We need to push the frontiers of our tourism – Kwaku Asiedu

Kwaku Osei Korankye Asiedu, Business Development Executive of Uncle Ebo Whyte’s Roverman Productions, has lamented the poor packaging of Ghana’s tourism products to holidaymakers who visit the country.

Though tourism is widely deemed a key foreign income earner, Asiedu expressed worry that the country is not fully taking advantage of the huge potential that the segment offers: “people  come into the country and they do not enjoy our tourism”, he observed.

Bearing  20 years experience in the media, sales and marketing, and a staunch tourism afficionado, Kwaku Asiedu held that players in the hospitality sector for instance, are not engaging creative persons enough. To him, such art forms as music, dance, paintings, spoken word, drama must be incorporated in the the daily schedule of hotels, conferences and other ceremonies so as to better tell our stories and give tourists a more enjoyable experience.

He entreated the various embassies to help promote the country’s tourist destinations outside. “All our embassies should have the list of our tourist centres so visitors are made to sign an undertaking to visit our tourist sites before they are given visas to enter into Ghana. The embassies outside Ghana should also do their bit to market the country’s tourism opportunities.”

“There should be exhibitions and festivals in every part of the world where we have an embassy or High Commission so we sell our country well and people get to know us. There should be a tourism and entertainment desk, where you can get information on all these things. By doing this, we make our creative industry grow”.

He also called on the sector minister as well as the tourism authority to do more in making the country conducive for private creative enterprises. “I feel there must be a loan scheme when the creative council is formed, so  artists can have their art reviewed and, if approved, assisted financially”.

He opined that as a people, we’ve gotten to a point where we need to push the frontiers of our tourism. He also stressed need to merge tourism with creative arts, as it is the only way to win.