Government says its effort to extend diaspora tourism beyond December is taking shape as it welcomes about 500 African-American visitors through the Black Star Experience.
The visit builds on the momentum of Ghana’s Year of Return in 2019 and the Beyond the Return initiative which the government says aims to strengthen ties between Ghana and the African diaspora.
The over 500 visitors are members of the first African-American sorority founded at the Howard University, which is the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated.
President of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated, Janette Anthony Reid, touted the significance of the visit.
“One of the things we do is we work on fighting food insecurity, so we have a program called CHIP, Childhood Hunger Initiative Power Packs. So we intend to pack at least 1,000 power packs while we’re here on January 15th. We’re going to include rice.
We’re going to include tomato paste. We’re going to include packets of fish. So everybody brought something in this whole group to contribute to that. But not only that, we also work on maternal health.
So we plan to give to the hospital here in Ghana a substantial donation to help clear out the maternity wards in one of the hospitals,” Danette said.
Of the 500 women, over 100 have traced their ancestry to find out where in Africa they’re from, and they’re going to find that out on this trip through AfricanAncestry.com.
The Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Tourism Authority, Gilbert Abeiku Aggrey said the visit is expected to impact on the economy.
“This is a high net income, you know, spenders- from accommodation, food and beverages, buying gifts from the craft market, transportation, hotel, and so on and so forth.
It’s going to boost our economy. If you take averagely, if a person spends $3,000, multiply $3,000 by 500, and if they are spending two weeks, you appreciate the tourism receipt, the income that is coming into our economy. And it’s coming into the informal sector, you know, where normally in January it dips because we have spent so much in December, so it’s a lean season,” he explained.
