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The King and President of Gonja Traditional Council and President Northern Region House of Chiefs His Royal Majesty Yagbonwura Tuntumba Bore Essa (I) has honoured the Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture Hon. Mrs Catherine Abelema Afeku and her Deputy Hon. Dr. Ziblim Barri Iddrisu by enskinning them Queen mother and a Chief respectively at the Jakpa Palace in Damongo.

The Minister and her deputy were given the skin names; *"Dankarewurche Queen Mother of Culture and Tradition and Dankarewura Chief of Culture and Tradition" respectively*. This happened when the minister and her deputy paid a courtesy call on Yagbonwura at the Jakpa Palace to introduced about 30 Tourism Ambassadors to the Overlord and seek for his blessings for the initiative of the ministry.

Explaining the rationale for the enskinment of the Minister and her deputy, Yagbonwura through his Linguist Alhaji Afuli said the steps taken by the minister and her team to unveile 30 celebrities to lead the promotion of the country’s culture and tourism locally and internationally with their influence to promote Ghana as a tourist destination over the next two years are steps at the right time which will help project Ghana globally through tourism.

His Royal Majesty Yagbonwura stated that the development of a country depends largely on the historical background of the people, the cultural dynamics and the tourism potentials of the area.

*Culture describes where we come from, what we do, what we want and how we consume what we want. One can't talk about culture without mentioning tradition and as a people our tradition is largely practice and seen more greatly under the blanket of Chieftaincy* He added.

He appealed passionately to the Tourism Ministry to as a matter of urgency get most of the tourist sites in Gonjaland, Northern Ghana and Ghana in general unto the UNESCO World Heritage Site which will help market the tourist sites globally there by increasing its contributions to national development and paving way for the teeming unemployed youth to be employed.

On her part, the Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture Dankarewurche Catherine Afeku said the aim of the Tourism Ambassador Programme, was to partner influential persons to help drive tourism growth in and outside the country.

She said the programme was to enhance, develop and deliver destination management objectives and potentially help position Ghana as a tourist destination of choice.

According to Dankarewurche Catherine the ambassadors would therefore use their personalities and expertise to sell Ghana 's tourism potential to the world.

The minister disclosed that the ministry of Tourism has launched *The See Ghana, Eat Ghana, Wear Ghana, Feel Ghana Campaign* and this campaign concept draws on representing Ghanaians on a new sense of national pride in its heritage, culture and way of life.

She noted that a bigger project like this needs the support and blessings of the King and President of Gonja Traditional Council and President of Northern Region House of Chiefs hence the visit to the Jakpa Palace.

The Ambassadors, according to the Minister cut across different creative arts sectors including Musicians, Actors, Radio Presenters, Disc Jockeys (DJs) and Bloggers.

They are musicians D-Black, Praye, Lucky Mensah, Dada K.D, Kakyire Kwame Appiah, Okyeame Kwame, Reggie and Bollie, Evangelist Diana Asamoah, Fancy Gadam, DSP Kofi Sarpong, Cindy Thompson, Fuse ODG.

Others are screen personalities Bibi Bright, Van Vicker and Sam Okyere, said to be the most popular black entertainer in South Korea and tourism writer and advocate PaaJohn Dadson.

The rest are Daddy Lumba, Stephen Appiah, Sarkodie, Sena Dagadu, Yvonne Nelson, Agya Koo, Abedi Pele, Andy Dosty, Sherifa Gunu and Noella Wiyala.