The maiden International Coconut Festival will be on 24th to 26th September 2019. It’s organized by the African Coconut Group together with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.  The theme for the event is ‘Promoting Export Diversification through a Robust Ghanaian Coconut Industry” and is set to take place at the Accra International Conference Centre. The festival aims at exploring the untapped potential of the coconut plant.

Coconuts are an untapped resource in Ghana and the festival puts attention on this crop as a new driver of Ghana’s agricultural economy. The industry has the potential to reduce unemployment numbers significantly.  Coconuts are more than food, it’s also used in decorating, planting and biofuels.

The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) under the auspices of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture is set to hold this year’s United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) World Tourism Day from 25th – 27th September 2019 in Kumasi, Ashanti Region.

This year’s UNWTO World Tourism Day is under the Theme, “Tourism and Jobs, A Better Future For All”. The celebration is a special one as we commemorate the slave trade movement and celebrate African resilience in “The Year of Return, Ghana 2019”.

As part of the UNWTO World Tourism Day, the next edition of the corporate Paragliding Festival dubbed “Fun and Fly” will also be held from 27th to 29th September 2019 on Mount Odweanoma at Atibie – Kwahu in the Eastern Region.

Fun And Fly Paragliding 2019

Ghana joins the UNWTO member countries each year to celebrate World Tourism Day on 27th September. UNWTO began the celebration of World Tourism Day in the year 1980. India has been chosen to host this year’s UNWTO World Tourism Day. Its purpose is to foster awareness among the international community of the importance of tourism and its social, cultural, political and economic value. The event seeks to address global challenges outlined in the United Nations Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) and to highlight the contribution the tourism sector can make in reaching these goals. Ghana hosted the global community for the international celebration for the first time in 2009.

The Corporate Paragliding Festival which started in 2015 is the fourth in the series dubbed ”FUN and FLY”. It is organized for corporate entities and other organizations to make time off their busy schedules at their respective workplaces, network with each other and create bonds of relationships. It is an opportunity for passengers who could not fly during the Kwahu Easter paragliding to do so at this year’s Corporate Fun and Fly paragliding.

5 professional tandem Pilots from the United States of America and Switzerland and a Ghanian Solo Pilot have been invited for the festival.

The rate for a flight is Three Hundred and Fifty Ghana Cedis (GH 350). Provisions have been made for group tickets in respect of corporate organisations.

GTA launches Tourism Month

The month of September has also been designated by the GTA as the Tourism Month with several events including festivals to help the general public feel a part of the ongoing domestic tourism campaign of “SeeGhana, EatGhana, WearGhana and FeelGhana” aimed at boosting domestic tourism.

Activities outlined for the World Tourism Day includes;

• Exhibition of Local Products: Wednesday, 25th – Friday, 27th September 2019,  Centre for National Culture (CNC) – Ashanti Region, Kumasi at 10 am each day.
• Float: Thursday, 26th September 2019 ( from CNC – Central Business District and Back to CNC) at 9 am.
• Symposium: Thursday, 26th September 2019, Centre for National Culture (CNC) – Ashanti Region, Kumasi at 5:30 pm
• World Tourism Day Grand Durbar: 27th September 2019 Centre for National Culture (CNC) – Ashanti Region, Kumasi at 10 am.
• Corporate “Fun and Fly” Paragliding Festival: 27th – 29th September 2019 – Kwahu, Atibie, Eastern Region.

         Side attractions include – (King of the Mountain Cycling Competition – 28th September 2019 – Kwahu, Atibie

         Display of assorted local foods and drinks

Join the Tourism Month to #SeeGhana #EatGhana #WearGhana #FeelGhana

As the day earmarked to celebrate tourism in the world draw closer, we share with you the official message of the Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Ambassador Zurab Pololikashvili. This year’s celebrations will be held in New Delhi-India.

World Tourism Day is commemorated each year on 27 September, with celebrations led by UNWTO. Its purpose is to foster awareness among the global community of tourism’s social, cultural, political and economic value and the contribution the sector can make in reaching the Sustainable Development Goals. In 2019, in line with UNWTO’s overarching focus on skills, education and jobs throughout the year, World Tourism Day will be a celebration on the topic ‘Tourism and Jobs: a better future for all’.

Below is the full text of the Secretary General’s Message on the occasion of the World Tourism Day

Tourism can help us build a better future for everyone. Around the world, the tourism sector is the leading source of employment, supporting many millions of jobs and driving economies forward, both at the local and the national level.

At the same time, it is a catalyst for equality and inclusivity. In many places, tourism employment gives women, young people and those living in rural communities the chance to support themselves and their families and to integrate more fully into wider society.

The true potential of tourism, both as a creator of jobs and as a driver of equality and sustainable development, is only just being realized. Providing decent work opportunities and contributing to developing professional skills are at the heart of this. Well managed, the continued growth of our sector will encompass countless opportunities and allow tourism to live up to its global social responsibility to leave no one behind.

Not one single economic, social or human activity prospers in isolation. For this reason, governments and stakeholders from the public and private sectors are increasingly working together to manage tourism in a responsible and sustainable manner and to ensure its enormous potential is properly realized.

Just as new technology is changing the way we travel, so too is it changing the way we work. Tourism is leading the way in providing workers with the skills and knowledge they need for the jobs of tomorrow. Embracing this creative spirit, including through effective collaboration with partners in the technology sector and in academia, will drive the creation of more and better jobs.

As we celebrate World Tourism Day, let us recognize the transformative power of tourism. Together, we can realize tourism’s potential to build a better, more equal future.

Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State (IC) for Tourism & Culture, Government of India

India is pleased to host the official celebrations of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) World Tourism Day in New Delhi. The theme of this year’s World Tourism Day ‘Tourism and Jobs: A better Future for All’ is highly appropriate as tourism is extremely labour intensive and significant source of employment for many global economies. Tourism is one such activity which extends to various other sectors and thus is responsible for creating direct and indirect employment requiring varying degrees of skills and allows for quick entry into the workforce for youth, women and poor. The tourism sector, therefore, is not only an engine for economic growth but also an effective tool for poverty alleviation among the marginalised segments of the society.

We believe that the development of tourism is directly linked with community development. We want the local population to benefit from the development of tourism in their region and for this, we should focus on the development of soft skills among the locals.

In the process of job creation, let us ensure that our strategies for the development of tourism are not in conflict with the environment and have a minimal negative impact. When we talk about sustainability we should not only talk about conservation of resources but also our culture and heritage, which we have adopted in India through our Sustainable Tourism Criteria.

On behalf of the Ministry of Tourism, I would like to express my gratitude to UNWTO for choosing India as the host for this year’s World Tourism Day I am hopeful that together with the experts from tourism field, we will be able to highlight the challenges and opportunities of employment in Tourism sector and find solutions to the issues of employment in Tourism.

I look forward to receiving you in New Delhi!

Source: Voyages Afriq

Source: Voyages Afriq

Ghana Tourism Authority takes nationwide training for informal sector operators to Kumasi, Ashanti region.

Ninety-two operators from within the Kumasi vicinity participated in today’s sensitisation which covered areas such as food hygiene, food safety laws, tourism Levy payment via partner banks Consolidated Bank Ghana (CBG), Agricultural Development Bank and telco MTN Ghana

On the day also, CBG in partnership with MTN Ghana outdoored the Mobile Money platform has been for remittance of Tourism Levy into the Tourism Development Fund. All our informal sector operators should kindly follow the instructions on the photos.

For the Ghana Tourism Authority regards the informal sector comprising the chop bar, drinking bar operators, food vendors and snack bar operators as key players in our quest to develop the sector. The program was held at the Public Service Workers Union Centre.

The training and Sensitisation is expected to continue in Sunyani and on Wednesday, September 11, 2019.

Accra’s Chale Wote Art Festival is West Africa’s largest annual street art and performance art festival. For the past 8 years, it has grown from a small local event to a global platform attracting an audience of about 50,000 people.

Founded in 2011, the festival began as a one-day event in the streets of Jamestown, the city’s oldest district. It was founded by artists who wanted to give new meaning to some colonial-era buildings that define the area — particularly, the 17th century British James Fort and the Dutch Ussher Fort.

This year marks the fair’s largest edition to date, with over 160 Ghana-based and international artists exhibiting their work across 10 sites, during an 11-day program.

A platform for change

Performance art has always played an important role in the festival, and this year more than ever before, with a dedicated week-long programme.

For this edition, performances at Chale Wote were curated in collaboration with Ghanaian artist Va-Bene Elikem K. Fiatsi, also knows as crazinisTartisT, a self-described gender-nonconforming multidisciplinary artist and director of the perforcraZe International Artists Residency (piAR) in Kumasi.

“It is really hard, especially in Ghana, for unconventional art practitioners like my kind to display some provocative works in public or use certain spaces for their works,” explained Fiatsi in an interview at Chale Wote. According to Fiatsi, being included in an art festival setting creates an opportunity: “It gives the freedom to express, explore, exploit and discover their own limitations and possibilities.”

Fiatsi’s collaboration with John Herman, titled “Table of Negotiation” was one of the most popular performances this year and, at four hours’ running time, also the longest performance in the festival lineup.

In the piece, both artists were bound in chains and suspended above the audience in a monumental replication of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous Vitruvian Man drawing. Exploring notions of masculinity — Herman’s body is labeled as disabled due to an amputated leg, and Fiatsi is gender non-conforming — they pushed their bodies to their limits in a tug-of-war of sorts.

Individual forms of activism and artistic demonstrations for social change are not unusual during the festival. As Fafa MacAuley, Digital Publicity Coordinator for Chale Wote Art Festival explained in an interview at the festival, “Chale Wote was founded in 2011 by Accra[dot]Alt’s as an experimental platform for bringing art, music, dance and performance out of the galleries and into the local Ghanian community.” She continued: “It has always been a space for artists to freely express ideas that challenge the status quo, as well as offer a variety of art forms to push boundaries and connect to a wide-ranging audience.”

Other themes, such as violence against women, pain and marginalized bodies were also explored in performances that were both deeply moving and hard to watch.

In an entranced state punctuated by wails and screams, Cameroonian artist Kayifa began her performance “The memories of the body” outside of Ussher Fort on Cleland Road.

Kayifa’s work is autobiographical. During her piece, the audience followed her into a purpose-built healing circle for a two-hour long performance exploring domestic violence, rape and other forms of oppression directed toward female bodies. It culminated in a deeply moving scene, with the artist, exhausted and wearing her underwear on her face, inviting audience members into an embrace.

“My performances deal with domestic violence, rape, child trafficking, and other forms of female oppression,” said Kayifa. “Chale Wote provides an audience across ages and social class, and its important to use this as a platform for my fight and others.”

Growth of a festival

Once a small artist-led festival with experimental beginnings, Chale Wote is now an established tourist attraction. The festival relies on volunteers and offers no funding to participating artists, but it now attracts thousands of visitors each year. At the same time, the nature of the performances on display has also firmed up its position as a transgressive platform.

Fiatsi defines Chale Wote as “One of the most important spaces and platforms that merge art, locals, natives and internationals.”

Since its inception, Chale Wote has conquered much attention outside of its country of origin, which makes this year’s theme, “Pidgin Imaginarium,” as relevant as ever. It was described in the festival’s brochure as a response to “A continent on the precipice of a major shift, that will completely reset how Africans engage the rest of the world.”

Source: CNN