The Tourism Society of Ghana (TOSOGHA) in partnership with the Ghana Tourism Authority and the Year of Return Steering Committee has today launched the Youth in Tourism Festival (YOTOFEST) at the Accra Tourist Information Centre.

The festival will among other things, allow for greater local participation, especially the youth in the year-long commemoration of the Year of Return, Ghana 2019. The Youth in Tourism Festival will include a series of activities comprising, a public lecture and workshop, float, exhibitions, musical jamboree and a tour over a three -day period from July 18 to 20.

Coordinator of the Year of Return and CEO, Ghana Tourism Authority, Akwasi Agyeman at the launch, was full of praise for TOSOGHA for continuing to reorient the youth on the need to promote domestic tourism through their activities such as the establishment of tourism clubs in both second cycle and tertiary institutions all over the country.

He mentioned that domestic tourism was at the heart of the country’s tourism growth and TOSOGHA remains a key partner to further complementing the efforts of the Authority and other institutions to better strengthen the domestic tourism drive. Agyeman reiterated his outfit’s continuous support for the organization and the Youth in Tourism Festival.

On his part, Youth Tourism Ambassador and Executive Director of TOSOGHA, Joseph Amartey envisages the Festival to be a potential social platform that effectively and efficiently market Ghanaian indigenous culture and heritage values for international patronage through broader youth engagements. “The foremost objective of YOTOFEST is to re – establish the smooth as well as swift patronage of domestic tourism from a more holistic and grassroots approach,” he said.

An important feature of the festival, according to Amartey, “is the creation of ready market for local artifacts and promotion of commercial sale of ‘’made in Ghana ‘’ goods and services internally and for export, hence a platform to promote the See, Eat, Wear, Feel Ghana agenda.”

The launch of the event attracted student membership of TOSOGHA from various institutions within the Greater Accra Region with other high profile persons also in attendance. They included; Akwasi Ababio, Director for Diaspora Affairs at the Presidency and Chairman of the Year of Return Steering Committee, Kwadwo Antwi, CEO, Ghana Tourism Development Company, Bella Ahu, President, Ghana Tourism Federation and Olivia Opoku-Adomah, Director of Research, Statistics and Policy at the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture who represented the Deputy Minister.

The Tourism Society of Ghana is a youth-led organization with the objective of promoting domestic tourism and imbibing tourism culture among the youth and has over 30,000 members in secondary and tertiary schools across the country.

Click here to view more photos from the launch

Story by: Samuel Obeng Appah