Features
Branding & domestic tourism – UNWTO blueprints for Africa’s tourism recovery & growth
The United Nations World Tourism Organisation, (UNWTO), the UN specialist agency with responsibility for the tourism sector has identified and rolled out branding and marketing as recovery strategy roadmap to support Africa to quickly recover from the devastating corona virus (COVID- 19) pandemic.
According to information from Mr. Zurab Pololikashvill, the Secretary-General of the UNWTO, “countries around the world are steadily shifting from responding to the corona virus pandemic to the recovery phase, where tourism would play a key role not solely due to its importance in job creation, supporting livelihoods and driving inclusive development but tourism itself has been hit hard by the unprecedented crisis, with a decrease of 47 per cent (47%) in international tourist numbers, which translated into around (US$ 320,Billion) in lost revenue.”
The UNWTO Boss, however, affirms that Africa has certain advantages as a prime destination for wildlife and or nature tourism, unspoiled landscapes and habitats, over other global tourism regions, for most international tourists, which call for promoting “Brand Africa, as a key priority.
The branding and marketing support, according to UNWTO, is as a result of feedback from consultations with Africa Member countries.
The objective is to identify the best marketing ideas and strategies that will reposition and make prospective tourists, to see a different Africa, more positively, especially regarding Agenda 2030 and how to reposition tourism sector , to contribute effectively in realising the lofty Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Strategy
The practical assistant in marketing is being offered alongside others including helping to train and up-skill tourism workers, so that they can adapt to the new reality.
The UNWTO is, therefore, working closely with Africa Member countries to adopt innovative strategies and entrepreneurship, to overcome unprecedented challenges that require new ideas and voices.
Moreso, UNWTO seeks to work with member countries to realise their domestic and regional potential.
The Madrid based specialist agency urged member countries to evolve strong and responsible domestic tourism industry, to sustain livelihoods and rural communities, especially women and youth, for the gradual return of international tourism.
Appeal
The UNWTO in addition, calls for determined leadership among African countries, reiterating its confident in the ability of the tourism sector to bounce back stronger and its ability to adapt to challenges, learn lessons as well as embrace innovation and new ideas, which will be pivotal, “to restart tourism across Africa and so reestablish tourism as the ultimate driver of growth and opportunity for all,” as proven over the years, according to UNWTO.
…What’s Ghana’s Tourism Brand ID?
Product development and product packaging are essential elements in product branding, promotion and marketing to meet consumer need and satisfaction, to ultimately attain organisational set market targets and goals.
Branding becomes more indispensable, important, critical and essential in a very sensitive, delicate, dynamic and very competitive industry as tourism.
Potential
Ghana has great tourism potential as regards the four main natural, man-made, cultural and heritage tourism resource categories.
This potential, however, does not translate into an attractive brand national tourism image, it takes a lot of conscious innovation to create attractive and popular brands, which are packaged and promoted with the best marketing mix and marketing strategies, to become popular brands that gain and attain high consumer patronage and acceptance.
Brand campaign
The “Wear Ghana, See Ghana, Eat Ghana”, existing and ongoing national tourism brand campaign is too opaque, it is not attractive, concise and precise enough to make an appreciable impact , to attend the desired target results, the campaign needs review, amendment and realigning with specified identified professional and precise segmentations, which is an outstanding brand, re-enforced with the right, attractive and appropriate logos, colours, taglines among other scientific elements in formal branding enterprises.
Lack of branding
Tourism currently ranked as the largest biggest and fastest growing industry in vogue in the world, contributing critical and substantial foreign exchange into the socio-economic purse of many countries globally, over the years until the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in late 2019.
Our Homeland Ghana has a thousand and one tourism resources in all four broader resource categories of natural, cultural, heritage and man-made resources, which are evenly spread across the length and breadth of the country but pathetically earns paltry pittance from the global tourism market share, whilst other countries with less tourism resources rake billions of thousands of dollars from the blue gold of the 21st Century.
Ghana has all the ingredients including political stability, safety and security and a standard of fair road network and transport system, to be an endless model destination and tourism traffic hub but tarries behind and misses out on the global tourism index.
Potential
Our Homeland Ghana is well endowed with some unique and outstanding rare tourism resources but has no attractive and compelling tourism brand image and identity.
The country has failed woefully to brand itself touristically and, therefore, has no attractive tourism brand image and identity, on the tourism market index currently.
Way forward
Modern tourism is very competitive which has compelled all destinations to adopt dynamic, innovative, creative and robust strategies to create attractive brand images , to reposition themselves to attract the ever increasing dynamic sophisticative money bag tourist patrons and consumers, for a chunk of the rare blue tourism revenue.
There is, therefore, the need for the country to take pragmatic initiatives to commission and undertake in-depth researches to identify its industry competitive edge/ strength and take steps to create an outstanding national tourism image identify, properly segmented for both domestic and foreign tourism patronage and consumption.
Brand identity
The need arises to comprehensively brand the Homeland touristically with creative and innovative strategies, using very sound communication, marketing, branding and business promotional strategies and principles.
Brands
The national tourism branding exercise should create multiple competitive product sub-brands within a synchronised outstanding national brand to attract and satisfy the needs of visitor consumers of diverse tastes, needs and cultural backgrounds, with domestic and foreign consumer needs and targets.
Segmentation
The exercise must be very comprehensive with very clear and conspicuous and identified market segment targets including the broader domestic, specific consumers including the working class, students, faith, academia, research, conservation, youth, retirees markets and or consumers.
There also need to target other identifiable markets such as West Africa, Africa, African Diaspora, and the world at large among others, to create instantiations, irresistible and attractive brands within the National Image Tourism Brand.
Notable and possible attractive tags include Ghana-Land of Living in Diversity, Warm Hospitality, Sun, Beach, Rich Culture & More, Ghana-Land of Gold, Ghana-Footprints of Slavery and Colonisation, Ghana-Land of Endless Tourism Treasure, Warm Hospitality & More outstanding national tourism enclaves, circuits, clusters, zones, districts and regions along other remarkable sub-product units such as gold, slave routes, cocoa .oil, beach, waterfalls, wildlife, agriculture, education, health among others.
Marketing
Branding and marketing promotion are interrelated with common denominators with satisfactory customer and consumer experience to achieve desired market share in modern and an industry as competitive as modern tourism.
Promotion strategy is another critical and essential element in brand’s success narration in every endeavour.
Strategy
Sustained multi-media campaign messages in the form of press statements, press conferences, press soirees, interviews, using electronic (radio/television), banners, sign boards, print (newspapers, flyers, magazines), attendance of exhibitions, fairs/events ( home and abroad), and social media presence medium have , fair general media balanced media-mix presence all overbearing positive effects on brand evolution campaigns.
By Prince Dennis Klintings
The Writer is Brands, Branding, Communication, Marketing & Tourism Analyst
Features
The Cop, press and lost fingers
The job of a policeman, whether he is short or tall, is not a cheap one. He is supposed to keep the peace, protect society and monitor the activities of local magicians and money doublers who are specialists in making civil servants lose their pay within seconds.
By far the most difficult job of the policeman is when he is expected to arrest a murderer who is not only armed but also has a record of appearing and disappearing at will. Even if the tough cop is in the company of other policemen all armed to the teeth, his stomach will turn to water when the criminal suddenly appears.
He is terrified not because the criminal is a better marksman, but because nobody dies twice. The problem also is that a criminal might be prepared to die in a bid to shoot his way to freedom. But is the police-man prepared to risk death in the course of duty when he has a family to rear.
If he had just acquired a new girlfriend with whom he is enjoying life, should he not run away with his tail between his legs and tell his boss that the criminal is uncatchable?
Before some policemen go on patrol duties, they actually pray solemnly. “God send me into the wilderness and bring me back safely with my nose intact because I’m worth more than a common rat. I also do not want to die like a stray dog. If a bullet is targeted at my forehead, Holy Spirit please let it go over the bar, because six children is not a small palaver. If I die, who will look after them? Lord keep me safe day by day. Amen!”
The Sikaman policeman’s job is a risky one because he is not properly equipped with even a trained dog to help track down criminals easily. So he has to use his own nose judiciously in sniffing out suspects while making sure a bullet doesn’t catch him square on the jaw.
My friend Sir Kofi Owuo, a.k.a. Death-By-Poverty was telling me journalists are in an even riskier profession. Apparently, he had been reading about the palaver of journalists in places like Algeria and Columbia. Algeria, even women journalists are not spared assassin’s bullet. You’d see them lying in front of their homes with their heads full of bullet holes.
In Columbia, no journalist is safe. When a journalist is leaving home, he has to tell his wife. “Darling, when I don’t come back by 7 p.m. check the mortuary
The drug trade in Columbia has made journalism a profession not worth practising. If you write on cocaine and the harm it is inflicting on society, you’ll certainly receive a phone call.
“Hello, Mr Journalist, your article yesterday was great. Congratulations! We never knew you were such brilliant writer, championing the cause of society. Again we say congrats! But you know something, by your article, you want to take the bread out of my and that of my family. You don’t want us to beak. We are aggrieved beyond measure”
“Oh, I was just… “You’d try to say something
“You don’t have to explain. The harm has already been done by your award-winning masterpiece. We have an appointment with you. You’ll hear from us.
Rest In Peace!” After such a phone call, you just have to pray to your soul, sing a hymn or two and get prepared fort appointment with death. For, death will surely come
I think pressmen in Sikaman would also have start informing their families appropriately before leaving for work now. “If I don’t come back early, I’m probably at the Ear, Nose and Throat Department of Korle- Bu checking a leakage in my left ear due to a gendarme slap from an AMA official. If you don’t see me there, track me down to the emergency ward. If you see a newly-made cripple, I’m the one”
What about referees? These days they are guarded during football matches so that the risk they bear in terms of lost teeth is minimal. Formerly, it used to be a job full of woes and tribulations.
You were expected to oversee a match in such way that would favour a particular team. If that is not done, you’ll get back home and your wife will not recognise you. She’ll mistake you for Frank Bruno who had just lost a bout. When she finally recognises you, she’ll fix some hot water to massage your poor face.
I hear that these days, apart from the protection referees receive, some are well-armed with Damfo Dzai, a kind of jack-knife that can carve a rowdy supporters face in several designs.
My Press Secretary and part-time bodyguard Devine Ankamah, was telling me if he happens to be a referee, he’d surely carry a Kalashnikov AK 47 rifle with him, complete with loaded magazine, before officiating matches. According to him, that is the only way to do the job without fear or favour. Anyone dares will lose his jaw.
Anyway, risky jobs require good remuneration. As Kwame Korkorti once said, risky jobs require risky salary. A policeman would require a good pay so that when a criminal targets his left ear it would be worth the ‘amputation’. Same for journalists and cameramen.
But go round private workplaces and factories and you’d see really risky occupations where workers are receiving salaries they can’t see with the naked eye.
In fact, in some private workplaces, environmental safety is completely absent. Workers breathe in fumes, poisonous gases and risk lung and respiratory problems. Their employers do nothing about protecting them against these hazards. Check out their payer.
In other places, workers have their fingers chopped off on the job, some losing as many as four fingers in stretch. The compensation they get can best be described as “wicked”. Their employers live big, chop big, ride big but are not willing to pay more than ¢120,000 for lost fingers.
Actually the more fingers you lose, the more money you get. So if you intend losing your fingers on the job, it is advisable to lose as many as possible so that you can get more cash. Those who have lost one finger have not benefited much and are encouraged to lose more next time around.
Sikaman Palava is undertaking to investigate some of these cases of very risky jobs in private setups and companies where workers are being exploited to unnecessarily but not offered protection against health hazards, and not properly compensated when they sustain injuries.
This article was first published on Saturday, September 28, 1996
Features
Position yourself for God’s blessings
Motivated by the impending 40-day fasting and needless to add prayer programme, preceding the Greater Works Conference scheduled for August in Accra, I would like to draw attention to how believers can receive blessings from God.
There is a scripture in Hebrews 11:5 that “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: and before his translation, he had this testimony that he pleased God”.
This clearly shows that in order to receive blessings from God, you must please God. How can one please God? You can only please God by obeying him and walking in line with God’s word. Just like how children who obey their parents, enjoy special treatment, so does God deal with his children who obey his word.
There are ways by which people receive blessings from God and holiness is an important criteria in the whole equation. Holiness is a process and not a one day event.
It is a mindset borne out of walking in obedience to God’s instructions i.e. his word. In order to have a mindset of living to please God, requires studying God’s word coupled with praying and fasting.
This helps us to develop trust in God by knowing his nature, what he likes and dislikes. This is what will enable us to live to please him and for our faith in him also to increase.
The Bible says in Hebrews 11:6 that “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him”
Fasting is one of the required criteria for blessings to be released and it goes with prayer because fasting without prayer is just a physical exercise. Fasting enables a person’s inner man to be in tune with the spirit of God and also becomes spiritually empowered to hear from God and also obey God.
Fasting enables a person’s spirit to feed on God’s word in a much more focused manner as compared to studying God’s word in normal times. As a result our spirit gains the upper hand to dominate the body and the soul, so that we are more conscious of the presence of God in our lives which causes us willingly the desire to live to obey God.
Holiness which is a prerequisite for pleasing God, can only manifest in our lives if we are able to overcome the desires of the flesh and this only happens when the flesh is subject to the spirit.
Apostle Paul said that “But l keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should not be castaway”, according to 1 Corinthians 9:27.
In order to bring the body or flesh into subjection so that believers will be able to live to please God, we have to study, God’s word in a certain state of mind which fasting and prayer appropriately provides.
Our minds are the battle grounds for decisions that either please God or the Devil. In order to please God so his blessings can be released upon our lives, we must continuously engage our minds with thoughts that is in line with God’s word.
Philippians 4:8 says that “Finally Brethren whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things”. May God help us to live to please him by meditating on things that please the Lord, so we shall be blessed in all aspects of our lives. God bless.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
