The Harlem Tourism Board is hosting a delegation from Ghana at the Cultural Tourism Summit on Aug.14, and they plan to partner with the group in order to facilitate a link to the African nation. One of its special guests is His Royal Majesty Buipewura Abdulai Jinapor II, Vice President of Ghana’s National House of Chiefs, who will be on hand to promote the 2025 Cultural Oneness Festival in Ghana’s northern region. According to the Harlem Tourism Board website, HRM Jinapor II will also receive a key to Harlem; visit the Harlem African Burial Ground; and announce the cultural travel partnership with Harlem and northern Ghana.
That is just one feature of the Summit at the Renaissance Hotel taking place during Harlem Week.
The tourism board has also been working on using social media in their favor to create an app that would provide information on different attractions within the Harlem area. There will be a showing of the app the day of the Summit.
“The process is to create an app that would allow for the different locations that we’re talking about, all of the museums, all of the restaurants, all of the different festivals, all of the historic landmarks, someone can have on their phone,” said William ‘Tony’ Rogers, co-founder of Harlem Week.
The app is an upgrade from the first Harlem Map created in 1979 by Rogers and fellow co-founders to put Harlem on the tourism map. The tourism board has been working since 1979 to show Harlem in its truest size, and bring it to the same level of tourism that other parts of the city have.
“The tourism board is creating a marketing campaign, a city within a city, which actually allows for us to promote Harlem to that 600,000 people. And that we hope will create an economic development opportunity for those individuals who are businesspersons and have tourism related businesses,” said Rogers.
Rogers also notes that as time goes on, it is important to trust the rapid growth in technology and use it to one’s advantage.
“As we go into the new age of data, which I’m not necessarily familiar with, it’s a new way to reconnect because that mapping guide connected Harlem on paper and created tourism. We hope that this app will not only help those 600,000 plus people within the city, but anybody in the world.”