The Asuogyaman District Assembly in collaboration with Appraise Music and Media and the Akwamu Traditional Authority has launched the Adomi International River Festival at Senchi in the Eastern Region.
The festival seeks to promote water sports tourism in the country through activities such as regatta, water biking, jet skiing, diving competitions, indigenous food and art fair among other exciting activities.
In an interview with Citi News at the launch, the Managing Director of Appraise Music and Media, Richard Sumah said the festival is to promote cultural and tourism in the district.
“We realized that Ghana has a lot of potential when it comes to tourism. And water sports is also selling internationally; people outside are into water sports but they do not have the kind of water we have here in Ghana. So the Adomi International festival just seeks to promote water sports and give opportunity to the indigenes to sell their products and services to the people which will obviously expand economic activities of the district.”
The Chief of Akwamu, Odeneho Kwafo Akoto III who was the chairman of the occasion called on the people of Asuogyaman to embrace the festival and make it theirs.
“This initiative is a very good one which will help people, patrons and travellers to know more about Akwamuman and the Asuogyaman district. It will create an avenue for our people to trade and sell their works to other people who are future investors so I will urge everyone to come on board and support this initiative.”
The festival which the organizers, intend to make it an annual event, is scheduled to take off on August 7th to August 10th with a host of activities.
The former Chief Executive Officer for Ghana Ports and Harbour Authority and a parliamentary hopeful for the New Patriotic Party for Asuogyaman, Paul Ansah urged the Ghana Tourism Authority to take advantage of the maiden Adomi International River Festival to change the face of tourism in the country.
According to Mr. Ansah, the event is a game-changer for tourism in the country.
“We are very fortunate to have a beautiful landscape made up of mountains and gorges. Driving from Accra over the Adomi bridge, you will see the beauty of Asuogyaman and the lake Volta, the largest man-made lake that we are not making good use of. It is left to us to tap into our creative minds to generate tourism products that will be among the best in the sub-region.”
On his part the District Chief Executive Officer for Asuogyaman, Kwame Agyekum said the assembly is concentrating on the job opportunities.
“At the moment we are not immediately thinking about the revenue we are going to generate but we are thinking about how successful the event will be. If it succeeds, it will attract people from all over and the revenue will come so at the moment we have focused on the employment avenue for our youth and also the entertainment aspects which will encourage people to come here to relax and distress.”