Catherine Abelema Afeku
The Youth in Tourism Festival (YOTOFEST) 2018, an initiative of the Tourism Society of Ghana (TOSOGHA), has been launched by the Minister of Tourism Arts & Culture, Catherine Abelema Afeku, in Accra.
The festival is aimed at presenting a national platform to initiate and embrace an inclusive popular forum towards the progressive and systematic emancipation of the indigenous culture and the holistic impact of heritage values for the purposeful restoration of youthful exuberance.
In launching the festival, Mrs Afeku explained that the cause pursued by TOSOGAH to ensure effective youth participation towards the desirable internal tourism development is a holistic formula to sustainable tourism from grassroots.
She said the initiative falls directly in line with the policy of government in securing the total development of Ghanaians from the grassroots as well as the effort of the ministry to bring on board potential youth wings across the cultural diversity.
The minister added that the total development of the tourism sector is dependent on the promotion of culture, saying the heritage value of our cultural population is a solution to propel the social engine of the hospitality industry and endanger the renewal of cultural heritage tourism, which is what TOSOGHA stands for.
Mrs Afeku said the establishment of YOTOFEST is the institution of the true Ghanaian identity, ethnic harmony and racial tolerance that facilitates peaceful co-existence, the protection and conservation of cultural resources towards the holistic emancipation of the Ghanaian cultural heritage.
She pledged the ministry’s support towards the establishment and sustenance of the festival and appealed to all stakeholders to support it towards the progressive promotion and development of indigenous Ghanaian culture.
The sector minister later outdoored the Executive Director of TOSOGHA, Mr Joseph Armah Amartey, as the tourism ambassador for youth development.