Of the 83 event proposals received by the Beyond the Return Secretariat, he said the remaining 32 would still have their events organised but would not have the secretariat stamp as an official partner of the “December in GH” events.

“All the 50 endorsed event have been formally informed, and currently, we are finalising the process for publication. We are still receiving events and we welcome it, even though we have shut the door for proposals,” he added.

Mr Akwasi Agyemang was speaking at a stakeholder’s meeting with event organisers and vendors, hoteliers, tour operators, airlines and security agencies in Accra on last Wednesday.

The meeting was to engage stakeholders on preparedness towards the “December in GH” events scheduled for the year.

Mr Agyemang said this year’s event was expected to attract about one million tourist arrivals into the country adding “We are hoping to set up an experiential or welcome booth at the airport so that as people come in they will be able to scan the Beyond the Return bar code and have all the events, venues, and prices.”

He appealed to events organisers to provide the prices of their events as well as all protocols involved to the Secretariat to ensure smooth running of the events.

The Manager of Beyond the Return Secretariat, Ms Annabelle McKenzie, urged events organisers to ensure that their tickets were available to be purchased online as the main target was to attract Ghanaians in the diaspora.

She encouraged the organisers to ensure that they pay their vendors at the end of the event and ensure that all contracts with other stakeholders were officially signed.

Head of Protection Department at the National Security, Mr Nadel Majdoub said security presence at such events was paramount especially at the airports and called on event organisers to collaborate with the security agencies to ensure protection before, during and after the events.

He also admonished them to be wary of any unforeseen circumstances since terrorism was on the rise.

“Look out for people with strange behaviour, appearance, suspicious characters among others. Also let us know the arrivals and departure schedules of the diasporans, the hotels that they will be lodging, programme venues as well as time so we can extend protection to them,” he added.