Ghana Earning Its Stars And Stripes Through Tourism

Outside Accra’s shiny new Kotoka International Airport is a fleet of 30 black Land Cruisers waiting for a motley group of 60 African-Americans gripped by wanderlust.

The airport, birthed from the partnership between Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL) and Airports Company South Africa (ACSA), now processes around 1,250 passengers per hour with a goal of welcoming some six million passengers each year to the leafy West African country, according to Joshua Otchere of Ghana Immigration Service.

This is Ghana’s attempt to become the hub of sub-regional travel by distinguishing itself from the likes of Lagos.

“We are now offering better services, faster turnaround times from airlines and a world-class experience when traveling, which we believe will compete with the rest of the world along with great retail spaces,” says Otchere.

It is a fitting welcome to the star-studded group of visitors including international supermodel Naomi Campbell and actors Idris Elba, Anthony Anderson and Rosario Dawson among many others. Ghana, once a major hub for the transatlantic slave trade from the 16th to the 19th centuries, has several historical ties with the USA.

Ghana’s president Nana Akufo-Addo declared and formerly launched ‘Year of Return Ghana 2019’ for Africans in the diaspora in Washington D.C., in September last year with the aim of uniting Africans on the continent with their brothers and sisters abroad. Tasked with playing her role to make that vision a reality is fellow Ghanaian and Chief Marketing Officer of William Morris Endeavor, Bozoma Saint John.
I had an audience with the president after meeting him at an event by the Africa-America Institute in New York where we were both presented with awards. During my acceptance speech, I spoke about Ghana and when I came back to Ghana, he asked me what I was going to do to represent Ghana in the diaspora,” says John.

“He said he was proud of my achievements but what am I going to do specifically to help promote Ghana. I took it to heart and I thought about all the friends that I have invited to Ghana throughout the years and all of those who have changed their opinions about what Ghana is and sometimes it was only after a week. So I knew how powerful that process was,” she says.