Five must-wins for Minister Afeku

Last Monday, the President’s nominee for the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts (MOTCCA) appeared before the Appointments Committee of Parliament to be vetted. It is my opinion that Mrs. Catherine Abelema Afeku did not only look resplendent in her appearance, but was also outstanding and showed that she understands the issues of the ministry she has been nominated to head.

I have no doubt at all that Parliament will pass her nomination and Mrs. Afeku will soon become the next Minister for MOTCCA and as she and anyone else who has paid close attention to the sector would know, there are so many things that she would have to do to ensure that she succeeds at the Ministry.

In spite of the many things that a Minister of MOTCCA has to do, it is my view that there are some very important ones that should be tackled immediately and eventually and I have five (for the sake of time and space too) which I believe if she focuses on will ensure that we have some progress in Ghana’s effort to assert herself as a country that taps into her potential to be finally accepted as one to be taken seriously where, especially, tourism is concerned on the continent.

Domestic Tourism: The minister designate was very emphatic in her response that domestic tourism would be taken seriously during her tenure. It is like music to my ear and I hope to God that she will keep this word and act very swift and alacrity to ensure that what ought to be done to make domestic tourism very important in the scheme of things would be done.

We have always said, and for 60 years we have been at it, that Ghana has tremendous tourism potential: Ghana’s weather is very conducive for tourism, Ghana has more European forts and castles from the slavery trade and colonialism era than any other African country, Ghana has a lot more festivals than most other African countries and above all else, we smile more than most other citizens. That’s potential.

Tour operators such as Sunseekers Tours and Kempong Travel and Tours, radio stations like Joy FM and Citi FM as well as organisations and individuals like Brave Hearts, Wango Wango, PaJohn Dadson and Botweburg and many others have all tried to help boost domestic tourism one way or the other.

Glad to hear her mention some of these organisations, individuals and initiatives at the vetting and I am hopeful that she would see what to do to help them to push the domestic tourism agenda forward. We need to let our people appreciate what we have before we can sell it to others.

Marketing and promotion: Like any other brand or service tourism doesn’t sell itself. What sells a country, destination and experiences are the same efforts that are put into selling other products and services. First of all we need to do the rigorous analysis of what our main tourism product, do the right packing and when we have done that we begin to market it.

Let’s face it, domestic tourism is good and we need to encourage it as hard as we can, however, where we can get adequate foreign exchange to run our country goes beyond domestic tourism. We need to make sure that others believe in our product and would like to come and experience it.

It is my view therefore that Mrs. Afeku and her ministry will ensure that the agencies responsible for tourism development and marketing, Ghana Tourism Authority, Ghana Tourism Development Company and all allied agencies will be as assertive as they can be to act as they should without kowtowing to the whims of the minister.  That has happened for far too long and it has not helped the GTA, etc. to rise up to their responsibilities.

Encourage Intra-Africa travel: One factor that has been a major disincentive and drawback to intra-African travel and tourism has been the rather steep cost of air transportation between countries. It is cheaper sometimes to travel from an African country to a country on another continent than it is to travel between two African countries.

One of the reasons air tickets are expensive is because of taxes imposed by governments. While this is not something Ghana alone can fix, I believe that the incoming minister can work with other tourism ministers on the continent to convince their governments to take a second look at taxes on air fares.

If we can fix this we would only need to promote travel between African nations and we won’t have to rely on tourist from Asia, Europe and the Americas alone for tourism generated revenue. A vigorous intra-African travel and tourism is a very important thing to be encouraged, in my humble view, and I think the minister will be in the right position to champion it.

Encourage Travel Trade: It is very important that Ghana is keyed into the global tourism industry through the encouragement of travel trade. One of the means through which this can be done is to create platforms where operators in the travel and tourism value chain would meet to interact.

Ghana needs to have a few tourism trade shows with one big one happening annually. All the countries that take tourism seriously have at least one such meeting where individuals, organisations and media that operate in the sector would gather to exchange ideas and or do business.

Thankfully the NPP tackles this particular issue heads on in its manifesto. It says that the party when elected would “focus on transforming the country into a major Meeting, Incentive, Conference, & Exhibition (MICE) centre, as well as on expanding the tourism sector, through investment, innovation, the pursuit of service excellence and meaningful partnerships.”

This is open and shut and I hope Mrs. Catherine Afeku will ensure that this will happen under her period as minister for the sector.

Creative Arts: It is important that even as she focuses on the big ticket issues of the travel, tourism and culture, the minister would not neglect the creative arts sector. She should not because that sector is as important as the others she would be entrusted with.

There have been some improvements in the area since it was elevated to ministerial level. Thankfully the NPP once again tackles this head on in its manifesto as it recognises the role the creative arts play and promises to provide the needed support for it.

Among other things, the party promised to support the “sector to enable it realise its full potential for generating wealth for its practitioners, create jobs and grow the economy. To make available funds to modernise and develop the sector, we will establish a Creative Arts Fund.”

If for nothing at all I hope the honourable minister would ensure the proper setting up of the Creative Arts Council as she promised at the vetting and also ensure that the fund mentioned in the manifesto would be duly established before the next four years expires.