Branding africa, tourism & development;

One iron sharpens another

By Samuel Kwasi Obeng

www.mrsamko.blogspot.com

Ghana has once again given a boost to the mantra that it is the gateway to West Africa. Since it opened the door for political independence in the sub-region in 1957, it has chalk up some notable firsts in the areas of sports, peace and stability, democratic consolidation inter alia. The freshest of these firsts happened last week, August 17 to 18, when it provided the platform for the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) to put together a group of foremost tourism stakeholders and the media, within and without the African continent to begin the process of enhancing the brand called Africa.

This new feat was nearly denied Ghana. Yes it is a feat! If it’s a feat for countries to host the World Cup and other international summits, then pioneering an international conference which brought down the Secretary-General of the UNWTO, Taleb Rifai; African Union’s (AU) Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, Dr. Elham M.A Ibrahim; African tourism Ministers and tourism experts and global news giant, CNN et al to Accra to brainstorm on enhancing the African brand, should also be recognised as a feat by the host country.

Mind you the conference which was supposed to come off last year September wouldn’t have taken place in Accra-Ghana because of the Ebola outbreak. The dreadful Ebola disease which struck six West African countries (the entire countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia; two cities in Nigeria and the capital cities of Senegal and Mali) out of the 16, had caused a lot of factual and phantom damages to the sub-region.

In addition to ravaging thousands of lives and giving the impetus to impose a ban on all international conferences in Africa, the disease also created a phantom state called ‘West Africa’ severely affected by Ebola in the minds of many outside the continent. At this point, the possibility of Ghana hosting the maiden conference was very low.

Nevertheless, the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts (MOTCCA), under the leadership of the Hon. Minister and her Deputy, Mmes. Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare and Abla Dzifa Gomashie succeeded in persuading the UNWTO to move the conference from last year September to August this year. This highly commendable effort has highlighted Ghana’s name on the global front once again and given a boost to the mantra that ‘Ghana is the gateway to West Africa’ and even beyond.

The Hon. Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare was given the opportunity to have an interview with the anchor of ‘CNN International’, Zain Asher which was broadcasted live on CNN. She used the opportunity to highlight some selling points of the country related to tourism, culture and creative arts and her ‘Explore Ghana’ initiative.

The conference which was opened by H.E, President of the Republic Ghana, John Dramani Mahama started on high note and ended successfully. It was themed ‘Enhancing Brand Africa; Fostering Tourism Development’. A number of decisions were reached and I have decided to consolidate the decisions, as I understood and gleaned from the conference in three points:

One, there already exist a brand called Africa; two, African Union (AU) is a sine qua non in the realisation of an enhanced or a rebranded Africa and three, an enhanced African brand will help develop tourism and tourism will help develop the African continent.

Participants at the conference agreed that there already exist a brand of the continent which needs to be enhanced or rebranded. That brand is Africa. Like other brands, it is not fool proof. It consists of diseases, political instabilities or civil wars, poverty, illiteracy and ignorance. However, that same brand also consist of highly intelligent and skilful human resources; rich mineral resources and arable land, forest, wildlife and landforms; vast coastlines and aquatic resources, a resplendent and diverse culture and technology among others, which it can use to overcome the diseases, political instabilities and ignorance troubling it.

What is required now is to project above anything, all those selling points of the brand to the world. Whose responsibility is that? Only the formal media? It was realised that all the participants at the conference have Facebook or Twitter accounts and it was a good reflection of how many people do social media on the continent. Hence it was agreed that every single individual on the continent constitute the media and must emulate Ms Rachel Emefa Markham, a young Ghanaian teenager who took to Twitter to promote a movement dubbed #TheAfricaTheMediaNeverShowsYou.

Even though I agree that we must project those selling points in the African brand, what will speak louder and make a compelling positive African brand on the global front is how we’re using or have used the selling points to surmount the frailties in the brand. The brand called Asian Tigers is a very appealing brand on the global front not because of how it has trumpeted its potentials or capacities. But because of how countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan have used their Unique Selling Points to transform their countries from third worlds to first worlds.

And I’m very sure that it is this real positive fact that is speaking louder and making a good case on the global front than what the media and indigenes of these countries are sharing about their countries on social media and other platforms. So let’s do the PR work as brand ambassadors of Africa to give balance to the skewed versions and counteract the distorted versions of the brand. However, most importantly, let’s give weight to this PR work with the lives we live each passing moment as Africans. It’s more persuasive and sustainable.

It was also realised at the conference that an enhanced African brand will not only be anchored on tourism but also on peace and stability, good governance among others. Hence African tourism Ministers must lead the continent to make a case before the AU to include strategies to enhance the African brand in the Agenda 2063 document, a document of how Africans want to see their continent in the next 50 years. This will give the cause more focus and garner the necessary political commitments to making it happen.

Finally, the conference also came up with the decision that, an enhanced African brand will help develop tourism and tourism will help develop the continent. Tourist arrivals on the continent have more than doubled from 26 million in 2000 to 56 million in 2014 and contribute about seven per cent to all exports on the continent. Even when the Ebola disease created fears in the sector among tourism players, the sector still proved that it is a Baobab tree and can survive any weather. Tourist arrivals I understand increased last year, though at a decreasing rate.

In a nutshell, the UNWTO Accra conference on African branding is saying that there exist a brand called Africa that requires the political leadership of the AU and the committed followership of its citizens to enhance or rebrand, and project to the world. Because like we say ‘iron sharpens iron’, an enhanced African brand will promote tourism development and tourism will help transform the continent from third world to first world.