'Year of Return' good initiative by Gov’t- Abeiku Santana

Tour Practitioner who also doubles as a member of the International Travel and Tour Association, Gilbert Abeiku Santana, popularly called Abeiku Santana, has commended government for the ‘Year of Return’ initiative which has projected Ghana’s tourism to the international world.
According to him, the year 2019 was a good year for all tour operators in the country.
“The year 2019 was a good year for all tour operators to the extent that hiring of the services of more workers to assist in the tour business was required,” he said.
Abeiku Santana continued,”The Year of Return initiative has been a very positive tourism Campaign that has projected tourism in Ghana to the international world, attracting a lot of Europeans into the country”.
“Hotels operators, event Organizers, caterers, photographers among all benefited immensely from the celebration of the Year of Return,” Abeiku Santana said.
Mr. Santana made these assertions in an interview with Atinka news, on Tuesday, 31st December 2019.
He however commended the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) for what he describes as massive politicization of the Year of Return Initiative.
“The use of artiste in the politicization of the event [year of Return] was a great move by the Tourism Authority which gave the celebrations a great attention,” he said.
Abeiku Santana pleaded with everybody in the tourism industry to give all prospective visitors a good treat for them to enjoy their stay back in the country.
“Let’s openly receive visitors, smile to them and give them a good treat for them to enjoy their stay. Give back their change to them and do not cheat them thinking that they are not friendly to our currency,” he advised.
On 20th September, 2018, at the Washington Press Club, in Washington D.C., the President of Ghana, Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo Addo proclaimed 2019 as the “Year of Return”.
Its purpose was to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the time when the first 20 West African slaves were brought to the Commonwealth of Virginia, which subsequently became part of the United States of America, thereby initiating one of the most unfortunate and barbaric episodes of human history – the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.
With 75 per cent of the slave dungeons built on the West coast of Africa, through which the slaves were transported, located in Ghana, he stated that the country believed that it had a responsibility to extend a hand of welcome back home to Africans in the diaspora.
Ghana|Atinkaonline.com| Kennedy Obeng