Kempinski Hotel partners maiden “Hungarian Cultural Week”

The Hungarian Embassy in Ghana is organising the maiden “Hungarian Cultural Week” at the Kempinski Accra Gold Coast City Hotel as part of efforts to promote the country’s rich traditions and culture.

The Hungarian Cultural Week took off with a dinner on Friday, March 10, and will include a series of activities that seeks to sell the rich culture of Hungary to the Ghanaian public and guests of the hotel.

The week-long celebration is being marked along three key pillars of arts and cultural exhibition; a Ghana-Hungary musical concert to be headlined by Sena Dagadu, a renowned musician with both Ghanaian and Hungarian descent; and business-to-business engagement between Hungarians and their Ghanaian business counterparts.

Hungarian Ambassador to Ghana, András Szabós, told the B&FT in an interview that the event also seeks to announce the reopening of Hungarian diplomatic missions in Ghana, which has been closed for over 30 years.

He said: “Through this celebration, we want to show to the Ghanaian community that the Hungarian diplomatic mission is back with its accompanying foreign policies.

As part of the event, we will be hosting policymakers, the business community and friends of Hungary to Hungarian delicacies to be prepared by a top chef from Hungary. For a whole week, the public will have the chance to taste Hungarian cuisine, arts and culture.”

Mr. Szabos also indicated that fact sheets and short movies about Hungarian culture, tourism and business opportunities will be showcased during the week-long celebration to attract the segment of the public who are interested in exploring Hungary.

The Hungarian Cultural Week celebrations will include the Ghana-Hungary Business Forum that will pool dozens of Hungarians drawn from various business sectors of agriculture, health, creative industry and IT to interact with counterparts in Ghana.

“I hope this will boost the economic relations between the two countries, apart from those that we have already started working on in different sectors,” Mr. Szabos said of the business forum.

General Manager of Kempinski Gold Coast City Hotel, Manish Nambiar, told the B&FT in an interview on the partnership: “We always belief in adding value in one way or the other to our customers and loyal clients; and in achieving that, we are working together with various embassies to create a platform where people can come and appreciate the arts and culture of these countries.”

He added: “Hungary is a country that has tremendous culture which has not been well exposed and we anticipate that the one-week celebrations will provide an interesting avenue for people to come and experience.”

According to Mr. Nambiar, tourism goes beyond beaches and tourist sites and for that matter; the hotel, as an industry player, will leverage its up-class products and services to market Ghana as a preferred tourism destination.

“Ghana has tremendous potential as far as tourism is concerned; we are just at the tip of the iceberg considering the coastline and rich culture; there is however the need for destination marketing.

The domino effect of developing the hospitality sector can be felt at the grassroots level of the economy; as a sector, what we do reflects in different levels and penetrates all aspects of society,” he added.

Kempinski is one of the oldest hospitality brands in the world with a prestigious legacy that spans over 120 years. In Ghana, the five-star facility has been operating for less than two years and boasts a combined workforce of close to 800 directly and indirectly.

Mr. Nambiar indicated: “Kempinski Gold Coast Accra is a people-oriented company and this is what drives us towards excellence; currently, we are hiring directly over 400 employees and 350 indirect employees offering related services.

We are relatively new in Ghana, having been operating for a little over a year; but within this period, we have demonstrated the level of service and standards that we are bringing to the hospitality industry; our products are by far the most superior in this part of the world.”