The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Tourism Development Company (GTDC), Professor Kobby Mensah, has outlined some initiatives his office has tabled for the growth of the tourism industry.
He said he has created about twelve tourism products and services with his team.
One of those products which is Night Tours, he believes, ties into the NDC’s 24-hour Economy concept.
“I have focused my attention on building products and services and also costing them, that is, making projections for the next five years – and that is what my team has been doing. So far, we have created almost about twelve products.
“We are going to do night tours (Accra by Night), we are going to do what I call a Science Park tour, and we are going to do the Ghana Tourist Market Place. So you have to create products in order that you can realise resources so you can invest in the project.”
Professor Kobby Mensah
According to him, the night tours will offer Ghanaians the opportunity to visit tourist places even after they have closed from work.
“I don’t see why we can not have night tours. The days are so choked in Accra. And I still do not understand why people close from work and they are rushing home around 4 or 5 o’clock.
“We cannot tell people to spend two hours after work, but we can instigate them because you can’t legislate for people to spend two hours of their time after work in town. But you can instigate them with programmes.”
Professor Kobby Mensah
He added that they would introduce a service called Tourist Incentive Voucher (TIV), where employees who do well at their various workplaces would be given vouchers to spend time at some places of tourism interests.
Professor Kobby Mensah noted that his office is working on a lot of things, not only for the 24-hour Economy but also for the Blackstar Experience.
The Ghana Tourism Development Company Limited (GTDC) is one of the thirteen (13) agencies under the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts with a specific mandate.
It was established as a Private Limited Liability Company in the year 1972 with the name Ghana Tourist Development Company under the Company’s code 1963 (Act 176) to encourage tourism development in Ghana.
Professor Kobby Mensah on NDC Membership
The Political Marketing Lecturer and Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Tourism Development Company, Professor Kobby Mensah, disclosed that he has had a National Democratic Congress (NDC) party card in the past. “I’ve had a card of NDC in the past, but I haven’t been ardent if I should put it,” he said in an interview.
Professor Kobby Mensah, who was a major critic of the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo-led government as a political marketing expert, disclosed that he has always belonged to the left, although his research has extensively looked at the New Patriotic Party and its campaign strategies over the years.
“I am absolutely to the left. I am left-leaning in terms of my ideology. The conversation about party affiliation is, it depends on how you want to define it.”
Professor Kobby Mensah
The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Tourism Development Company further revealed how he can be identified in terms of party affiliation.
“If you want to define it by ideological leanings, then you would associate me to the NDC because of my ideological beliefs. When you want to define it by membership, somebody would say political membership means that you hold a card; then, of course, that is also another conversation, but I can tell you that I’m absolutely left-leaning.”
Professor Kobby Mensah
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