By: Michael Ahinsah
Event Organiser, C.E.O of ImageBureau and President of the Arts and Tourism Writers Association of Ghana(ATWAG), George Nii Armah Quaye believes that event organisers in Ghana may not be making money this season due to few event centers to accomodate crowds.
Speaking on GBC’s Uniiq Breakfast Drive, George disclosed that Ghana lacks enough event centres with large capacities to accommodate large numbers which eventually affects the cost of tickets. He explained that large event Centres means that event organisers stand a better chance of making more profit by admitting more people whiles reducing the price of tickets.
“If you have a very large venue, you can drop the cost of your tickets and admit more people and that way you stand a better chance of making some good money”
“But if the venues are small and they are limited in space and they are very expensive to rent. And you cannot blame the venue owners, it’s simple demand and supply. If a lot of even organisers are looking for event spacea and there are limited event spaces, naturally the cost of those places will go up. And if the place is up then it means your cost of production will also go up”
“Once the cost of tickets go up, you cut down the number of people that csn attend your event and once you cut down the number of people that can attend your event your heading towards a break even point or a loss point”, he emphasized.
According to him, whatever profit event organisers make will be in the form of equity and not necessarily money, meaning that they may gain recognition which will eventually lead to recommendations for other gigs.
“A lot of the events may not make any good money but e.quity. as an event planner somebody might get to know you that oh okay you are the one that did this you can do this so when my company is doing this i will call you to come and do it for me and then you can get some money from that but if you are looking at making money from the events i doubt any event is making any good money this season”, he noted
He hinted that event organisers receive very little support from government coupled with the tax they are expected to pay but unfortunately the revenue collected are barely invested in the creative industry.
“The government promised us ultramodern large capacity venues, where are they? Since 2016, where are they? Let us name just one. Paying taxes on everything that we are doing. It’s not like we are getting a tax holiday”, he stressed
He hinted that many event planners have lost so much money and do not intend to come back which may affect the December in Ghana agenda.
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