CEO of Sunseekers talks tourism on Y LeaderBoard Series

Ghana's number one youth-oriented station Y107. 9 has hosted Chief Executive Officer of Sunseekers Tours and Sunlodge Hotel, Kwame Ansong, on the Y Leaderboard Series.

YFM's Rev. Erskine indulged this great leader in a conversation on his early years, his family, career and the principles that drive him in life.

In his interview, he confessed that he has no problem using his hands for anything even if it seems degrading or nauseating because, around the age of three, he was inspired by two garbage men and wanted to be like them.

“My fondest memory growing up is, in my area, there used to be a garbage truck that came around about twice a week and I marvelled at it whenever I saw the garbage truck coming in. I was about three or four years and I don’t know but maybe it was the yellow-bright colour of the truck.

This garbage truck comes in and these macho-looking guys stand at the back. They come, they just jump off the back of the truck, pick up the garbage, throw it in and then they just jump back on”, he narrated.

According to him, these men were his first heroes and he admired how they did their work so much that he told himself he wanted to be a garbage man when he grew up. Even though dreams changed when he grew up, Mr. Ansong mentioned that he is still not disgusted doing any form of work with his hands.

Speaking on his family life, Mr. Ansong expressed the importance of spending time with his family despite his busy work schedule.

"I am seldom at home. I spend a lot of hours both at work and on the road. So the few times that I am home, I try to make it count.

Bringing up boys, you need to build a certain kind of friendship with them so that they really want to make sure that they make daddy proud and happy more than holding a stick over their heads. I am trying to mould that in them and it's a different relationship I have with them from what they have with their mother.

I try to make it count and to make sure that they get what they need in terms of emotional support and whatever support they need".
As Mr. Ansong has been able to position Sunseekers Tours as one of the leading tour operators in Ghana, he shares that it was not all rosy.

Narrating the challenges he faced while building a career in tourism, he told Rev. Erskine on the Y Leaderboard Series, "I have had a lot of challenges. It started with the September 11th incidence in 2001.

I finished school in 1994 and within four and a half years, my dad was ill for about nine months and passed on after that. So I was just stabilizing myself and then the September 11th incidence hit. That totally changed everything. So we had to navigate it.

There were a lot of travel and tour companies that went out of business. We stabilized and things got better. Then, there was a financial meltdown and then we had to go back to the basics".

"In all these adversities, there were silver linings in every cloud and we used that to reinvent ourselves and come up with new ways.
Ebola hit next and just when we thought things couldn't get any worse, COVID-19 sprouted out of nowhere.

COVID-19 has been the worst. I think if you have been able to survive some of these challenges, you tend to have thicker skin than the average person so it's just the passion that keeps you going".

Highlighting the need for people to venture into the tourism business, he disclosed that the tourism industry offers a lot of opportunities for employment, among other things and as such Ghana must invest more in this field for the growth of our economy.

Programmes Manager for YFM, Eddy Blay, commenting on the interview with Mr. Ansong, said: "It was such a timely interview especially when COVID-19 has had a ravaging effect on tourism. Mr. Ansong as a great leader he is in tourism shared great insights on how the youths can take advantage of the tourism industry and that translates into how we see life in general when we are faced with adversities"