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By Isaac Ato MENSAH
\nAccra – 29 April, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last Tuesday, Joy FM, an Accra based radio station featured a tourism story on its business news monitored between 1:10 and 1:14pm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the news anchor had introduced the story the voice over was just about 60 seconds, describing tourism in Ghana, Morocco, South Africa\u2026..it was too short with very little detail. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But you cannot blame the reporter; it was not a feature story. The report stated that Ghana had a shoreline of about 560KM, compared that with Morocco\u2019s and talked about Morocco focusing on two of its most important tourist departure nations and granting their citizens visa on arrival. Then the story ended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thankfully, after the news was an interview which lasted till 2pm. The guest stated that she had grown up in Monrovia, and prior to the post war years \u2013 at least in 1987 \u2013 when she departed for Ghana as a young lady, Monrovia was the place to be for immigrants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have heard such stories before – told with relish \u2013 by Ghanaians who stayed in Liberia in the 1980s, that it was the place to be in Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The recommendations made were so simple that if you hear her out, you will fire the tourism minister and all those responsible for state run tourism institutions immediately, including of course the minister for sanitation. One will be surprised if she was venting her frustrations on radio. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, she mentioned co-production of movies, which she suggested could bring movie producers here with their budgets running into the hundreds of millions of dollars. This she explained as \u201clow hanging fruits\u201d that will give Ghana\u2019s creative arts industry skills, and of course that these producers with their entourage will stay in hotels for some two weeks spending their own dollars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now let us look at the tale of the tape of the three countries under consideration and pick up the missing pieces, for, if you were to listen to those two programmes, and you know your stuff, you cannot help but be filled with indignation at all that has gone wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before the formation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), now AU, there was the Monrovia Bloc and Casablanca Bloc, two major diametrically opposed schools of thought which deliberated the form of continental union Africa needed. The Monrovia Bloc won, and that is what we have today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are left with Accra and Casablanca both of which lie on longitude O degrees, the Greenwich Meridian, an important air route address. The Casablanca Bloc (Group) to which Ghana belonged, led by the Moroccans had advocated one united Africa in defence, trade, and all of those great ideals for which Kwame Nkrumah is idolized. Their position was rejected. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, if today Ghanaians need a visa to Morocco, and the north African nation wants to join ECOWAS, and she is being frustrated, it is not because she did not try.
We cannot compare Ghana to Morocco in a tale of the tourism tape. We shall be whipped and sent home weeping. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If we want to be taken seriously for co-productions of movies like Juliet Asante suggested, let us begin with my oft-quoted quip from my mentor: \u201cSanitation and sanitation alone should be our number one and only priority\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That Tuesday (of the first week of Easter) as I listened to the radio programme and how Asante spoke about film production and job creation and tourism and all, I surmised: \u201cMost Ghanaians do not know that many of the Jesus the Galilean movies they enjoy are shot on location in Morocco.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Film producers will continue to go to Morocco due to her scenic low-rise hills and mountains, including the Atlas of course, and infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Until we solve our basic sanitation and infrastructure issues, our tourism industry will not take off. It will even be difficult to justify why we have a Ministry of Tourism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Feedback; ato@writersghana.com; LinkedIn, Isaac Ato Mensah; Instagram, @atomenswriters; Twitter, @Atomens; Facebook, Isaac Ato Mensah; Telegram, Isaac Ato Mensah; Quora, Isaac Ato Mensah. WhatsApp (233) 020 022 0353.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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