Two bodies to promote tourism
Officials of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts (MoTCCA) and the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) last Tuesday met in Accra to initiate a strategic partnership to effectively promote tourism, especially domestic travel and tours.
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This was in line with plans to actively engage key stakeholders in the three portfolios under the ministry – tourism, culture and creative arts – to foster mutually beneficial relationships.
The sector minister, Mrs Elizabeth Ofosu Adjare, said she believed that such partnerships would help to stimulate greater public interest and participation in the ministry’s programmes and activities.
Last year, President John Mahama, through Executive Instrument (E. I. 2013), established the new Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts to replace the Ministry of Tourism.
That increased the number of agencies under the ministry from three to 14, thus placing a greater responsibility on its officials, hence the need to bring all hands on deck to support the new ministry.
“I thank the Graphic Communications Group for the support it extended to us in the past year, especially during the Panafest and Emancipation Day celebrations, as well as the company’s conscious efforts to promote tourism, culture and the arts,” the minister said.
She declared 2014 as a ‘Tourism Year,’ saying together with the Graphic Communications Group, the Ghana Tourism Development Company, the Ghana Tourism Federation, the Ghana Tourism Authority, the Musicians Union of Ghana and other players, exciting monthly events would be rolled out in all parts of the country during the year to attract Ghanaians, especially the youth, to domestic tourism.
The move was also aimed at making creative arts and cultural products appealing to the people.
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The Managing Director of the GCGL, Mr Kenneth Ashigbey, said the group would use the various platforms that its five newspapers presented, to drive domestic tourism.
“We believe that if we encourage Ghanaians to patronise domestic tourism, they can encourage foreign travellers to visit the country. We must believe in ourselves so that we can compete in the comity of nations,” he stated, and added that the GCGL would continue to propagate the benefits of tourism at all times.
The Director of Marketing and Public Affairs at GCGL, Ms Shirley Acquah-Harrison, said the GCGL would liaise with the ministry to set up a committee made up of representatives of the various stakeholders to draw up an action plan that would spell out the programme of activities for this year.
She hinted that some of the activities might include organised trips to towns across the country during traditional festivals, visits to tourism sites, as well as food bazaars.
The GCGL delegation included Mr Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafoh, the Director in charge of Newspapers, Mrs Janet Quainoo, the Editor of The Mirror, and Mr Dodzi Anedor, the Sales and Advertising Manager, all of whom promised to support the call to promote tourism, arts and culture, to help speed up the national drive for economic development.