Destination Ghana Global Project launched to make Ghana hub of tourism in Africa

The Destination Ghana Global Project; an initiative to position Ghana as Africa’s number one tourism hub and ultimately boost tourism and attract investments has been launched.

The project seeks to aggressively market Ghana, and amplify its rich cultural and toursim potentials in order to draw 100,000 tourists and potential investors to the country annually.

The launch, which took place in Cape Coast on February 25, 2023, supports the government's "Destination Ghana Project" program, which was introduced by President Akufo-Addo on April 3, 2022, in London.

The initiative aims to increase tourism activity in Ghana, particularly in the central region, in order to support economic growth.

Speaking at the launch, acting president of MUSIGA Bessa Simons stated that the focus of the “Destination Ghana Global Project” is to popularize the initiative in other countries.

“We want to sell Ghana in a way that has not been showcased around the world. Also, we looked around and we see that Ghana is very popular in America and other countries so we realized that following what the president said about 'Destination Ghana', a follow-up of beyond the return, we said we will go to other countries, already we have been to Italy and the main aim is to ensure we don’t only advertise this through our media but through the media of other countries so that they can see different things about Ghana”.

He also called on businessmen and musicians in the diaspora to come to ghana and collaborate with Ghanaian talents.

“We need businessmen to come and work with businessmen in Ghana, we need musicians to come and work with musicians in Ghana and many things”.

French Ambassador to Ghana H.E. Jules Armand Aniambossou who was the special guest of honour advised that a conducive environment should be created to attract tourists.

“This Initiative, we need to maintain and contextualize it to explain to the younger generation what happened in the past. Someone told me that if you don’t know anything about your past, you cannot greet your future. We need to produce a tourist environment to bring visitors to Ghana”.

Rabbi Kohain Halevi, the executive director of PANAFEST, who introduced the project's pitch, recalled how the covid-19 had halted their plan and expressed satisfaction with the prospect of returning to re-capture the tourism-related moments.

“This destination Ghana project is very important. For the past 30 years, Ghana, particularly Cape Coast has been on the cutting edge of redefining the history of Africans. PANAFEST has been with us for 31 years and its main theme has been 'reuniting the African family'.

"We know that in 2019, the president of Ghana announced to the whole world that the 400 years marking the African diaspora, its captivity in the United States of America from 1619 to 2019 that the 400 years of proclaiming that era of oppression and captivity, slavery and colonialism over and then telling our own story. Although the covid interrupted the process, we are back here again to capture that moment and continue with the story of destination Ghana," said Halevi.

The event, which took place at the Cape Coast Castle Museum, featured musical performances by Bessa Simons, Jupitar, and Lamisi, as well as appearances by the Paramount Chief of the Ogua Traditional Area, MMDCEs, and representatives from the Ghana Tourism Authority, Ministry of Foreign Affair and Regional Integration, Cape Coast Regional Chamber of Commerce, and selected senior high schools in Cape Coast.