Lyn Frans
The leadership of the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) has appointed Afua Asantewaa O Aduonum as Tourism Ambassador for the country.
The appointment came on the heels of her exploits in the recently held Guinness World Record longest singing marathon (Singathon), an attempt by an individual at the Akwaaba Village in Accra. The newly-appointee succeeded in clocking 126 hours 52 seconds over five days in her attempt with emphasis on Ghanaian songs.
Announcing the appointment on behalf of GTA CEO, Akwasi Agyemang, Dr Agnes Adu, CEO of Ghana International Trade Fair Center commended Asantewaa highly for promoting Ghanaian songs with her attempt.
The apparent shock in her face when the appointment was announced during the Singathon After-party speaks volumes; she had obviously not been informed.” I am indeed honoured for this appointment, l will ensure that l will do my best to push the tourism agenda especially the domestic aspect higher,” said Asantewaa.
Mr. Benjamin Anane Nsiah, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in charge of Administration at the Ghana Tourism Authority made the announcement.
“I am here as a representative of the Ghana Tourism Authority to appoint her, Auntie Afua, a tourism ambassador. That’s one of the things she is going to do. The details, you’re going to know. But you are going to be one of the people championing to the whole world that there is a country called Ghana, it’s a lovely place to be, they have great people who are resilient, who are tenacious, who have drive, who have talent,” he said. After that they wrapped a Ghana Flag around her shoulders.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Tourism Authority, Akwasi Agyemang in an interview, highlighted the role Afua would be performing as a tourism ambassador.
“What we always tell the ambassadors is that we see something in you, we see value in you, so we want you to create value that we can support. Sometimes we would invite you to our events to grace the occasion, but those are peripheral. We want ambassadors who are going out there to say look, ‘I am doing this, this is my cause to promote tourism and then we follow,” he said.
He added that moving forward, they would expect more from people that they choose as ambassadors.
“I know Afua Asantewaa and her team are at Royal Senchi relaxing but once they come we will sit down with them. After all the noise, what do we do? The work has to be done, let’s leverage on it. Because she is an incredible person.
It should not be that six months later everybody has forgotten about her. We want her to be in the eye of the storm. And the storm is, by using her personality, popularity and charisma, we can attract people to domestic tourism. She’s very popular. If she is visiting all the tourist sites that we have in Ghana, I believe that our numbers will go up more,” he said.
Afua Asantewaa is an event organizer and media personality who set out to break Guinness World Records’ longest singing marathon for an individual. She endured a five-day singing marathon that commenced at midnight on Sunday, December 24, 2023, to surpass the 105 hours record set by an Indian artiste Sunil Waghmare in 2012. She ended at 7:00am on Friday, December 29, 2023.
At the time of ending her record attempt on Friday morning, she had sung for five days, six hours, and 55 minutes. She sang only Ghanaian songs. She was allowed to rest 5 minutes after an hour performance or 20 minutes after four hours. She could also repeat a song after four hours.
Her event which was held during the Yuletide attracted a lot of people including visitors who had come into the country. Celebrities and public figures trooped in to show their support. To say Asantewaa was the talk of town during the period is an understatement. Even other people living outside the country could not miss the spectacle as they stayed glued to their screens throughout the period.
To cap it all, an after-party organised by the Ghana Tourism Authority in collaboration with Joy Prime, was held at the Akwaaba Village in the evening. There were performances by Praye, Adina, Abiana, among others. In the meantime, Afua would have to wait for the results from the Guinness World Records after submitting the entire work to them for assessment.
Afua Asantewaa’s appointment as a Tourism Ambassador would not be the first in Ghana’s history.
The Ghana Tourism Authority under the auspices of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture appointed 30 Tourism Ambassadors at ceremony held at Tamale in the Northern Region on September 27, 2017.
These were people gleaned from several creative arts fields; they were musicians, actors, radio presenters, disc jockeys, writers, among others. They included Agya Koo, Evangelist Diana Asamoah, Nana Kwame Ampadu, Okyeame Kwame, Praye, Sarkodie, D-Black, Fuse ODG, Fancy Gadam, Reggie N Bollie, Van Vicker, Bibi Bright, Dada KD, Daddy Lumba, Lucky Mensah, Kaakyire Kwame Appiah, and Cindy Thompson.
Others were arts and tourism writer, Wiyaala, tourism writer PaJohn Bentsifi Dadson, disc jockey Andy Dosty, Yvonne Nelson, Sena Dagadu, Sheria Gunu, Sam Okyere (black entertainer in South Korea), Abedi Pele, among others.
According to the Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Tourism Authority; Akwasi Agyemang, these ambassadors were tasked to promote and market Ghana’s tourism through several outlets, including social media.