The CEO of Tourism Research and Advocacy Centre (TRAC), Prof. Kwaku Adutwum Ayim Boakye says approximately only 10% of the country’s natural, cultural and heritage potential visitor sites have been developed.
According to him, a soon-to-be-released report indicates that no new tourism sites have been added to the existing stock in the last 25 years and none of the sites offered any alternative activities aside the core attraction product.
27th September every year has been set aside by the United Nations to recognize tourism to mark the World Tourism Day. This year’s celebration is geared at recognizing the power of tourism to act as a catalyst not just for economic growth but for enhancing the lives of individuals in communities which host tourist attractions.
In a press release issued Tuesday to mark the occasion of the world tourism day under the theme ‘tourism for inclusive growth’, TRAC indicated that all efforts must be geared towards ensuring the existing attraction sites are well packaged and marketed while new ones are unearthed and developed.
Portions of the release said “Ghana can easily leverage tourism to be a powerful effective tool to spearhead economic revival and this can be achieved when the country has well packaged, promoted and diversified, visitor attraction sites”.
Prof. Ayim Boakye said government must broaden the benefit net of tourism in the country adding that, tourism must be designated as a priority sector because of its ability to generate economic benefits.
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He said the first thing that must be done is for government to make a statement prioritizing tourism as priority sector.
“… over the past 35 to 40 years, all the miracle that have happened in tourism have happened because, in 1985 a certain government decided as part of world bank structural adjustment programs to identify tourism as a key sector around which the economic reorganization of the country was to happen and that is what we are seeing today. The Cape Coast Castle, the Kakum National Park are all offshoot of that policy decision.” He said.
To this end, he explained in prioritizing tourism, government must start from the policy and blueprint level. This he said will trickle down to the decentralized agencies who also can decide to fall in line with government’s decisions.
He noted that, the district assemblies and the traditional authorities should collaborate as owners of the land and undertake a vigorous exercise to identify potentials within the tourism sector.
Touching on the TRAC’s adopted theme for the celebration: improving our visitor attraction sites to realize inclusive growth through tourism, he said it is important to look at the precursor of attractions the bring people to these tourists’ sites to trigger the spending effect that government wants to achieve.
TRAC amongst others called on the private sector to seriously consider investing in tourism attraction and the District Assemblies to partner Traditional Authorities in their jurisdictions to undertake a vigorous drive to identify, profile and market potential tourism attractions in their jurisdictions for investors.
Source: Anthony Sasu Ayisadu/ATLFMNEWS
