Last Tuesday, I was at the Kotoka International Airport preparing to travel to Kenya on a national assignment. While going through departure formalities, my attention was drawn to the fact that there were so many hundreds of people who had also lined up to go through the process. My observation led to the realisation that the majority of them were from East and Southern Africa.

As we went through the embarkation processes, I wondered what could have possibly brought over two hundred East and Central African citizens to Accra at a go. At a point when we were all done with check-in and were at the departure gate, I engaged one of them who was seated together with his wife.

Apparently, that whole batch of almost three hundred travellers had come in from mainly Zimbabwe, with others from Tanzania and South Africa. There was another batch of mainly Nigerians and Cameroonians who were being processed at another part of the lounge. They had all come to Ghana to attend the 'Give Thyself Wholly Conference 2025'. This was an annual conference organised by Bishop Dag Heward-Mills and the United Denominations originating from the Lighthouse Group of Churches (UD-OLGC). The programme held at the Anagkazo Bible and Ministry Training College was an international training conference for pastors, ministers and church workers.

From my engagement with the couple, who I later learnt were ministers from the Harvesters International Church in Harare, the conference had thousands of participants.

Over the four days in Accra and Mampong, they had also gotten to know and experience a bit about Ghana.

Well, after a while, our flight time was due and we boarded our planes. For those two hundred or so that boarded with me on that Kenyan Airways flight, we got to the Jomo International Airport, only for me to learn in shock that just three of us had Nairobi as our destination. All the rest were Zimbabweans who were only transiting as they continued back home.

On my way from the airport to the hotel, my mind kept going back to the many other church conferences that are held in Ghana. These include the Greater Works Conference held last week by the International Central Gospel Church at Christ Temple East in Accra, with thousands in attendance, some of whom were emplaned from outside the country. I also wondered about the Global Ministers and Wives Conference held by my church (The Church of Pentecost) in January of each year, with participants from several countries, Impact Convention by the Christian Action Faith Ministries each November/December, etc. Interestingly, these activities are all annual programmes that bring into the country several thousand foreign visitors.

Further pondering on all of these, I kept imagining the impact of all these conferences by the various churches on the potential growth of the tourism industry of our country, if managed very well. I believe that it is about time that the Ghana Tourism Development Company (GTDC) and the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) as well as their parent ministry (Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts) seriously engaged these churches to exploit ways by which some of their activities such as those mentioned above will be made to deliberately impact on the growth of the tourism sector of our economy.

I notice that while in Nairobi that everything is either directly or indirectly linked to the tourism sector of Kenya. The tourism sector holds the key to the future growth of our nation's economy, and we cannot continue to pay lip service to it. It is about time we take the bull by its horns and cause the growth factor to trigger the same.

May God continue to bless our homeland, Ghana and make it great and strong!

Engr. Eric Atta-Sonno
eattasonno@gmail.com
024-3-821447