The Statesman:
National Chocolate Day is the beginning of a reinforced drive to encourage Ghanaians to support the local cocoa industry, and to acknowledge the role that cocoa has played in the growth of this country.
It forms just part of the national plan to make Ghana a chocolate-lovers’ paradise, as well as a ‘niche’ tourism destination, says Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, Minister of Tourism and Diasporan Affairs.
In addition, a chocolate-cocoa circuit is currently being put together. At the centre of this circuit will be the Mampong cocoa farm of Tetteh-Quarshie, the man credited with bringing productive strains of cocoa to Ghana in 1870 and developing highly propagative species and methods.
2 of the 3 original trees planted by the pioneering agriculturalist are still bearing fruit on the plantation, which the Tourism Minister hopes will become a major tourist attraction. A receptive facility at the Mampong farm has been built, and will be used as the beginning of a moving cocoa-chocolate museum.
The circuit will also include the opportunity for visitors to stay on a working cocoa farm, living with a farmer and his family; to visit the Cocoa Research Institution of Ghana, to find out about improvements in the cocoa industry and other products being made from the crop; and also to tour the various chocolate factories, to watch the processing of cocoa butter and the production of chocolate confectionary and chocolate drinks.
The various circuit facilities should be in place by June.
Target visitors will be eco-tourists, the focus of Ghana’s current tourist drive:
‘Ecotourism is the fastest growing tourism area in the world,’ as the Tourism Minister explains. Focusing on historical, cultural and environmental attractions, and often appealing to the more adventurous, less comfort-seeking traveller, ecotourism is already booming in parts of Africa such as The Gambia and Senegal, as well as across South and Latin America. Full article.
Subscribe 
