A pre/post mixed-methods study examining how visitors from Germany, Portugal, the United States, and the United Kingdom perceive and connect with Cape Verdean culture before and after a structured cultural welcome. Drawing on the inaugural cohort of LAGAI’s Welcome Experience programme on Santiago Island, the study tests whether a brief institutional orientation measurably alters intercultural reception, cultural literacy, and the depth of visitor engagement with host communities during onward travel through the archipelago.
Background
Mass tourism to West African Atlantic destinations has expanded sharply over the past decade, yet visitor preparation remains minimal — most travellers arrive in Cape Verde with limited grounding in its language, music, history, or community life. This pilot asks a deceptively simple question: what changes when arrival is mediated by an institutional welcome rather than an airport taxi?
Method
Participants (n ≈ 60, target) are recruited from the inaugural 2026 cohort of the LAGAI Welcome Experience. A pre-arrival baseline survey captures expectations, prior knowledge, and stated motivations. A second instrument administered 72 hours after the campus welcome — and a third after the visitor’s return — measures shifts in cultural literacy, perceived authenticity, willingness to engage with local communities, and openness to onward learning. Quantitative items are paired with semi-structured interviews with a consenting subset.
All instruments are bilingual (English / Portuguese) and were piloted with three returning visitors before deployment. Participation is voluntary, anonymised, and entirely separable from the visitor’s tourism booking. Findings will be co-reviewed with the LAGAI Cultural Research and Tourism Department before publication.
Preliminary observations
Initial data from the first wave (n = 12) suggests that even a short structured welcome shifts visitor language from generic praise (“beautiful islands”) toward specific cultural reference points (Batuque, Funana, Cidade Velha, the four-nation diaspora story). Whether this shift persists beyond the visit, and whether it translates into deeper community engagement, is the central question of the full pilot.
Ethics
The study operates under LAGAI’s Cultural Research and Ethics framework. No data is collected from any visitor without explicit, written, plain-language consent. Participants may withdraw at any stage. No data is shared with the visitor’s hotel, guide, or onward travel providers.
Expected outputs
A first findings note in Q4 2026. A peer-reviewed methods paper in early 2027.