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.

Two of the three 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.

Now, Ghana is seeking to attract this same market, of special-interest visitors prepared to travel further outside the capital. Mass package tourism is not a goal Ghana is pursuing, says the Tourism Minister, pointing out that ecotourists tend to come for longer and spend more money than those seeking luxury beach holidays.

Last week, the Tourism Ministry even back-tracked on its former goal of bringing one million tourists into the country in 2007 - up from an estimated 500,000 to 600,000 in 2006.

“At the time when that target was set in 2000, the average tourist was spending about one week here, and roughly $1,200. Now, the average tourist is spending $1,934 – which means we only need to receive about 700,000 to 800,000 to reach our $1.5bn annual income target.”

It needs to make a great deal more, however, if it is to reach the lofty heights of other tourism destinations: Thailand is very similar to Ghana in terms of population and national resources. It has beautiful beaches, rainforests, mountains and culture – just like Ghana. It brings in ¢26bn in tourism revenue every year.

“This cocoa circuit initiative will give us a path into ecotourism,” says the Tourism Minister, “but also – strangely enough – set us up well for some of the largest new developing outbound markets, which are Japan, Korea and China.”

In Japan, the brand leader for chocolate confectionary is a make called Ghana; and in Korea, the same thing. In China, with a population now over 1.3 million and still growing, chocolate is a product rapidly growing in popularity as markets open up to outside produce and the effects of globalistion are found. Industry analysts expect the Eastern giant to soon take the place as the world’s biggest chocolate consumer.

Other commodity circuits are also being developed in Ghana, to encourage the “historical, cultural, environmental” lure of Ghana for the eco-tourist. A gold circuit will include tours of mines and mining communities, a mining museum and visits to jewellers.

Cultural circuits include a trail in the Northern Region, so tourists can see the way people live, their beliefs, and the Joseph Project pilgrimage root will see African Americans and others re-tracing the route of former West African slaves, right down through the country through the slave towns of the North to the trading towns and the final fortress destinations on the coast.