UN World Tourism Celebrations in Ghana was a flop

Minister of Tourism, Juliana Azuma Mensah

The just ended UN World Tourism Celebrations hosted by Ghana has been described as a flop and denied the country the necessary benefits it should have gained from hosting such a conference.

Former Deputy Minister of Tourism in the Kufuor administration, Kofi Osei Ameyaw says, the current administration showed gross ineptitude in the organization of the programme particularly in the publicity of the conference.

Commenting on the Conference held in Ghana last week on Asempa FM's Asempa Today Programme, Mr. Osei Ameyaw said having lobbied for the hosting of the conference before exiting office, he and other members of the previous government would have shared their expertise in organizing the programme had they been contacted.

He also said Ghana could have taken the initiative to advertise the event on the international media such as the CNN and the BBC to showcase to the rest of the world the tourism potentials Ghana has.

But a member of the Planning Committee of the Celebrations, Emmanuel Hagan says the assertion by the former Deputy Minister of Tourism is not entirely correct. Mr. Hagan said the Tourism Ministry did some publicity in some foreign media and local media houses but did so within their budgetary constraints.

He contended that it might be too early to measure the benefits Ghana will be deriving from the hosting of the UNTWO and urges for some time in order to ascertain whether it was beneficial to host the conference or not.

Credit: Kwadwo Asare-Baffour Acheampong/Asempa FM