Making Ghana a tourism destination

Tourism has become an important contributor to the country`s economy. The main benefits of tourism are creation of jobs and income generation. However, the ability of the national economy to benefit from tourism depends on investment into the development of the necessary infrastructure and on its ability to supply the needs of tourists.

The minister designate for the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Catherine Afeku, has already made known her plans to make tourism a viable Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contributor in the country.

Showbiz is happy the minister designate has intentions to make Ghana a tourism destination which would contribute significantly to the country’s economy and also provide many job opportunities.

For instance, the town of Nzulezu in the Western Region has remained one of the most unique cultural attractions this country has. The entire community of Nzulezu is made up of stilts and platforms built on a lagoon. There are very few of such communities across the world and it’s no surprise that in 2000, the community was classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

It therefore came as a surprise that such a national treasure which also serves as a tourist hotspot lacked proper sanitary facilities until a donation of a 10-unit Biofil Toilet System by the immediate past Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts last year, which attracted huge reviews on the airwaves.

To curb such unfortunate situations, the ministry also announced plans to introduce the Destination Ghana project, to serve as a wake-up call on the relevant authorities to step up their game with regard to developing our tourist sites in order to derive more value from them.

That was a good initiative and we hope the new minister designate if given the nod will pursue the project, since it reflects her tourism commitments.

Again, while making tourism attractive, Showbiz hopes activities such as cross-country hiking, sports tourism at places like Bukom, mountain climbing among other activities which are all potential attractions would be promoted.