Ghana not yet positioned on world Tourism map

THE Minister for Tourism, Mrs Juliana Azumah-Mensah, has stated that despite the fact that Ghana abounds in a lot of tourist attractions, the nation is yet to position itself well on the world tourism map.
She said even though Ghana was a founder member of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), it was not as well known internationally as countries such as South Africa, Kenya, The Gambia, Senegal, Mali and others.
Mrs Azumah-Mensah said this when the UNWTO Secretary-General, Francesco Frangialli, called on her at her office to discuss this year's World Tourism Day celebration, which is expected to be hosted by Ghana on September 27 on the theme, "Tourism Celebrates Diversity”.
“I think we are not doing something right. And I would like the UNWTO to assist me to unravel this puzzle because Ghana has all it takes to attract millions of tourists. Ghana was the first African country south of the Sahara to gain independence and currently it is one of the most, if not the most, peaceful countries in West Africa; a bastion of true democracy and yet we do not attract visitors,” the minister lamented.
“Our people are the most 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 such as Kenya, Ghana also has some wildlife and beautiful natural scenery worth seeing,” she added.
Mrs Azumah-Mensah applauded the UNWTO for choosing Ghana as one of the countries to benefit from the Sustainable Tourism for Eliminating Poverty (ST-EP) programme, which is presently being put into operation in the Western and Northern regions.
The ST-EP programme, which was introduced by the UNWTO, seeks to use education and tourism to eliminate poverty and it has so far established eight libraries in eight communities to encourage education and also create awareness of tourism.
Mr Frangialli noted that the UNWTO was working through the Ministry of Tourism and the Ghana Tourist Board with the view to ensuring that operators in the industry maximised the positive economic, social and cultural effects of tourism and fully reaped its benefits, while minimising its negative social and environmental impacts.
He said the UNWTO, which is a fully-fledged organisation is committed to using tourism as a tool to eliminate poverty, saying that his outfit paid more attention to poor and developing countries and was prepared to work with Ghana to make it a preferred tourism destination.