Tourism: Paradigms are shifting
The Tourism, Arts and Culture sector now has a set of Siamese triplets joined at the heart. One of them, Madam Catherine Ablema Afeku, the sector Minister, is a woman to whom nothing is impossible; nothing, including the “impossible” dream of growing tourism, under her watch, from Ghana’s Number Four to Number Two forex earner.
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The other, Mr Akwasi Agyemang, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ghana Tourism Authority, the industry regulator, speaks in a language that questions aspects of how tourism has been marketed thus far. The third is Mr Kwadwo Odame Antwi, the CEO of Ghana Tourist Development Company Limited, the arrowhead of the sector’s investment drive.
In assessing the impact of the first 100 days of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) on tourism, arts and culture, I have spoken to all three and I can prophesy, with my eyes opened, that something good is about to happen to Ghana’s tourism. A paradigm is shifting.
I think of them as a team because that is what they have (so far) proved to be. I have reported the sector since the mid-80s, and I can say with all the authority at my command, that I have never seen this level of co-operation by the three top drivers in the industry, namely the ministry, the Tourist Board (now Authority) and GTDC.
Like President Akufo-Addo, who appointed them, I have never seen three people in such a hurry! You cannot be around them for five minutes and not feel a certain sense of urgency. Equally hard to ignore is the gel and flow between them and the Office of the President from where they receive such high level of co-operation, paralleled only by the Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey era.
One-on-one, I am impressed by the personal vision which they have brought to the job. Madam Afeku has the added advantage of being an industry person. Having received hospitality training in Switzerland, her first job as a young woman on her return to Ghana was at the then Novotel, now Accra City Hotel.
Her heart beats in the direction of domestic tourism. She does not utter three sentences without a word about domestic tourism. Her dream is a country where the average chief executive will desire to spend his/her holiday or weekend not in so-called exotic vacation addresses in the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK), South Africa or Dubai, but at the Manhyia Palace, experience the Nzulezu village on stilts or the Salaga Slave Market. She has come to a definite conclusion why the situation has been like this over the years. “Simply this: Domestic tourism has not been sold to Ghanaians in ways that are appealing.”
Nothing is impossible to Madam Afeku. For instance, she cannot fathom why it is impossible to get going and/or complete the following projects by 2020 or slightly beyond:
1. The Marine Drive project;
2. One region one theatre (or cultural centre);
3. The restoration of six forts and castles along the coast;
4. Akwaaba Lodges – 50-bed accommodation facilities at the major tourist sites, made from local material, same design, lower cost. Her reason: The more available accommodation there is, the more affordable, even to students;
5. A state-of-the-art hospitality training school accredited to offer degrees and diplomas, as well as refresher courses. The school, to be sited somewhere in the Western Region, will be positioned, by way of the sophistication of its programmes and the faculty, to attract students and practitioners from neighbouring West Africa.
Is she sure investors would be forthcoming? She looks you in the eye and replies: “Why not?” She has in mind attractive packages for investors, including tax breaks.
Isn’t this all big talk? She smiles. “It is big, but it is not utopian. If we were able to throw off the shackle of colonialism, we can do anything we set our mind to do.”
Mr Akwasi Agyemang, the new Executive Director of GTA, is the man you will sooner than later label a pragmatist. Many a tourism octogenarian will come away from a chat with him wondering “why I hadn’t thought of his ideas before!”
For instance, he questions why, in the 21st century, the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park and the ancient forts and castles are not wi-fied for internet connectivity. “Tourists, especially the younger generation, must be able to take selfies standing by Nkrumah’s statue and send them on the spot to their friends via Twitter, Instagram, whatsapp and so forth.”
Mr Agyemang is not about to do away with marketing Ghana at international expos such as ITB of Germany, WTM of London, Vakantieburg of Holland and Fitur of Spain. But, he wonders why equal effort is not being put in to attract tourists from (West) Africa. “It’s the same tourism-dollar”, he reasons, “and it doesn’t cost us so much to attract them.”
Even with the international expos, he thinks the approach needs a little tweaking. It makes no sense to him flying so many people all the way to these fairs every year who just go sit behind a small table expecting foreigners to look for the Ghana stand in a little corner.
What about the forts and castles? He thinks that, “The visits are not experiential enough. The tour guides are fine, but can’t we repackage the experience by re-enacting the slavery experience – the sound of the chains and the lashes, the tears of the slaves and the barking commands and swear words of the slave masters. The emotional experience will cause an African-American to want to come back for another visit.”
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Talk of tourism ambassadors. Mr Agyemang’s idea is of a Ghanaian whose face attracts instant recognition worldwide or where he/she resides - the likes of Stephen Appiah who has attained the stature of a god in Turkey among Fernabache supporters; Reggie and Bolie, the two young men who shot to fame in the UK on the back of X-Factor, and Sam Okyere whose influence is growing in Korea.
Unto the plate of Kwadwo Antwi, the sector minister has heaped all the physical projects for which Ghana stands in need of investors.
I asked Mr Antwi for his dreams; he gave me tangibles. What blew me away was the success story regarding the Ghana, Centre Of The World project. In less than three months, they have a letter from the Presidency to secure the parcel of land within the Tema Port area that positions Ghana as “The Nearest Dry Land To The Centre Of The World”.
Knowing what I know about the project - the turf wars et al - I knew, as soon as Mr Antwi mentioned the letter from the Presidency, that I could see the end from the beginning. Collaborating with the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority and the Tema Community One Presbyterian Church (located on the Meridian), the plan is for an iconic tower with receptive facilities. Another “low hanging fruit” is a 3D projection that will take visitors on a virtual tour to the exact spot within the sea that is the centre of the world – where Latitude 0’ meets Longitude 0’.
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Meanwhile, even before the physical structures come up, a big booster that will attract the world to Tema (and Ghana) is an annual golf tournament at the centre of the world, targeting such icons of golf as Tiger Woods, Greg Norman and Sergio Garcia, the man who currently wears the enviable Green Jacket of Golf.
Also on Mr Antwi’s plate is the project known in the ministry as “The Almighty Marine Drive”, the tourism enclave which will be home to top flight hotels; casinos, water sports, a jetty to which sailing vessels can be moored; an amphitheatre and conference facilities.
Under a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed with the traditional authorities, 20 per cent of jobs in the tourism enclave will be reserved for youths of the area. The traditional area will benefit from a hospital, fish landing sites and a palace.
As the anchor developer embarks on the provision of road networks, laying of fibre optics and utilities such as electricity, water and phone service, Mr Antwi’s excitement is that jobs are being created - masons, carpenters, etc.
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Efua Sutherland Park
By 2019, all things being equal, the Efua Sutherland Park, as we know it now, will be no more. In its place will be a mini-disney facility complete with roller coasters, a water park, among other amusement facilities. What is the status of that project? Mr Antwi tells me that “we are going through procurements now. We hope to sign a contract soon for work to begin. After signing, we will need 18 months to put it all together.”
Where is the money going to come from? Mr Antwi says, “We are doing a BOT, with GTDC holding the land in equity.”
For Ghanaians living in the other part of town, here comes good news. There will soon be another paragliding site in the Volta Region. It’s likely to be hosted by Ghana’s highest peak, Afadzato, in the Amedzofe area.
So far, so promising. If all goes well, Ghana hopes to net a total of US$4 billion in 2020.
Only time will tell if the smiles, the bear hugs and the hi-5s will last forever. In this industry, we have seen people at the top who started off like twins, working as if their hands were in the same glove. Unfortunately at the end, not only were their hands out of the glove; in each hand was a drawn sword dripping with the blood of mutual hatred.