Celebrities react as tourism ministry plans to implement ‘funeral tourism’

Some Ghanaian celebrities have expressed their thoughts on the intention of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture to leverage funerals to drive domestic tourism.

Earlier, the Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Dr Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, said Ghanaians love funerals, and as such, it is a space for providing an opportunity for patrons to discover the various attractions scattered across the 16 regions of Ghana.

“Ghanaians love funerals and it is fertile ground for tourism. When there are funerals, people gather at places. What we want to do with the Ghana Tourism Authority, GTA, is that whenever there are funerals, we’ll also find tourist attractions in those areas where the funerals occur so that when they finish, [we can] bus those who attend the funerals to key tourist sites. We’re going to serve a lot of Ghanaian dishes at the funerals, Ghanaian drinks, sobolo [hibiscus tea] and co,” he said during an interview with UTV.

His statements captured in a viral video have since caught the attention of celebrities, who have described the idea as weird and irrelevant.

Afia Schwarzenegger first shared the said video on Instagram with the caption,

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

Other celebrities also trooped into the comment section of Afia’s post to highlight their concerns about the development.

Checkout the post below:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by ????Queen Afia Schwarzenegger???? (@queenafiaschwarzenegger)

Funerals x Tourism ???????? God when?

— ???????????????????????? ???????????????????????? (@yvonnenelsongh) September 20, 2023