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The much-awaited Ghana Tourism Awards to honour deserving facilities in the tourism industry in Ghana for the year 2018 was held at The Event Haven, La on Friday, March 22, 2019. In all 29 awards were presented to organisations and individual in Accommodation, Food and beverage and Entertainment, Travel Trade and Media. In addition, honorary awards were given to six (6) personalities who have contributed to the growth and the development of the Tourism Industry over the years.

Below are the award winners for the various categories.

HONORARY AWARDS

1. Edwin Owusu-Mensah – (Fmr Dir. Ministry of Tourism, Arts And Culture, Former Dep. Exec. Dir. Ghana Tourism Authority)
2. Stella W. Appenteng – (CEO – Apstar Tours Ltd)
3. Kwame Ofosu Bamfo (MD – Alisa Hotel)
4. Sajid Ali Kahn – (GM – Tang Palace Hotel,Accra,Ghana)
5. Erieca Bennett – (Head of Mission, Missions Forum: Africa Diaspora Missions Network)
6. Mark Williams – (CEO – Ashanti African Tours Ltd)

ACCOMMODATION AWARDS

5 Star Hotel of the Year – Movenpic Ambassador Hotel

4 Star Hotel of the Year – Tang Palace Hotel

3 Star Hotel of the Year – Holiday Inn Hotel

2 Star Hotel of the Year – Ibis Styles

1 Star Hotel of the Year – Coconut Grove Sakumono

Guest House of the Year – Petit Palais Guesthouse

Budget Hotel of the Year – Ronna lodge, Adidome

Hostel of the Year – Bedstudy Osu

Serviced Apartment of the Year – Red Mango Apartments chapel Hill

FOOD AND BEVERAGE AND ENTERTAINMENT (CATERING) AWARDS

Restaurant Grade 1 – Azmera Restaurant

Restaurant Grade 2 – The Buka Restaurant Ltd

Restaurant Grade 3 – Madela Restaurant, Sunyanil

Fast Food of the Year – Papaye Fast Foods Ltd.

Night Club of the Year – Plot 7 Night Club, Osu

Traditional Caterer (Chop Bar) of the Year – Bush Kanteen Shiashie,

Drinking Bar of the Year – The Treasures Pub, Agbogba

TRAVEL SERVICES AWARDS

1. Airline of the Year – South African Airways
2. Tour Operator of the Year – Landtours Ghana
3. Travel Agency of the Year – Satguru Travels Ghana Ltd
4. Car Rental Service of the Year – Atlas Rent A Car
5. Visitor Attraction of the Year – Kakum National Park Ghana

MEDIA AWARD WINNERS

1. Tourism Writer of the Year – Kofi Akpabli
2. Tourism Oriented Media TV – TV3 Media,
3. Tourism Oriented Media (Radio)- Citi 97.3 FM
4. Tourism Oriented Media (Print)- The Mirror
5. Tourism Oriented Media (Online) – Voyages AFRIQ MEDIA
6. Tourism Programme of the Year – Our Heritage by UTV Ghana

About The Awards

The National Tourism Awards was instituted by the Ghana Tourism Authority in 1997 to reward excellent performance in the tourism sector.

It is one of the flagship events of the GTA held annually and it sets the tone for high standards in service delivery among practitioners in the tourism sector.

Awards, including honorary awards, are presented to practitioners and organisations who have made maintained high standards and individuals who have made immense contributions to the growth and development of Ghana’s tourism industry.

The award usually attracts high profile personalities in government, business, politics, academia and practitioners within the tourism industry.

03

Jan

2019

GHANA KICKSTARTS YEAR OF RETURN WITH DURBAR AT AKWAMUFIE

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Activities celebrating the Full Circle Festival is drawing to a close as the Country ushers in the Year of Return, Ghana 2019. Officials of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture , Ghana Tourism Authority and office of Diaspora Affairs joined the Chiefs and people of Akwamu to celebrate several Hollywood stars of African descent at a colourful ceremony.

Drawing parallels between the resilience and fighting spirit of the Akwamu people, the Paramount Chief, Odeneho Kwafo Akoto III, congratulated the star studded entourage for their exploits in the USA which has now made them global icons. Actor Michael Jai White and Marketing icon, Bozoma Saint John were both enstooled as warriors. Hollywood Actor, Boris Kodjoe, who coordinated the trip also came up for special recognition for his untiring efforts in promoting Ghana to the rest of the World.

The Year of Return is a special spiritual and birthright journey being cordinated by the Ghana Tourism Authority to commemorate 400 years since the first enslaved Africans arrived in North America. The initiative has pushed Ghana into 4th place in the list of 19 must visit places in 2019 put together by CNN.

02

Jan

2019

Inside Ghana’s Elmina Castle is a haunting reminder of its grim past

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Source: Tanni Deb, CNN and Segun Akande, for CNN (CNN Africa)

Across Africa, from the north of the Sahara to the West African coast sit many relics of the continent’s early interactions with Europe.

In Ghana, two of the country’s most famous spectacles, Elmina Castle and Cape Coast Castle are truly imposing.

But their ancient walls were once home to one of the most tragic and brutal periods in the history of humanity — the transatlantic slave trade.

The bigger of the two, Elmina Castle, is a white-washed fortress on the coast of the small town of Elmina in what is now modern-day Ghana. First built in 1482 as a Portuguese trading settlement, the 91,000 sq foot behemoth was one of the principal slave depots in the transatlantic slave trade for more than three centuries.

Today, it is a UNESCO World Heritage site that attracts tens of thousands of visitors every year.

inside africa Ghana slave castle Africa history vision b_00004805

This slave castle’s inner walls are a haunting reminder of its gruesome past 08:59

Some of them, like Ivor Bartels, are looking to reconnect with their lost family’s heritage and unwittingly, a lot more. “My mother is Belizean, and I was born in the UK. I’m Afro-Caribbean, British-Caribbean. My name took me to Ghana because I knew there was Bartels here,” he say in the halls of the old castle. “I thought this was an ideal place for me to start my journey; to search for my roots, for my past, and to find out really what happened here within these walls.”

‘A dark history’

Alex Afful, a tour guide at the castle, says there are two schools of thought on the inspiration behind the castle’s name.

“One believed that the word ‘Elmina’ is an Arabic name, which means ‘harbor.’ One also has it that it’s a Portuguese word meaning, ‘the mine,’ Afful says.

When the Portuguese first arrived, their main commodity was gold, Afful explains. “At the rate they were getting it, this made the Portuguese to think or believe that a gold mine is found here,” he says.

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However, when European powers began to invade Africa for slaves, Elmina became an essential stop on the slave route and a prison of sorts for captives.

Today, Afful retraces the brutal journey that most captives faced before being sold into slavery. It often began by determining which prisoners were healthy enough for the long, arduous course ahead. “Normally they want the healthy captives, so first they have to count. They have an instrument that they use to open their teeth, to count the number of teeth that they had,” Afful explains. “In some cases, they have to be whipped for them to jump, for them to see how strong that they are. So, that’s the first phase. Now, when they get in here, day after that has been done, they were then put in the various dungeons.”

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Cape Coast Castle – From gold trade to slave trade 07:05

After being tested, the captives were confined to Elmina’s dungeons where conditions were shocking, even by the standards of the time. “…There were no toilets. There were no bathrooms. In some cases, they had straws on the floor, which they used as a mattress and so on,” Afful describes. “In all these dungeons, they were given buckets, which they were expected to ease themselves.” “But because of the conditions they were in, the chains they had on their feet made it almost impossible for them to get to this bucket,” he tells CNN.

Captives could spend as long as three months in confinement, awaiting their journey into a dark, and unknown future.

As Afful explains, negotiations were concluded before slave ships would carry their human cargo. But in a market where the seller had little control over how each slave could be distinguished, the buyers often felt the need to label their new property, in the most inhumane of ways. “Now, with the branding, each merchant has its own method of doing it. Some will use alphabet; some will use numbers on the form of a metallic stamp,” Afful describes. “They put it in the fire, already they have some oil on their body (to) prepare them for the journey. So they burn them on the skin,” Branded and subjugated, the captives were led aboard awaiting ships through the Door of No Return. “… when the ship came, they took them in batches through the ‘Door of No Return,’ and they get to the ship, for the journey to proceed from there,” he says.

The ‘Door of No Return’ still swings, centuries after, a menacing reminder of the captives’ descent into a life of terror and relentless servitude.

“Initially, this door was bigger. But when the slave trade began, it was reduced this way. So that one person can come in at a time,” Afful says.The Door, the dungeons where captives were restrained and the walls through which these slaves walked all serve as cues of a story that Africa seems to have confined to the past.

Opinion: Why young Africans need to know their history

It is an approach that Edmund Abaka, Associate Producer of History and International Studies at the University of Miami, believes we must rethink.

“We have to move away from the perception that, ‘oh, history is about the past, history is about people who are dead and gone,'” Abaka says. “It is our story. If we don’t tell our story, somebody will tell their story,” he adds. For Bartels, the accounts of Elmina’s past revive a traumatizing story, yet the necessity of hearing these tales is not lost on him. “I can hear the wailing of my ancestors here. The souls that have been lost. … But it’s good to be home,” he says. Today, the town of Elmina is a lively, bustling hub — but the castle towers above it, an essential, yet painful reminder of its past.

31

Dec

2018

2018 Culture Afrochella ‘wows’ patrons

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What seemed to be the last major event on the tourism calendar for 2018 did not disappoint patrons. The 2018 Culture Afrochella dubbed #afrochella18 came off at the El-wak Sports Stadium on Saturday December 29, 2018 bringing traffic to a stand-still.

The beautifully and artistically designed entrance was just a foretaste of what was in-stock for patrons. From afrocentric dressing to woodcraft, acrobatic display to foot’pool’, eye-opening paintings to giant candies, the photo opportunities were endless but requiring phones with extra memory space for selfies.

The music was just ‘afrocentrically’ riveting as the food caused taste buds to produce excess saliva. Crowning it all was the evening musical performances that left no room for parking for patrons who arrived late. Patrons are already looking forward to the 2019 edition and organizers have promised nothing but a more exciting event.

For more…

13

Dec

2018

2018 Ghanaian Christmas version of “12 Days of Christmas” goes viral

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A Ghanaian Band Kwan Pa Band, has released what is turning out to be the 2018 Christmas carol which has already gone viral on various social media platforms. Kwan Pa Band gave viewers the hilarious version of the the popular “12 Days of Christmas” carol at Joy Prime TV Studio. This has been described as typical #feelghana moment.

Watch and enjoy below…

The lyrics to the “Palm Wine Music” version of the popular carol is as follows:

LYRICS:

On the FIRST DAY of Christmas my true love gave to me, A PARTRIDGE IN A PEAR TREE!

On the SECOND DAY of Christmas my true love gave to me…, PAYA NE ANWAMO … , and a partridge in a pear tree!

On the THIRD DAY of Christmas my true love gave to me…, FANTA NE NKATIE… , Paya ne anwamo, and a partridge in a pear tree!

On the FOURTH DAY of Christmas my true love gave to me…, K)T) NE ABENKWAN, Fanta ne nkatie, Paya ne Anwamo, and a partridge in a pear tree!

On the FIFTH DAY of Christmas my true love gave to me… KONTOMIRE, KYINGOM (chewing gum) NE ALEWA, NKATIE, NE K)K)) A YATOTO, and a partridge in a pear tree!

BRONYAAAAAA….! ????

Below is an extract on unique Ghanaian music by Prof. J.K. Anquandah.

Ghana is par excellence a nation of music. Every sphere of Ghanaian life-style throbs with music.

At the naming ceremony and the puberty rite, at the betrothal and the wedding, at the market and on the farms, at the blacksmith’s and the potter’s factory and at the beach fishing scene, at the village story-telling scene at night, at the chief’s durbar and the annual Yam Festival, at the traditional priest’s shrine or in the Christian church, at the social gathering or in the nightclub, music-making is ubiquitous.

Ghana’s contemporary musical world is characterized by an array of indigenous and foreign music types, employing local and foreign styles, techniques and instruments. There are ancient traditional instruments some dating back to 500-1000 years, such as the Seperewa, Adenkum, Dawuro, Akasa and the Ashiwa, the Nnawa, Odurugya and Atenteben

And there are foreign instruments such as guitars, trumpets, organs, pianos, saxophones and clarinets which have been introduced recently into the country. Today, the very imagination boggles at the fantastic array of music varieties produced by Ghanaian dance bands, choral groups, church musical groups, traditional recreational groups, funeral groups and royal music groups.

During the last half century, Ghana’s creative composers have sought to identify the country’s unique qualities of indigenous music and develop them. One such quality involves the technique known to musicologists as “contrapuntal.”

In such a musical type, each drum plays its own part and yet all the drums combine to form one unit, there is also a voice interplay of solo and chorus, with one calling and the other responding.

Ephraim Amu, Ghana’s celebrated composer, in experimenting on the contrapuntal concept, married Western type of harmony to traditional Ghanaian rhythm and produced at least a dozen musical compositions which world musical critics have adjudged as master pieces.

These include Adawurabome, Meda Preko, Nkradi, Alegbegbe, Yaanom ebibirima, Momma yenkoso nfro, Tete wobikyere, Konakatutuw, Miva miva, and Bonwere Kente.
This article examines some of the rich traditional sources which Ghanaian music-makers have tapped in order to make such an important contribution to the world’s musical heritage.

Ghanaian traditional music can be grouped into two major families, first, music for entertainment or recreation, and second, institutional music performed as part of social, religious, cultural or royal political functions or celebrations. Recreational or entertainment music seems to have the greatest variety of musical types employing varied instruments and also, quite, naturally, has the most popular types of music.

Source: National Commission on Culture