Who will be Tourism Hall of Fame’s first inductees?
Question: Which three of Ghana’s 13 Heads of State and Government, both living and late, deserve to be placed in the country’s Tourism Hall of Fame to be mounted at the National Museum? The question, put in different words, is: Which three of Ghana’s 12 past presidents, heads of state and one Prime Minister deserve to receive the highest applause for the best tourism-oriented policies, budgetary support and programmes?
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The search has ended; the Ghana Tourism Federation’s Awards sub-committee, charged with the responsibility for receiving nominations from the general public, has completed its work and its shortlist has been vetted by Tourism’s Council of Wise Men. The names, however, will only be known this Friday at the Banquet Hall of the State House, venue for the first-ever Tourism Hall of Fame awards night.
Will the three include Kwame Nkrumah, General Okatakyie Afrifa, General Ankrah, Prof. Kofi Abrefa Busia, General I.K. Acheampong, Dr Hilla Limann, Mr Jerry John Rawlings, Mr John Agyekum Kufuor or Professor John Evans Atta Mills?
It is a question which not even Mr David Nana Anim, the national president of the Ghana Tourism Federation, has an answer to. He told the Daily Graphic in an interview that: “The Council of Wise Men are keeping everything close to their chest.”
The names and deeds of the deserving three past Presidents will be immortalised in busts at the National Museum.
Besides the three highest awards, The Ghana Tourism Federation (GHATOF) will also honour a number of past Ministers of Tourism. The President of GHATOF, Nana Anim, said: “They are so many that even the mere attempt to name them is a task.”
The night, however, is a night for industry players. If tourism, in spite of years of the anaemia of funds and lack of governmental support, has climbed to an enviable fourth most important sector of Ghana’s economy, it is the result of the sweat and toil of a handful of practitioners and they deserve to be celebrated.
Depending on the extent of their accomplishment and contribution, these industry players will be decorated with medallions of pure gold, silver and bronze.
To be nominated, practitioners are expected to have attained a high level of achievement built on the five pillars of capacity building, sustainable tourism development, innovation, professional leadership and dedication.
Not every awardee at the Friday night event would have been nominated by the public or vetted by the Council of Wise Men. Listed for recognition are a handful of distinguished ladies and gentlemen who have worked either directly as practitioners or been indirectly associated closely with the industry for years and who, in the judgement of the executive of GHATOF, deserve to be recognised. In this category will be a number of institutions whose funding and advocacy techniques have helped to build the capacity of practitioners.
All is set for Friday night
The Tourism Hall of Fame has been created to recognise outstanding individuals who, through their leadership, dedication and professionalism, have made significant contributions to the tourism industry in Ghana.
According to the GHATOF national president, “it is a public recognition of those individuals and corporate bodies who have made tourism an important part of their life’s work and whose actions have had a positive impact on the tourism industry.”
It was not immediately known to this writer if the night will also recognise former CEOs of the Ghana Tourism Authority (formerly Tourist Board). If there is such a category, Yours Truly will plead that we do not forget the labour of love of the late Mr Ofosu Yeboah. If for nothing, at least, he deserves a minute’s silence.
Mr Nana Anim expressed the federation’s gratitude to a number of corporate bodies for their invaluable donation in cash or in kind towards the Friday event. He named some of them as Tobinco Ghana Limited, Golden Tulip Hotel, Kempisky Hotel, Ice Pack, Holiday Inn, GIHOC Distilleries, VRA, Coconut Grove Regency Hotel and the Ghana Free Zones Board.
GHATOF is the private sector wing of the tourism sector. It is made up of 25 trade associations, with membership standing around 5,000 individual practitioners.