Business News of Sunday, 13 November 2016

Source: GNA

GTA adopts aggressive marketing to promote tourism

Mr. Gideon Aryeequaye, the Acting CEO of the Ghana Tourism Authority Mr. Gideon Aryeequaye, the Acting CEO of the Ghana Tourism Authority

Mr Gideon Aryeequaye, the Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) said the authority has embarked on aggressive marketing of Ghana's tourism to the rest of the world.

He said the aim was to sell Destination Ghana to travellers across the world as the most preferred country for tourism and also attract investment into the travel and hospitality space.

Mr Aryeequaye, who identified marketing as a key component for projecting Ghana's tourism sector was quoted to have stated this on the side-lines of the on-going World Travel Market (WTM) in London.

He said the country had a lot to offer that the world must come to see and that was why projecting Ghana was very critical to developing the tourism sector.

He said Ghana had renewed its agreement with CNN to run adverts on the network from next year to continue to promote the country's tourism potential and sell Ghana to the world.

'Nine years ago, we started something with CNN, it's capital intensive, you need to look for the money to get it done but you also agree that once it is done, it projects you because CNN is across the world,' he added.

He said as part of the plans GTA would explore the possibility of placing adverts at the various stadia where English Premier League matches were played.

A strategy, he expressed said would give many more fans and viewers across globe the opportunity to know more about the country's tourism offerings.

He also intended to make the country digitally accessible to all with the launch of a platform that allowed everyone to explore the country online.

'Most people come to you and they want to learn more, we looking at establishing the single window platform where once you log on to it, it takes you every were you want to go in the country,' he said.

Ghana over the years has continued to participate in international fairs and tourism-related events in key source markets such as the UK, Germany, Spain and The Netherlands.

The London event presents one of the biggest platforms for the country to present among many others, its diverse and rich cultural heritage which is an important constituent of its vast tourism offerings.

Ghana's delegation to this year's World Travel Market was led by Nana Oduro Kwarteng, Chief Director at the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts; Mr Akunu Dake, Board Chairman of GTA; Mr Aryeequaye, Miss Tourism Ghana, Tourism Ambassador, Abeiku Santana, officials from both the Ministry and its agency, private sector and some stakeholders within the tourism, culture and creative arts industry.