Thoughts of this year’s World Tourism Day’s theme, “tourism enriches” brings back to me, some of the many stories l had to tell my family and friends after every tour. Well, one of the things l do is tour guiding and l have been doing that for many exciting years.
As a tour guide, my business is to take tourists round my country, show them what is spectacular about Ghana and tell them some of our history, and for sure what’s happening in today’s Ghana.
I tell stories about our legendary story hero Kwaku Ananse, after we have dived into the hearts our national heroes and heroines, aspects of our culture and lifestyle. I tell tourists about our politics and most importantly to me, investment opportunities in Ghana. I have done tour guiding for Ghanaians living within and without Ghana, and people from all continents across the world, including children and even people who do not understand English language.
I go almost everywhere with tourists depending on what their interests are and which of my surprises l am in the mood to untie. My encounter with tourism which l hope to publish in full someday, makes an unblemished truth that tourism really enriches. The many cultural influences from tourism may come with some challenges but the economics of tourism is colossal, l dare to say.
When tourists travel to Ghana, the providers of all the services they enjoy pay taxes to government from what they receive as payment for their service and these include airlines, cruiser ships, land transport services, food and beverage, accommodation, gift shops etc.
The more tourists we receive, the bigger the monies. What makes the tourism money thick is that, very often, they end up directly in the hands of those that need it most. I mean the poor and abused and neglected village folk and street vendors. Think about the young and old people who roast plantain, sell fruits, drinks, and everything along our roads who have to brave all odds, high temperatures and rains just to feed the family and pay bills. Remember that most of our attractions are located in the rural areas where poverty is the everyday punishment and the fact that the tourist would buy and not worry about cost, something that other village folks may not afford. God must have deliberately kept our attractions in the rural areas.
When l saw the theme for this year's world tourism day celebrations, l decided to share my experience with how tourism has enriched some poor families in Ghana, no matter how remote they may be.
Most tourists to Ghana do what is known as the golden triangle, that is Asante Region - Central Region - Greater Accra Region. We visit all kinds of places depending on the interests of the tourists at hand. In November 2005, just when l had returned from the World Travel Market in London where the role of tourism in reducing poverty captured a lot of attention, it happened again.
l went on tour with a group of medical professionals from the USA, we were travelling from Kumasi towards Cape Coast, when we got to a place near Assin Fosu, l decided to pull one of my surprise cards, so l signalled the driver of our bus to make a brief stop at an akpeteshie distillery located at a hamlet along the road. Akpeteshie is one of the numerous names we have given to our locally distilled gin. Other names of akpeteshie include: Squadron Leader, Assemblyman, aviation fuel, champion, Captain Planet, Ogogoro, and many more. This is the drink that will make you feel like the most powerful citizen of the World. Yet, it is the most affordable booze in Ghana and West Africa. We are informed that Ghanaians drink over 40 millions gallons of Ogogoro annually. Everybody knows it could easily be twice that figure.
So we visited the distillery and l asked the distiller to explain his process of distillation to us, which he did after he had reminded us of the normal distillation process we are all familiar with from our chemistry lessons in high school.
Some of my tourist friends wanted to try the stuff so l quickly took a tot and almost all of them took various quantities of the akpeteshie. I’m sure some of them started feeling like Squadron leaders, or perhaps Tarzans.
Instant comments unanimously exalted Ogogoro as they equalled it to Vodka and decided to buy some to be taken home. Eventually 22 bottles of akpeteshie were bought at $ US 2,200. Yes, they refused to purchase a bottle of akpeteshie at 5,000 cedis (about 40 US Cents) as the man said.
They said, for the quality of the drink, and the nature of its distillation, the man deserved more than 5,000 cedis per bottle. Our new friend obviously had never seen a dollar before so we agreed that he kept the money so that l would return after the tour to help him out.
l returned after a week and we went to Cape Coast, the nearest big town to convert the money into cedis at 9000, cedis per dollar so our friend got 19,800,000 cedis. You should have been there to experience the man's reaction.
He had not bought a piece of cloth for the wife in 8 years so we bought some clothes for her, we paid the daughter's schools 2 years ahead and paid the areas of 800,000 the man owed and banked the remainder. His confidence returned at once. That is one out of many exciting experiences. Many tour guides have had similar or more fantastic experiences. Tourism indeed enriches.
In Ghana as in most African countries, our most spectacular attractions are located in the rural areas where poverty is most prevalent and visible. If African politicians would be humble enough to be told the stories of sustainable tourism, God would smile. Tourism is the largest foreign exchange earner in 46 of the 49 poorest countries in the World. Tourism can make a difference in the war against poverty. If you believe in this vision, join TOURISM PARTNERS now. Visit: www.tourismpartners.org. In Ghana, email: tourismjournal@gmail.com. Call 0208969090
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