Event planners are advised by GTA not to dilute Ghana's heritage

In a recent submission to the Graphic Showbiz X Dialogue Series on the subject of "Promoting Ghana's culture during December in GH," Mr. Kusi emphasized that, in order to guarantee that guests have a significant and culturally enriching experience, event planners should give priority to those that feature Ghanaian music and customs, among other things.

He emphasized that straying from the initiative's main goals and adding outside components may undermine the goal of promoting Ghanaian culture to tourists who are interested in traveling there.

Furthermore, he stated that the government will not be able to achieve its objective of making the program a worldwide phenomenon if there is such a change in emphasis.

"When we welcome back the diasporans who wish to rekindle their ties to their roots during the December festivities in GH, let's not engage in cultural indoctrination."

We cannot afford for this December in GH program to fail, as it is expected to bring in an estimated $3.4 billion to Ghana's economy annually, with an influx of 1.2 million tourists expected throughout the year. To achieve these expected advantages, we must all work together to protect the celebrations' cultural purity and refrain from acting inappropriately.

He claims that in order to improve the effort, GTA is soliciting feedback from stakeholders in order to offer suggestions and insights for a precise road map that event planners would adhere to.

As a group, we are asking interested parties for their opinions on actions and procedures that might have a detrimental effect on the fundamentals of the December in GH campaign. This cooperative endeavor seeks to direct organizers in conforming to cultural norms and preventing unintentional diluting of our legacy," he continued.

Kwame Opoku-Addo, a panelist and co-founder of Migration2Ghana, a platform and networking community, suggested that rather than policing event organizers, important stakeholders should offer support and suggest a proactive approach of providing incentives to facilitate the initiative's execution.

According to Mr. Opoku-Addo, event planners would be more inclined to aggressively promote Ghanaian culture during December's festivities if they were given concrete advantages.

He specifically recommended that the Ghana Revenue Authority think about purposefully giving tax refunds to event planners and urged other relevant parties to give grants and subsidies to make sure they have the funds needed to produce programs that are impactful and rich in culture for both Ghanaians and foreign guests.

"Let's be deliberate if we want to maintain December in GH as a widely recognized initiative. Let's reward and motivate event planners to be essential in promoting Ghanaian culture. Offering incentives will have a more positive impact than policing them, he continued.