Kojo Oppong Nkrumah addressing journalists
MEDIA ORGANISATIONS have been asked to employ innovative programmes that will promote and market the newly refurbished tourist centres in the country to attract more Ghanaians and people from all over the world.
Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Minister for Information, who made the call, said this has become necessary as the COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted patronage of tourist centres and revenues that accrue to the state from the sector due to restrictions on mobility.
“To our colleagues in the media, our charge to you is that you develop innovative programmes that attracts thousands of people, not just to this site, for example the National Museum that was just refurbished and opened and the many other tourist sites that we are investing in.
“We charge you to develop innovative programmes that bring a lot of Ghanaians and people from all over the world to visit these sites and together, we will be able to bring the Ghanaian economy back to where we want it to be,” he said.
Mr. Oppong Nkrumah was speaking at a sod-cutting event for the commencement of rehabilitation and modernisation works on the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park (KNMP) on Tuesday, July 19, 2022.
In 2019, Ghana’s tourism sector generated 3.3 billion in revenue to the state, with a total of 1.1 million tourist arrivals. However, the advent of the pandemic sharply depressed the sector, declining arrivals in 2021 by 88.3 per cent.
According to Mr. Oppong Nkrumah, to recover the sector and set it back to its pre-pandemic levels, the media must play a critical role in developing innovative programmes that will drive domestic tourism and attract foreign nationals to visit tourist sites.