As part of activities to promote domestic tourism in the country, the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Creative Arts (MOTCCA), together with its partners, has launched the first Homofest and World Tourism Day in Accra.
The objective of World Tourism Day is to highlight the pivotal role of tourism in the development process while Homofest aims to bring together all the people of Ga Adangbe to celebrate and showcase the rich cultural tradition of the people.
In an address at the launch, the Minister for MOTCCA, Mrs Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, said Homofest would create awareness among the indigenes, while promoting their food, artefacts, dance and music as well as support urban renewal and regeneration of the region and its environs.
This, Mrs Ofosu-Adjare said, was in line with the Ministry’s ‘Explore Ghana Domestic Tourism’ which seeks to enhance the participation of Ghanaians in tourism, culture and the creative arts sector in the country and promote unity, development, job creation and income re-distribution.
She said on the 27th of September, this year, as the country, together with other countries in the world, marked World Tourism Day, a grand durbar would also be held in Ghana to jointly mark the World Tourism Day and Homofest.
She said in the light of the raging cholera epidemic in Ghana, the focus of the celebration of World Tourism Day would be on sanitation.
The Deputy Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Nii Lante Vanderpuiye, explained that Homofest was a homogeneous festival which had the fuss of all festivals in the Greater Accra region.
Mr Vanderpuiye said he was happy that the Tourism Ministry was partnering with his Ministry, the Ministry of Chieftaincy and Traditional Affairs, Accra Metropolitan Authority and the Greater Accra Regional Co-ordinating Council to outdoor the rich culture of the Ga Adangbe people.
He called on the media and those in the region to spread the culture and participate in the activities that had been lined up to mark the celebration.
