• Super Admin
• 08 Mar, 2026

Since late February 2025, when he was appointed Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Tourism Authority, Gilbert Abeiku Aggrey Santana has been vocal in the West African tourism space. Abeiku Santana, as he is popularly known, is also the CEO of Kaya Tours Ghana Limited, a Ghanaian travel company, which is boosting domestic tourism in the country through its innovative products. In this interview at Meetings Africa in Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, he shares with OBINNA EMELIKE the rationale for Ghana's participation at the travel fair, why MICE industry is the new oil, how the ECOWAS region can learn from successful industries of East and Southern Africa blocs, gains from the fair, among others. How do you feel about Ghana's participation at Meetings Africa this year? This is a big platform for intra-African travel and tourism exchanges, amid global industry exposure. But being the only West African country here makes Ghana feel lonely. Countries like Cameroon, Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire, among others are big markets that have the potential of holding sustainable Meetings Incentives, Conferences and Exhibition (MICE) industry in the region. But if Ghana comes here, we do not see these countries, it makes us feel lonely. But we do not only sell Ghana, we sell West Africa here in South Africa because we have laid a foundation and are also showcasing some opportunities in the other West African territories, like Cote d'Ivoire and Nigeria. There are certain governmental, political, and even non-governmental conferences that need to take place in countries like Nigeria and Cote d'Ivoire, because of their unique presence and the potential they carry. So, here at Meetings Africa 2026, Ghana is an enabler, trying to bridge, and connect these countries in West Africa. In your views, are there opportunities for Ghana, and West Africa at this event? I have met more than 50 CEOs and companies, and the point I always stress and emphasis is that when it comes to agriculture, we need to have an African agriculture conference in, say, Cote d'Ivoire or Ghana. When it comes to the creative industry, Nigeria has the markets. So, as Ghana is here, we do not only talk about ourselves, but also about the potential in other West African countries. But we ECOWAS people need to come together as one region, like the SADAC also do. So yes, there is a huge opportunity for us, just that Ghana saw it early and has taken advantage, and we have been consistent, hoping to see our neighbours joining us so that we become one region. And then if you put the GDP of West Africa together, it is about $USD 490 billion to almost $USD 500 billion. Ghana's GDP has reached $USD100 billion for the first time. Nigeria's GDP is over $USD220 billion dollars and that gives us opportunity. Our GDP comes from basically export commodities; oil, gold, cocoa, timber, and raw materials. So, we need to take advantage of MICE tourism, and we have the potential. This brings me to the subject of how Africa has a negligible share of the global travel business market, and events like this are trying to help us move it up. Even in Africa, West Africa has their lists. You would expect that such conferences, exhibitions and events will draw destinations to take it back. For instance, I was speaking with the sales manager of IMEX, Frankfurt, about countries from Africa that are participating in the travel fair, because I did not feel that most of the countries from here are showing interest in it. It is sad. Do you think that we can still do what we do and expect to take advantage of the share, the bigger share of global meetings and business that go around, without us taking part or showing ourselves in some of these places where these conversations take place? No, it is impossible to get the share of MICE markets, whether Africa or global, without attending such powerful and important meeting events and exhibitions like Meetings Africa. What is the place of Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) in MICE? So, I think that West African tourism DMOs have not realised the potential of MICE and that is why even the infrastructure of MICE is not there. I think we are still tiptoeing with our culture and heritage as our main tourism product, which is bringing us numbers. If you look at Senegal, Benin, Ghana, and Sierra Leone, we are still selling our culture and heritage because we have realised that our culture is our unique selling proposition and that is attracting people. However, if you look at economic blocs like the Southern Africa Development Community and the Eastern Africa Community, they have wildlife and have realised that they have oversubscribed, they have oversold and overemphasised the wildlife. Overtime, people do not get the experience. Now, they are looking at the luxury spenders and let us develop MICE as they are doing. But we have to be intentional about it. Look at Rwanda. When Rwanda introduced gorilla trekking, they knew that it is a luxury experience that they are selling to certain markets. Yet, they need to tap into other segments of the tourism market and now they established a robust Convention Bureau that has built world class convention centres and global conferences. In fact, Rwanda is hosting the International Congress and Convention Association next year, the biggest on the continent. Namibia is doing well too. Next year, Ethiopia is hosting the 32nd United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP32), which means that they are going to have about 50 to 60,000 people descending on Addis Ababa for the conference. But if you take Ghana, for instance, we have built convention centres since 1992. How many years old now? But we have not added any value to our existing infrastructure. It means that for almost 40 years, we have not seen the opportunity in MICE and that is why we are not attracting global events. Nigeria has an ECOWAS parliament that enjoys meetings in Abuja, but they have not intentionally built conferences as one of the emerging tourism opportunities for their markets. Cote d'Ivoire hosts the Africa Development Bank and you can attest to it that most financial meetings take place there. But they have not intentionally built on this capacity. So, we have the potential, just that we have not harnessed the potential very well. So, if we continue to go on this tangent, I do not think we can or we can play or become competitive in the MICE market. What should governments in the ECOWAS region do to boost the MICE industry, in terms of strategy? Events do not happen just because you want to. You need to go and be pitching for these businesses. If you pitch 10, maybe you get one. If you pitch 100, you get 20 or more. There must be a deliberate strategy. I will tell you the intention of Ghana Tourism Authority, our MICE unit under the marketing department. We are present here to take advantage of this virgin opportunity in the region and partner with the private sector, especially private sector leading experts in events and professionals, to begin to pilot MICE for our region alone. So, for West Africa, can we have a tourism exchange in Ghana bringing Cote d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Gambia, and so on and so forth. Now when we try this for about three to five years and it works, we can now bring our SADAC and East Africa professionals and experts also to come and experience how tourism, exhibition trade, conventions and meetings go on. By doing so, we will be expanding our markets to MICE. So, the Ghana Tourism Authority will intentionally, in fact, it is one of the strategic plans that for instance, we will be contacting some key industry experts and private businesses to come together to do it. We want to have the first one, God willing, September this year, to start among ourselves, bring tourism professionals from across the region to come and then we will have our locals bringing all the trade under the tourism sector together. Hospitality, side attraction, academia, business management, policymakers, even other industries including agriculture, aviation, technology, and the synergy among all these industries and how tourism is the heartbeat or the enabler of all these industries will come together. Then, starting from Ghana and seeing if we can even move it to other West African countries. Then call our SADAC and East Africa professionals and experts to come and see. See, these regions have been doing MICE for some time and their governments understand the potential, the revenue that comes into their economy, I mean, the entire ecosystem of value chain of conference meetings, they have realised it and that is why they have shifted their focus from the wildlife and culture to MICE. So, MICE is a new product in the region, just that we are tiptoeing. We have not even yet scratched the surface. But the Ghana Tourism Authority will intentionally and strategically position Ghana as a MICE destination because already we are enjoying it. There are big international conferences that are going on in the country, but it is not deliberately done. We get them by default, you understand? We have been hosting Africa Property Awards, International Mining, oil and gas, tech, and so on. But this time, the tourism authority under the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts wants to be very deliberate in partnering private and even other public service agencies to pitch. We know this will help us, and in strengthening the human resource for the industry. Academia will know the opportunity, so training will go on, enhancing and building capacities, and investors will also come in, and this is going to help us to a large extent on how we can solve the employment challenges in our region. One of the things that people cite as a drawback for MICE is lack of proper infrastructure. How can Ghana, West Africa surmount challenges? It is not absolutely true that these little bottlenecks affect us because we are still enjoying some international conferences already. Air conductivity, we have all the major airlines coming to Ghana. Perhaps what we can say is that the destination is very expensive. I think this conversation has gone on with aviation in that way, how we should have a harmonized industry. SATA has been talking about this. You know, taxes are high. Travelling even within the West African region is more expensive due to that. It is good that all these conversations are coming up. But even if you build an infrastructure and you have not built the capacity of the people to understand the importance and the value of MICE, it will amount to much ado about nothing. The ignorance or the naiveness of us about MICE is what we need to tackle first. Before we come to the infrastructure and such conferences like Meetings Africa, we need to attend to understand the essence and structure of it. You don't go ahead, if the government of Nigeria today decides to build a convention bureau without the people in Nigeria participating in it. We first need to understand the business of MICE. It has a structure. We need to know the structure. So, you don't build the infrastructure when you don't know how the whole business model works. So, it is important. I know we will get there. We need to be consistent, not only Meetings Africa, but even the mass ones. West Africans need to be present. We need to study the model of this business of meeting conventions and exhibitions and understand how it works so that when our government builds the infrastructure, we will be able to run it. In West Africa, we have had even few infrastructures that they built for us that we have not been able to sustain them. The knowledge of the industry or the market is crucial before you develop the infrastructure. Why are there no government-sponsored travel fairs in West Africa? I think, first, there has been instability in some West African governments. Ghana has been the most stable government to be considered democratic society or community in ECOWAS. If you take Cote d'Ivoire, there are issues here and there. So, governments of West Africa have not seen tourism as a goldmine or MICE as a major boost for their economies. So, let's look at it. As much as they see oil and minerals. As much as they see other exports, products or commodities, tourism will lag. Tell me, in West Africa, which DMO is very popular? In the SADC and the Eastern African Economic Community, their DMOs are the ones driving the government agenda. So, first, it is a government initiative, but there should be an implementing agency of government to drive it. At the policy level, when the government comes out with the initiative, you need a government agency to drive it. So, Zambia Tourism Corporation, South Africa Tourism, Kenya Tourism Board, among others in Africa, even have agencies and offices abroad. So, they are intentional about attracting MICE into their destination. So, the government invests in the infrastructure, while the implementing agency comes out with a strategy of selling and attracting MICE. In West Africa, we have not even identified the opportunity. So, identification of the opportunity will lead to building the capacity of the potential market that you have. Then, you go out and market, knowing that you have done your homework well. So, you can attract business. Does it mean that the tourism ministers and agencies will have additional work? Yes. They are working, but not in MICE. They are working in culture and in heritage, but not MICE. They are working on site attractions. Benin is selling culture, Ghana is selling culture and heritage, Nigeria is selling culture, and Senegal is selling culture. We are not selling MICE. And that is what I am saying that our DMOs need to build their capacities. We need the business model of SADC and Eastern African regions, how they have run their expos successfully for years. So, that is crucial, even before the infrastructure. Does that account to why it is only Ghana that is a West African country here? We saw the opportunity. It is not only Meetings Africa. We attend Travel Indaba and WTM Africa. So, this consistency here in South Africa has given the South Africans indication of Ghana's readiness and appreciation of the business. I think it all led to the discussion that paved the way for the visa waiver. Of course, you have a lot of South African businesses in Ghana, top businesses like telecommunication, banking, FMCG. So that's one of the things. So, it starts from there. Tourism is an enabler nibbler, a gateway and it opens the floodgates for everything. There is agriculture here, we have ICT here and others. But tourism is the heartbeat of all industries. What is your take away from this fair? It is a premium tourism expo or meeting that has offered Ghana, me as a practitioner and now as a policymaker, the opportunity to see South African DMCs and incentive travel companies who are tired of selling Southern Africa and Eastern Africa. They want to explore different markets in the Africa region, but they don't have much information of the potential, the products and opportunities there. So, this meeting has offered the opportunity to enlighten them of their potential. We might not have, you know, a comprehensive convention bureau centre like South Africa and Rwanda. But we have the existing infrastructure that we can use. We just need to be innovative to put or bundle them together to create and offer the experience. We have the Independence Square that can host even 10,000, 20,000 people, for an opening ceremony. Independence Square is closer to convention centres. It comes to innovation. But the key learnings for me is how we can activate our existing infrastructure to take advantage of the emerging market of MICE. The criticism has been, even though we come and some others don't, if you look at how some of the other DMOs, and some of the other destinations attend these things, they show a lot of seriousness. It is not a fair criticism. MICE is a new business, a new market to us, and we are learning. But you can also attest to the fact that we have improved. If you look at our stand here, we are not even selling sights and attractions. We engaged all our private sector players before coming here and explained to them the purpose of this meeting, that they are not coming to sell tours or accommodation. They are selling MICE. So, they need to sell other experiences that we have in the country. These are some of the platforms that you get to appreciate what the product or the business is about. I know that over time, we will do better. We are even doing well. I don't want to sing praises for ourselves, but our people are doing well; the hotels that we came with, the tour companies, and all that. We even have hotels that are participating. Source: https://businessday.ng/life/article/west-africa-needs-to-understand-take-advantage-of-mice-tourism-it-is-the-new-oil-abeiku-santana/