We Need to Put Ghana on the World Tourism Map – Minister
Mrs Juliana Azumah-Mensah, the new Minister of Tourism, has asked the UNWTO, to help Ghana conduct a study to establish why it was not yet on the tourism map of the world. She said for Ghana to be on the world tourism map would mean it would be one of the countries in the world that a tourist would like to visit once in a lifetime.
She told Francesco Frangialli that Ghana had all it took to attract millions of tourists as it had peace and a stable democracy, but had not been able to attract tourists as it should.
Mrs Azumah-Mensah said: “Our people are hospitable; we are rich in diverse culture and history which should attract visitors. Even though we cannot compare our wildlife to that of East African countries like Kenya, Ghana also has some wildlife and natural beautiful scenery worth seeing. With all these and other attractions, it is difficult for me to understand why Ghana receives only a few thousand tourists in a year.”
She added: “I need the UNWTO to assist in finding out the causes of Ghana’s inability to attract tourists.”
Mrs Azumah-Mensah explained that Ghana was not advocating mass tourism but needed to attract more tourists to help create more jobs and also eliminate poverty especially in the rural areas. She commended UNWTO for choosing Ghana as one of the countries to benefit from the Sustainable Tourism for Eliminating Poverty (ST-EP) programme, which was currently being implemented in the Western and Northern regions.
The ST-EP programme introduced by the UNWTO is aimed at using education and tourism to eliminate poverty and it had so far established eight libraries in eight communities to encourage education and also create awareness about tourism. Mrs Azumah-Mensah urged UNWTO to assist the Ministry to review training standards in the hospitality industry to ensure that Ghana acted in line with the international standards.
Mr Frangialli said UNWTO paid more attention to poor and developing countries and it was prepared to work with Ghana to make it a preferred tourism destination. “Tourism is like a chain with links, when one link is broken it does not work,” Mr Frangialli said, and explained that the tourism sector needed other sectors to make it work successfully. Mr Frangialli, therefore, urged the Minister to work with other sectors of the economy to enable the tourism industry to work properly.
He also commented on Ghana hosting of this year’s World Tourism Day event on the theme: “Tourism Celebrates Diversity,” and urged the ministry to prepare well since doing that well could put Ghana on the tourism map.
Valere Tjolle
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