GHANAIAN sound engineer and industry pundit Wei Ye Oteng is sounding the alarm on the future of Ghana’s festive season. He warns that unchecked profiteering and “exploitative” pricing risk damaging the country’s hard-won reputation as Africa’s premier December tourism hub.
While acknowledging that Ghana continues to attract thousands of global visitors, Oteng cautioned that the long-term sustainability of the “Detty December” brand is under threat from short-term greed.
Speaking in an interview with Graphic Showbiz on Tuesday, January 6, 2026, Oteng argued that beaches, entertainment centres and leisure spots in particular require monitoring during the season, calling on the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) and other stakeholders to establish a regulatory system to protect consumers and maintain trust.
“My biggest issue is the fact that entities take advantage of people. Greed has taken over and people are being fleeced.
Places that never required entry fees are suddenly charging them and items are being overpriced. We need a regulatory board to check the system. When people feel they are being treated fairly, they spend within their means and keep coming back,” he explained.
According to him, excessive charges could push visitors to seek alternative destinations, ultimately hurting Ghana’s tourism brand and undermining years of deliberate positioning of Ghana as a safe, fun and welcoming gateway to the continent.
“To sustain the Ghana we want people to come to from all over the world to enjoy, I think we also need to have a regulatory board that goes around to check how people are taking advantage of people,” he added.
He further cautioned that failure to address these systemic issues could be unfairly blamed on the political climate. He noted that while the atmosphere felt slightly different this year, following the change in government, the scale of activities remained massive, with major concerts and corporate events still filling stadiums and other venues.
While the presence of international stars and tourists reaffirms Ghana’s status as a top-tier destination, Oteng raised concerns about the “over-concentration” of events in Accra.
He advocated for a deliberate strategy to decentralise the festivities to ensure balanced economic benefits and richer cultural exposure.
“I have always maintained that events need to be spread across the country,” he explained.
“What about the other places? If you travel to other places, there are far fewer or even no activities. Everybody’s talking about what is happening in Accra and all that.
“We need to encourage visitors to experience Ghana as a whole and not just the capital, ensuring balanced economic benefits and a richer cultural exposure for everyone involved,” he added.
Source:
www.graphic.com.gh
