A Ghana Where Tourists Would Feel At Home….

Mr. President read a beautiful address in Parliament on Thursday and among other things said “we are building a Ghana, where tourists will feel at home, and we shall feel proud when they say ‘I was in Ghana.’”

This part of the address particularly caught the attention of our editorial team because issues of tourism, arts and culture have been dear to our hearts. We have a convincing reason to believe these sectors, especially the creative arts sector, has seen very little and somewhat insignificant attention and growth over the decades, including the last 13 months or so the New Patriotic Party (NPP) took over the leadership of this country.

There has been a collective failure on our part as a country, a failure that should not be exclusively blamed on the current government. A failed situation that the government must be tasked, lobbied, pleaded with and cajoled to fix at all cost and fix with a sense of urgency.

THE PUBLISHER is of the opinion that if it is true Ghana is at the threshold of becoming the fastest growing economy in the world, as Mr. President stated in his address yesterday and gave supporting figures to back the good news, the country would attract a lot of tourists of all forms.

Be they corporate tourists, heritage tourists, educational tourists, business tourists or other forms of tourists who during their stay, would want to visit the country’s tourist sites and spend some money.

But how can our tourists feel at home when our tourist sites are not in the best of shapes, when roads leading to our sites are engaging drivers in a macabre dance, and when basic amenities at many of these sites are in a sorry state?

Mr. President had it right when he said “we have now recognized the need to go further than our reputation for being hospitable.” A reputation of being hospitable could attract some tourists to the country but if the country’s tourist sites are not having that requisite ambiance, are not well maintained and have not had that facelift to meet basic standards, it is not likely the visitors would want to stage a return.

Our beaches are still littered with refuse and sometimes all manner of unprintable substances.

Our domestic tourist sites sometimes lack basic toilet and washroom facilities.

Indeed, when tourists visit the country, and fall in love with our music or movies, they are most likely to buy pirated copies that are being sold not in corners but along our main ceremonial roads in broad daylight and sometimes in the full glare of police officers.

There is something not working right in our tourism and arts sector and that thing needs to be tackled with a sense of urgency.

THE PUBLISHER is glad that at least, Mr. President touched on the tourism sector. It is our hope and prayer he pays a little more attention there.