By Vanessa Adjei
Tourism is nothing without culture and creatives and so anytime you talk about tourism you should recognise the people in the creative space or else they feel disintegrated. The truth is that they must work together in one synergy.” This is according to Deputy Tourism Minister Mark Okraku Mantey when he spoke about the current State of tourism in the country.
Speaking on the GTV Breakfast Show on March 31, 2022, Mr. Okraku noted that the highest patronage of Ghana’s tourism was driven by the “Year of Return” initiative and was supported by the creative arts industry.
“The Afrochella, the Afronation, taste of Ghana, almost all the events you saw were driven by the creative and the cultural people and so we should think in that direction”.
He, however, called on celebrities and the creative arts industry especially those in music and film to see themselves as Ambassadors of Tourism and so it should manifest in their works for people to know about the untold stories of some of the Ghana tourist sites and even its culture. Creative people must create not just music and films and even if it’s a film they must consider how to sell Ghana enough and we know some of them are shooting music videos in South Africa and other places abroad forgetting that they have a duty to sell Ghana. He said they should shoot their videos here in Ghana to help identify some of the places.
