International organisations endorse Ghana as travel destination
Three prominent international institutions have endorsed Ghana as a destination worth visiting. After separate meetings with Ghana’s Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts Minister, Mrs Elizabeth Ofosu Adjare, on day two at the ITB Berlin tourism fair here, representatives of Cable News Network (CNN), known by its more popular acronym, CNN, the German Travel Association and the World Travel Market seemed sufficiently convinced that Ghana had a lot to offer international travellers in search of sustainable eco-tourism, heritage, culture and leisure.
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In an interview with this reporter after leading the World Travel Market delegation for the meeting with the minister, Mr Simona Spiga, the Head of International Project Services, summarised his delegation’s impressions with the words: “Impressive. Interesting destination.” The World Travel Market is the UK equivalent of ITB Berlin.
“Ghana is the place to go,” concluded Mr Imram Ahmad, the CNN Representative and Director, who led a two-member delegation to call on the Minister.
“Seems like this is a destination to promote,” Gesa Balssen, Manager in charge of Destination of the German Travel Association, said during his delegation’s ‘thank you-goodbye’ handshake with the minister after the courtesy call.
German Travel Association
Indeed, the German Travel Association representatives went further to invite the minister to send a delegation of Ghanaian tour operators and travel agents to the annual general meeting of the 4,000-member association in Germany in September, this year. As a matter of priority, they asked that Ghanaian tour operators made available to their German counterparts promotional materials such as brochures, DVDs and other information formats on Ghana’s major tourist attractions.
Gesa Balssen was at pains to emphasise that the request was very important because German travellers liked to book their travels through agencies.
Germans are considered “the world’s travel champions”. They spend more on foreign travel than any other nation – more than 61 billion euros per year – and the tourism industry provides about 2.9 million jobs in Germany.
The German Travel Association is the leading lobby group of the German tourism sector, representing the interests of tour operators and travel agents, who, together, generate annual sales of more than 40 billion euros.
The representatives complained about a cumbersome visa regime that delayed the process of obtaining visa to Ghana. The Tourism Minister promised to discuss the issue with her Foreign Affairs counterpart back home with a view to removing whatever bottlenecks there might be.
Minister’s assurance
For the association’s concerns regarding sustainability in tourism, the minister assured the Germans in particular, and the rest of the world in genera that Ghana was pursuing sustainable tourism. “That, for example, is why our Forestry Commission serves on the board of the Ghana Tourism Authority. Indeed, the Forestry Commission is with us here at ITB Berlin.”
She also mentioned the Ankassa Game Reserve, the Mole National Park and the Shai Hills Nature Reserve, among others, as “examples of efforts by Ghana to ensure that tourism is not enjoyed at the expense of the environment”.
The minister invited German travellers to “visit Ghana where, in some parts of the country, monkeys come to human dwellings and are allowed to feed from the human kitchens at certain time of the day without danger to their lives; Ghana where you can sit on crocodiles and they wouldn’t eat you”.
Mr Samuel Atta Mills, the Acting Managing Director of the Ghana Tourism Development Company (GTDC), used the opportunity to invite Germans to tour forts in Ghana built with German architecture to mark the German presence in the Gold Coast when the two countries carried on a vibrant trade.
Country promotion on CNN
In the meeting with the two-member delegation from CNN, the minister went into some detail about Ghana’s request to CNN for a country-promotion on its network. Ghana is seeking a presence on CNN’s website and some TV advertisements.
The CNN delegation mentioned a documentary, titled, ‘On the Road, Ghana,’ which is currently being promoted on the network worldwide. The minister thanked Energy Bank, which sponsored the documentary, and said her ministry wanted, in addition, a tourism-focused promotion.