2nd Graphic 'Do Ghana' Travel Festival webinar to focus on MICE sector
The Grand Arena, located at the Accra International Conference Centre, will on Thursday host the next Graphic 'Do Ghana' Travel Festival's webinar series.
Thursday's edition will focus on business events, also known in the tourism industry as MICE - an acronym for meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions/events.
The event, which will commence at 10a.m, will be the second of four weekly webinar series on the tourism ecosystem amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is designed to engage the public from the travel consumer's perspective of domestic tourism, and how to navigate the post COVID-19 reality.
It will provide a platform for the industry to explore ideas on how to strengthen Ghana's MICE sector, with discussions expected to be led by key industry practitioners.
The first webinar in the series, which was on the topic, "Winning with Women: Projecting the Female Flair in Sustaining Tourism Excellence", took place last week and saw an audience participation of 80 people, led by Dr Eunice Fay Amissah, head of the Department of Hospitality and Tourism, University of Cape Coast in conversations.
Tourism development
According to experts, MICE was the key to a positive tourism growth, in that, it was the art and science of coordinating the logistics for hosting large groups, usually planned well in advance at a destination for a particular purpose, say, a conference, incentive tour or event, concert, exhibition or sporting activity.
It has been the pillar of growth for many developed countries, with the economies of many advanced countries hinged on this aspect of tourism for many years.
In the last few years, it has been witnessed that more and more destinations are promoting their MICE segment, alongside the traditional leisure segment, seeing it as a way to reduce the seasonal limitations of leisure travel, and fill hotel beds all year round.
Hosting the event in a safe venue such as the Grand Arena is to demonstrate the preparedness of the meetings and events management industry in Ghana, going forward to build confidence in a post COVID-19 future.
Also, it opens up the market for corporate partnerships and participation in business and other public events, where organisations can leverage some positive vibes on promotional mileage and also generate progressive feedback.
It is the new normal, after all, and we have to learn to live with it.
'Do Ghana'
The Graphic 'Do Ghana' Travel Festival, is intended to stimulate domestic tourism.
It is hosted by Graphic Communications Group Limited(GCGL), and is the principal activity of the organisers, Do Ghana Movement, a group working to create interventions to foster domestic tourism initiated by Bentsifi, storytellers and tourism curators.
Thought and identity partners are Bentsifi.com and Oxygen Brand Consultants. Key institutional partners include GraphicOnline, Asaase Radio, the Department of Tourism and Hospitality - University of Cape Coast, RoamGhana.com, ITC/SheTrades, Society for AIDS in Africa and Sunseekers. Strategic partners are VoyagesAfriq, African Tourism Partners and Events and Meeting Professionals Association of Ghana (EMPAG), who are sponsoring the venue and working to bring Thursday's webinar to life.
The festival is endorsed by the Ghana Tourism Authority, and will run from Wednesday July 15 to August 15 this year.