TAKE ADVANTAGE OF GROWING TOURISM ENVIRONMENT (PAGE 35)

From Tim Dzamboe, Ho

The Ho Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Mawutor Goh, has asked the Ghana Tourist Board (GTB) to look for vibrant tour operating companies and hotels to promote viable transit services for guests of the World Cup in South Africa in 2010.
He said the nation should take advantage of the ever-growing tourism environment to rake opportunities associated with the next World Cup.
Mr Goh who had just returned from South Africa, made the suggestion at a seminar in Ho to herald the World Tourism Day which falls today.
According to him, consultations with counterparts in South Africa revealed that many tour and travel operators as well as operators of the hospitality industry in that country were ready to channel their guests through Ghana before finally landing in South Africa for the games.
In another development, he said a recent trip to Finland also revealed that a Finnish tourist group that toured the West coast including Ghana had declined expanding their tours to the northern sector of the country because of insecurity.
He said on one of such visits the tourists were stranded in Bolgatanga due to fuel shortage and there was none to buy for their tourist coach.
Mr Goh narrated that an encounter with representatives of the tourists in Finland revealed that the experience gave them a grim and negative picture of the country. He asked the Ministry of Tourism and Diasporan Relations to make amends to avoid the recurrence of such omissions to tourists.
In a speech read on her behalf, the sector Minister, Mrs Oboshie Sai Cofie, said Ghana had emerged as a special African tourist destination drawing people and visitors from all over the world to experience not only the fascinating cultural diversity, history and natural endowments but also the peaceful environment, stability, good governance and hospitality.
She said the tourism industry contributed almost $1.1 billion in foreign exchange earnings, about four per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and created about 220,000 direct formal jobs.
Mrs Cofie said the tourism ministry expected the trend to continue so it could contribute further to the national economy, including creating jobs especially in rural areas and thus help to reduce rural poverty.