Tourism Ministry Set to Launch New TV Channel to Boost Tourism

Catherine Afeku - Minister of Tourism and Creative Arts

The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, is set to launch a new television channel, Tourism TV, to showcase made-in-Ghana products and the country’s rich culture and tourist sites.

This, the sector Minister says, it will help rejuvenate the sector, and boost its economic contribution to the country.

Over the years, there has been public outcry about the poor investment into the tourism sector, thereby hampering patronage both locally and internationally.

For instance, road infrastructure to most of the country’s tourist sites, are in a deplorable state. In the arts and entertainment industry for instance, copyright laws barely function, a situation that denies intellectual property owners of their due.

Whiles several countries on the African continent make millions of dollars from tourism, Ghana makes very little.

Many have argued that, reviving the tourism industry is not much about creating awareness, through the appointment of tourism ambassadors, but rather a strategic investment in infrastructure.

In an interview with Citi Showbiz at a symposium organised by Black Star International Film Festival at the African Regent Hotel on Monday, the sector minister, Catherine Afeku, said the TV station will help to re-orient Ghanaians with a new sense of national pride in their heritage and culture.

“We have a lot of creative content and we are competing with foreign countries which is saturating our media platform. So 9 months ago I came up with a concept that we need an outlet for our creative arts people,” she stated.

“It didn’t come easy but we have finally gotten our license. This will give a platform for our festivals, the music, and the shows that never get airtime. That is what the TV channel is all about,” Afeku added.

In 2017, the Minister promised the establishment of the television channel to help curb the influx of foreign telenovelas and give Ghanaian artistes, actors and actresses a platform to air their content.

“Under our democratic dispensation, it is not possible to censor movies like some have been calling for. What we can do is to find creative ways to make local content competitive and commercially viable, and that is what my Ministry has set out to do,” she said.

She said this when new executives of the Ghana Actors Guild paid a courtesy call on her.

Source: citifmonline.com