Tourism: Ghana calls Italy, it's here your ultimate African escape
Accra - Put together a bunch of Italian guys, made up of lifestyle and travel bloggers with thousands of followers, a travel reporter, a number of tour operators and video makers and you'll have the perfect recipe for a successful launch of your "Visit Ghana" tourism communication campaign. It's what Francesco Martino, representative for Italy at the Ghana Tourism Authority has just done, inviting that creative and qualified bunch to a full week of experience in the most peaceful country of Western Africa.
This is how Ciretta Wanderlust, well known Italian travel influencer with a number of exotic trip on her back, ended up visiting Accra, Cape Cost, Elmina, the Ashanti Region and the Northern one "sites where I felt welcomed", she said while packing her luggage in the charming La Villa Boutique hotel in Accra, a few hours before her flight back to Italy. "I told my followers there was nothing to worry about me visiting the very heart of this Country, it's been an amazing experience after all" she confesses before waving a goodbye hand to the local organizer of the tour.
Desiree D'Aloia, known on the web as the "fashion princess", she worths more than 40 thousands followers and likes, agrees with Ciretta and being a storyteller, as she is presented in Glamour.it where she is an author, "I will write my story about Ghana putting in words all the unforgettable memories I'm already keeping in my heart, the people, the colors, the beautiful nature - she says - and I tell you - she stresses whispering and sighing - you cannot miss those main symbols of the local culture such as the castles alongside the coast where the slaves where collected before they were sent far away".
While Corrado Cuccia, a travel agent, still keeps in his eyes the beauty of Northern Mole Natural Park "from the Zaina Lodge where we stayed - he says - there is an endless view on the park and from the swimming pool you can see the elephants gathering around the near by pond", Mirela Murariu, his colleague at the Azalai Travel Design Agency in Florence, is more amazed by the unbelievably great status of the infrastructures. "I'm thinking - she says - to set an offer of on the road trips for travelers willing to immerge themselves in the local culture, in a journey that will lead them from cultural festivals to the heart of specific communities, from one symbolic site to another in search of the real soul of this corner of Africa".
Stanislao De Marsanich, a travel reporter at "L'agenzia di viaggi magazine", was also in the lucky group of Italians invited to visit Ghana by the local Tourism Authority. After this journey through Ghana he's more into finding the right words to sensitize the public to choose Ghana as their next travel destination "by tickling their curiosity through the storytelling of the past adventures this country faced visiting its most iconic sites." This is what he claims, just before he starts talking about the Ashanty Region, the castles and the Unesco world heritage sites in Ghana with sparkles in his eyes.
Giacomo Iachia, travel consultant at Kel12 travel agency, specialized in Saharan trips, and Orietta De Biasi, representative of the Viaggimagine Tour Operator in Milan, both agree that this is a land for tailored journeys for people willing to have a real experience. One more than just a holiday. They are both convinced that it's time for West Africa and especially for Ghana to become the ultimate destination for real African lovers.