Some stakeholders in Ghana’s Hospitality Industry have called for more regional rotation of national events like the Independence day celebration of the country, which took place yesterday, March 06, 2023, to be organized in the near future to promote tourism and patronage of hotel services.
According to the President of the Ghana Hotels Association (GHA), Dr. Edward Ackah-Nyamike Jnr., tourism thrives on the movement of people and as such, the independence day celebration of Ghana, as well as other notable celebrations that see individuals moving from one location to another, will facilitate tourism if it is encouraged.
“In 2019, when the President decided to repeat the celebration of independence day across the country, we saw it as a brilliant idea. And it is not about the 2 or 3 days that people will spend in that particular location that matters. It is about all the things that have got to do with business that goes on there, which matters.
“Now, tourism needs to be facilitated. People must travel with some reason. There must be a purpose for travelling. There must be a reason for travelling. When that reason is acted upon and people go into a new area, what it does is that, it exposes the area to people. It exposes the area to businesses. It exposes the areas to development and others, which in itself also eventually promotes tourism into the future.”
Dr. Ackah-Nyamike
Dr. Ackah-Nyamike Jnr. further described the intention for the regional rotation as being solely about people going there, having some lasting memories of the place and wanting to go there again. Not just that, these visitors also going on to promote the place by selling the place to friends, to business partners and others; those who will identify businesses in the place and would also want to go there; this, he said is the aspect of the idea that the hospitality industry is focused on.
“And so when it started in Tamale, and went to Kumasi and now the Volta Region, we believe that, it is an idea in the right direction.”
Dr. Ackah-Nyamike
According to Dr. Ackah-Nyamike Jnr., celebrations of these kind, bring development into the areas they are organized, citing the Volta Regional developments prior to this year’s events as an example.
In this regard, Dr. Ackah-Nyamike Jnr thinks if these celebrations will be organized or taken to every region in the subsequent regions, there will be substantial developments in these regions to boast of, which in addition will boost tourism to these regions.
Critics of the ‘rotational idea’ urged to carefully weigh the options before drawing conclusions
Addressing what others had to say about these regional rotations being a waste, Dr. Ackah-Nyamike, said to assess well both sides of the coin, these naysayers have to weigh both options critically before drawing conclusions. By this, he meant assessing the tangible and intangible benefits from the regional rotational celebrations.
“To begin with, with the tangible aspect, it relates to the development I am talking about and the businesses. I mean the local economies in the areas that the independence day is done are weighted, even the amount of taxes that will be raised from businesses that operate there. So we need to look at all these factors. We need to look at even that inclusive aspect of our social development so that people will also feel they are part of the country and also want to sacrifice a bit, or die a bit for the country because, an event like this has been brought close to them.
“Let us look at the full socioeconomic factor in terms of the benefit that this brings so that we don’t rush into thinking that it is a waste of resources. I don’t think we have gathered enough information to take that decision. Let’s do that carefully and I’m sure we will be able to come up with the fact that it is beneficial.”
Dr. Ackah-Nyamike Jnr.
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