By George Egeh, Correspondent (Ghana)
With barely a week left to celebrate the National Youth in Tourism Festival, “YOTOFEST 2019” Tourism Society of Ghana and collaborating organization Ghana Chamber of Content Producers are both working together to ensure the event records massive success.
The festival is being organized with support from the Ministry of Tourism, Art and Culture, Ghana Tourism Authority, Ghana Tourism Development Company, Ghana Tourism Federation, Year of Return secretariat and Diaspora Affairs, office of the president.
Youth in Tourism Festival 2019 is one of the events earmarked by the Year of Return Secretariat as part of activities to celebrate the Year of Return, a strategic tourism marketing initiative launched by his Excellency the President of Ghana to bring Africans in Diaspora to Ghana to trace and appreciate their root.
The Festival which is set to commence on the 10th to 12th of October 2019 at the Ghana International Trade Fair Center will be patronized by schools, tertiary institutions, youths who are tourism practitioners and other relevant stakeholders.
The event which was launched in partnership with the Ghana Tourism Authority and the Year of Return Steering Committee at the Accra Tourist Information Centre will among other things, allow for greater local participation, especially the youth in the year-long commemoration of the Year of Return, Ghana 2019.
The Youth in Tourism Festival will include a series of activities comprising, a public lecture and workshop, float, exhibitions, musical jamboree and a tour to tourism attractions in cape coast.
The Festival will be used to market Ghanaian indigenous culture and heritage values for international patronage through broader youth engagements. “The foremost objective of YOTOFEST is to re – establish the smooth as well as swift patronage of domestic tourism from a more holistic and grassroots approach.
An important feature of the festival is the display of local artifacts to promote the commercial sale of ‘’made in Ghana ‘’ goods and services internally and for export. Activities such as See, Eat, Wear, Feel Ghana agenda will be show cased through cooking and fashion competitions to be undertaken by students of different schools who will be participating at the festival.
Tourism is the forth foreign exchange earner in Ghana, with huge business potentials in the sector; a seminar is also in place to high light the many business opportunities in the tourism sector and influence the youth to pick up careers in tourism as solution to combating unemployment.
The Tourism Society of Ghana is a youth-led organization with the objective of promoting domestic tourism and imbibing tourism culture among the youth and has over 30,000 members in secondary and tertiary schools across the country.
Tourism Society of Ghana as a body is committed to reorienting the youth on the need to promote domestic tourism through their activities such as the establishment of tourism clubs in both second cycle and tertiary institutions all over the country.
Domestic tourism is at the heart of the country’s tourism growth and TOSOGHA remains a key partner when it comes to complementing the efforts of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts & Culture, Ghana Tourism Authority and other institutions to better strengthen the domestic tourism drive.
The Tourism Society of Ghana and it’s planning committee seizes this opportunity to invite all youths in Ghana to come witness and participate in the festival as it promises to be educating and entertaining.
