Tourism Minister promotes funeral tourism …but Afia Schwarzenegger disagrees

Tourism, Arts, and Culture Minister Dr Mohammed Ibrahim Awal has reiterated the government’s commitment to promoting funeral tourism.

He hints the government intends to bus people to funerals, especially to places where there are other tourist attractions, in order for people to take advantage of the funerals to visit these places.

“We will find funerals at places where there are tourist attractions. When they finish the funeral, the people will be served local dishes and drinks including sobolo. So that when we finish, we will bus them to these tourist attractions.

“Ghanaians love funerals, and it’s voluntary. When there is a funeral here, we will announce that we can go to Bonwire. People are selling Kente there, and when they go there, they will spend money” he said during a visit to some tourist centres.

He continued, “We are busing them for free, so when we go to that area, there are restaurants there; they will buy food; they will buy artefacts. They will enrich the local economy. So we will take advantage of funerals to deepen our cultural assets and thereby create jobs for our youth”.

But media personality, Afia Schwarzenegger, officially called Valentine Nana Agyeiwaa is not happy with the initiative.

In a social media post, she described the idea to promote funerals as tourism attraction insensitive, and called on Mark Okraku and his Minister to scrap the idea.

“Eiiiiiiish,Kyeres3 Eiiiiiiii. Boi. Let’s collapse the entertainment industry to promote funeral as tourism. Mark Okraku Mantey should be ashamed of himself, n anyone who contributed to this barbaric idea. Aaaahhhh mtchewwwww” her post reads.