The Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), Abeiku Aggrey, has appealed to residents living in areas with tourist sites to uphold peace and unity in their communities to boost investor confidence and attract more visitors.
He emphasised that peace remained an essential ingredient for tourism development and economic growth at the community level.He, however, reiterated the commitment of the GTA to promote the country’s tourist sites and cultural heritage.Mr Aggrey made the call at this year’s PANAFEST and Emancipation Day celebration held at the historic Salaga Slave Market in the East Gonja Municipality of the Savannah Region.The event served as a platform for healing, learning and reconnecting with African heritage, while inspiring the youth to appreciate the resilience of their ancestors and the ongoing struggle for justice and development on the continent.As part of activities to mark the event, officials of the GTA embarked on a five-day working tour of northern Ghana to engage traditional leaders and local communities to identify and develop more tourism opportunities.
In his remarks, Mr Aggrey said: “We, therefore, plead with you to maintain the peace and unity, which would attract more people to the town to discover the rich cultural heritage you have”.
He added that President John Dramani Mahama’s vision of positioning Ghana as the leading tourism destination in West Africa was further strengthened through initiatives such as the recently launched Black Stars Experience, a flagship programme aimed at strengthening the pillars of tourism, arts and culture.For his part, the East Gonja Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Yazid Rabiu Kassim, reaffirmed the government’s commitment to developing tourism sites to attract investors and tourists from the diaspora to help generate revenue to improve the welfare of local communities.He highlighted several untapped tourist attractions in the East Gonja Municipality that needed attention from tourism authorities.
“We have a good number of potential tourism sites that still need to be developed. For instance, the confluence of the White and Black Volta at Abromasei, the Sword of Ndewura Jakpa located at Kete, and the Slave Cemetery all need to be developed to attract more visitors,” he stated.Mr Kassim appealed to Ghanaians in the diaspora and other investors to partner local authorities to unlock these tourism opportunities.HistoryThe Northern Regional Director of the GTA, Angelo Yossi Dogbe, pointed out that although PANAFEST and Emancipation Day had mostly been celebrated in southern Ghana, the roots of the history were in the northern parts of the country.”Over the years, this celebration has been held in the South, but the South is only an exit point. Salaga in the Savannah Region is historically significant, which is why we chose it as the launch site for this year’s PANAFEST and Emancipation celebration,” he explained.
He further called on Africans in the diaspora to invest in heritage sites to help preserve them, promote cultural tourism, and strengthen connections with their ancestral roots.
