Ghana’s tourism sector could be raking in lots of money from the tourism sector if the traditional sites didn’t have so many rules, regulations and taboos.
According to the host of Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, Kojo Yankson, these prohibitions have become a stumbling block to the growth of the tourism sector.
He cited an example of his visit to Princess Town where a woman and a first/second-born son are prohibited from visiting the river that hosted their deity.
“You go to Princess Town in the Western Region and there is this village where the fetish priest calls the crocodiles out of the water. This woman will give you a hundred rules before she takes you to the water. If you’re a woman, if it is your time of the month, or if you’re a man who is a first or second-born, you won’t qualify. They give you so many reasons they won’t take your money.
“But if everyone was allowed, they would make a fortune. There is a great story about the deity of the river that people will happily cart their children from school to experience it. However, due to the rules, we have to check if none of the children are first and second borns,” he said on Monday.
The situation, Mr Yankson noted is not peculiar to only Princess Town.
He narrated an incident in the Volta Region, where he was asked to strip naked before visiting a fascinating tourist site.
“We carried cameras and drove 100 of kilometers to the Volta Region. Travelled by boat, got to the island and travelled on a motorcycle deep into some mangroves just because we wanted to go and see a place we’ve been told about, where there are only male goats, yet they reproduce.
“When we got there, we were told we have to strip naked and perform some rituals before we can go and look at it. So after that long journey, we couldn’t take any camera shots. So we have these amazing things here in Ghana that we could make a fortune from.”
