berths than the other ports in the sub-region. The Autonomous Port of Lomé incorporates a vast free zone and occupies a signicant land area. This allows companies to store or even process before customs clearance. Finally, a great advantage is its geographical position which allows it to quickly reach the major cities of the sub- region. The majority of the Togolese population depends on subsistence agriculture. Its agricultural produce include coffee, cocoa, cotton, yams, cassava (tapioca), corn, beans, rice, pearl millet, sorghum and livestock such as sh. Food and cash crop production employs the majority of the labor
force and contributes about 42% to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Coffee and cocoa are traditionally the major cash crops for export, but cotton cultivation also increased rapidly in the 1990s.
TOGO TOURISTS ATTRACTION
Despite its relatively small size, Togo has great tourist assets - unique landscapes spread across the country's ve regions, globally-recognized monuments and sites (one of which is listed in UNESCO's world heritage sites), and a 45km coastline with beautiful ne sand beaches, bordering the Atlantic ocean. All these make it a truly diversied tourist destination. Diversity also is the country'shospitality offer, with more than 500 facilities registered - that is without taking into account, both high and low-standing guest houses. And while it happens that a large number of these facilities are located in the Maritime and Plateau regions, each region has at least one major hotel with large accommodation capacities. A few examples are the Hotel 2 Février, the Sarakawa and Onomo hotels which are in Lomé, and the 30 Août hotel in Kara (northern region). Such a wide range of facilities fosters the dynamism of Togo's tourism industry. This sector highly contributes to job creation and the country's GDP and job creation also.
Despite all these, Togo has greater ambitions to achieve these ambitions, it has decided to make big changes in this sector. The country seeks to raise tourism contribution to the GDP by at least 10% by 2022, creating in parallel, a minimum of 10,000 decent jobs in the industrybythen.
To achieve its goal, Lomé focuses on promoting and developing seaside, cultural, sports tourism and ecotourism, with a particular accent on blue
tourism. Another tourism segment that the government looks to develop more and more is business tourism. Authorities want to make Togo a regional hub in this regard and it seems that its efforts in this framework have been paying off. In 2017 for example, the country was ranked second best (after Egypt) in terms of the increase in international tourist arrivals (+46%). The next year, the number of these arrivals soared by 26% compared to 2017, with 712,000 tourists registered. Meanwhile, the hospitality sector in Togo is more and more open to tourists, according to various reports and global ranking.
TOGO CULTURE
Togo is a country with a very dense culture and a diversity of languages. But the most spoken and written languages are Ewe and Kabyé.
Togo brings together several ethnic groups. So we rst have the Kabye group: Ewe people, ouatchi, gen and then the Gurma group: kabiyè, Tem, Batammariba, MOBA, Gurma,Tchamba.
In terms of cuisine, the Togolese culinary art is also rich. Many dishes are made from corn. The ordinary dishes are corn paste,
rice, and Fufu These dishes are accompanied by vegetable or peanut sauces. As far as drinks are concerned, Togo has specialties. Meals are accompanied by Sadabi or Déha which are local drinks made from palm. In the south of Togo, we meet the tchoukoutou and Tchakpalo for the north of Togo. The traditional dances and festivals of Togo are numerous. The rhythms vary from north to south.
Important traditional dances includes re dance, Kourougnima dance (for virgin girls of marriageable age) and Idjombi dance (by boys of marriageable age)
Important traditional celebrations
The harvest festival in Tchamba, the knife festival (Gadao-Adossa) Sokodé, Agbogbo-Za (Ewe historical festival) Epe - Ekpé (Guins historical festival) Evala (Initiation party in Kabyé county) Evala is the festival of wrestling in Kabyé county.
The initiation party is also celebrated by the people of Tamberma county. Togo is a multicultural country that offers different views.